Last season, the New Era that Tim Beckman wanted to usher in during his first season was that of change.

The 2012 spring game featured fans calling plays and an edible incentive to the victor. The 2012 season started with a victory over Bill Cubit’s Western Michigan Broncos and ended with a 50-14 blowout in Evanston to the “team up North,” the ninth consecutive defeat for the Illini.

Despite featuring projected future NFL talent on the defensive side of the ball, like Akeem Spence, Terry Hawthorne, Michael Buchanan and Illinois Pro Day surprise Glenn Foster, the defense battled through depth issues, injuries and continually being out of place week after week.

Beckman retained defensive coordinator Tim Banks, and Year Two at the helm definitely won’t have the talent on paper the first season did.

After the turnover both the Illinois roster and coaching staff encountered during the offseason, the biggest takeaway from Friday night’s spring game was Cubit’s up-tempo and varying offense.

Fired after eight seasons at Western Michigan, Cubit has been coaching offenses since the ’70s and was the offensive coordinator at Missouri, Rutgers and Stanford prior to his head coaching tenure in Kalamazoo, Mich.

The man knows offense, and this season’s unit has some talent in place for Cubit to use. As he’s mentioned since he arrived at Illinois, he prides himself on building up an offense, and his track record shows that his schemes cater to the players that surround him.

The main hurdle, as everyone knows, is on the offensive line. Losing Graham Pocic and Hugh Thornton is one thing. Starting some combination of underclassmen and a senior who’s been riddled by injury will pose problems as it did in 2012, but as was on display Friday night, Cubit plans to use running backs Donovonn Young and Dami Ayoola as they’re intended: to run north-south.

Josh Ferguson, the third running back that will see time in the fall, was a late scratch to the spring game due to an ankle injury, but he’s the smaller of the backs and has the speed to complement the bruising styles Young and Ayoola.

Even with the inconsistency on the line and in the passing game, Young, Ayoola and Ferguson averaged 4.4, 4.5 and 4.2 yards a carry, respectively. The signs for an effective running game are there.

New offensive line coach A.J. Ricker worked under Cubit at Western Michigan last season, and his prior knowledge of the way Cubit runs his offense should keep the offensive line in tune with the quick throws and up-the-middle runs.

Quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase battled injury and a lack of weapons last season, but defensive back Steve Hull and quarterback Miles Osei will play receiver this season, along with junior college transfer Martize Barr, adding to Ryan Lankford, Darius Millines and spring game standout Justin Hardee.

If tight ends Jon Davis and Evan Wilson can remain healthy, there’s a plethora of talent for Cubit to work with, and though the win column may not increase much, don’t expect a repeat of the 16.7 points per game the Illini scored last season.

Cubit’s Broncos did only win four games last season, but averaged 29.3 points per game in the process. The man knows how to score points.

Dan is a senior in Media. He can be reached at [email protected] and @WELINandDEALIN.