Retirement gives Caldwell 1st head coaching job

NCAA Football Betting Lines

07/15/2010 -

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -Robbie Caldwell has a thick drawl thanks to his South Carolina hometown, a place he notes had a population of 1,500 counting cats and dogs.

There were so few people he used to hunt dove out of his backdoor.

But Caldwell says he has always wanted to be a head football coach.

Now he's getting his shot in arguably the toughest job in the mighty Southeastern Conference - at Vanderbilt, the smallest school in the SEC and the league's only private institution.

And to make his task even tougher, Caldwell is replacing his old friend Bobby Johnson just seven weeks before the season opener.

Johnson, who first coached with Caldwell as graduate assistants at Furman in 1976, says ``Robbie ... tries to give you that little hayseed act a little bit.''

``He is a really smart guy, and he'll do a great job.''

Caldwell was introduced Wednesday as Vanderbilt's interim head coach following Johnson's retirement from college football. Caldwell, 56, went from dressed in shorts to line a football field for practice to promotion from assistant head coach to the top job all within a couple hours. He needed a quick shower before meeting reporters.

Now he has only a week to prepare for an even bigger introduction at the SEC's annual media days in Birmingham, Ala., where Caldwell will face hundreds of reporters. Vanderbilt officials scrambled to reflect the change in the team's media guide, and the clock just keeps ticking. Fall practice opens in about three weeks, and the opener is Sept. 4 against Northwestern.

Whether he keeps this job past the season finale Nov. 27 against Wake Forest remains to be seen. Vice chancellor David Williams is giving Caldwell the chance to earn the job, but winning and how the Commodores play will be a big part of the decision at a program that has had just one winning season since 1982.

Caldwell said he isn't feeling any pressure - yet.

``Well, I haven't had time to think about it, but there's pressure every week. We put pressure on ourselves more than other people, so we're kind of used to that,'' Caldwell said.

Caldwell has been a head coach only once before in 1977 when he coached the Hanahan High School baseball team to a 14-2 record. But Caldwell said he was the one who wanted to be a head football coach, not Johnson, when the men first started working together.

A Furman graduate and native of Pageland, S.C., Caldwell returned to Furman in 1978 and coached there through 1985. He moved to North Carolina State in 1986, a place he stayed through 1999 coaching the offensive line. He was named assistant head coach for his final three seasons, then moved to North Carolina for 2000 and 2001.

Then Johnson came calling, asking Caldwell to join him after being hired in December 2001 as Vanderbilt's head coach. Caldwell quickly said yes. He has coached the Commodores' offensive line since 2002 and was promoted to Vandy's assistant head coach a couple years ago.

``We've come a long way from selling radio ads to supplement our salary to this point here,'' Caldwell said.

``But again, I just thank Vanderbilt for the opportunity. And quite frankly when I came here people thought I was crazy. I left a major institution. We were doing well. ... We saw and we believed. We still believe. We think we should get it done and continue to do so. That's our goal.''

Folksy charm aside, Caldwell helped turn Chris Williams from an undersized project into the 14th pick overall in the 2008 NFL Draft. He has had seven players drafted by the NFL in his coaching career.

Center Joey Bailey has worked with Caldwell the past five years, and he thinks Caldwell is ready for the pressure of coaching in the SEC. He sees a coach so committed to his players that men he hasn't taught in 20 years still call or drop by to talk with Caldwell, yet a man so competitive he can't wait to get back onto the field after a loss.

``He knows football in and out. He works hard as anybody I think in the nation making sure we're prepared. He knows everything the defense is going to do before they do it. He knows everything our offense should do. Without a doubt, he's ready,'' Bailey said.

``He might not like to admit it. He's a very humble man. But without a doubt, he's ready to do it.''

Johnson did his best to prepare the program for his departure with all the schedules and plans in place for this fall.

But this is a program that went 2-10 in 2009, finishing the season on an eight-game skid. The Commodores must improve an offense that ranked 110th nationally, averaging a mere 16.3 points per game in a number that was much worse against SEC competition.

Caldwell may tweak Vanderbilt a bit here or there. But the coach groomed by the same men who taught Johnson doesn't have the time to make wholesale changes.

``I'm who I am. I've been coaching for a long time. Some say I've gotten too soft in my old age, but I look forward to the challenge,'' he said.Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

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Sportsbooks to bet on football

Recently I had an email debate with an angry reader who said I did not understand "the science of oddsmaking", as he called it.

He said I was wrong for suggesting oddsmakers care about who wins or loses games.

"Oddsmakers only care about splitting the betting public 50/50 on both sides of the line and keeping the commission (a.k.a. juice)," he wrote.

He might have been right about not understanding "the science of oddsmaking". After all, I'm not an oddsmaker. That said, I stick to my assertion that oddsmakers (a.k.a. sportbooks) often do care about who wins games.

Granted, as a general rule, sportsbooks try to balance their action so that they're not exposed to big losses. However, there are times when this is difficult to pull off, regardless of how much a line has moved. There are also times when that general rule is ignored and a book pursues risk.

Generally speaking, it's safe to say the books in Vegas are risk-adverse. Unlike in the past when the wise guys ruled the town, Vegas is now corporate and the goal of most casinos is to make as much money as possible with as little risk as possible.

Thus, Vegas sportsbooks try everything in their power to balance the action. They're satisfied simply collecting the juice. But these profits are small, especially compared to the take from other casino games, namely slot machines.

Because the profits at Vegas sportsbooks are so small, you could argue that many casinos operate sportsbooks simply as a novelty to keep the tourists happy.

With a growing aversion to risk, it should come as no surprise that Vegas bookmakers have been panicking this NFL season.

Despite huge pointspreads, a disproportionate percentage of bettors are still laying their money on favorites like the Eagles, Colts, Pats and Vikings rather than the dogs (a common trend for the largely recreational bettors that visit Vegas).

And much to the dismay of the books, those favorites are finding ways to cover the thick chalk. In fact, prior to Week 7, the four teams listed above are a combined 16-2-2 (88 percent) against the spread. (The tables turned dramatically in Week 7, but more on that later.)

The result has been an early-season beating for the books, and a bonanza for bettors.

While Vegas increasingly hates risk, it's no longer a major player in the sports betting world. Most of the betting action now takes place offshore where sportsbooks are not as obsessed about balance. In fact, some books encourage exposure to risk because the rewards can be so much bigger.

Consider MySportsbook.com. On its website, the book has odds pages which actually display the amount of action it's getting on games. In other words, you can see how much action the book is taking on both sides of a pointspread, moneyline or over/under.

One look at these numbers and it's obvious MySportsbook.com does not balance every game. In fact, far from it.

Take last weekend's matchup between St. Louis and Miami. By game time on Sunday, 83 percent of the betting action at MySportsbook.com was on the Rams; only 17 percent was on Miami.

What's interesting is that MySportsbook.com opened the pointspread with Miami at +6 1/2. By game time, the spread had lowered to +5.

That goes contrary to the balancing theory. If MySportsbook.com had wanted to balance the action, it would have given Miami more points; instead, it took away 1 1/2. World Series odds are now up as well.

MySportsbook.com exposed itself to even more to risk, and rolled the dice on the underdog Dolphins. Why? I contacted a representative with the book to find out. His answer was simple.

"The line moved early based on 'smart money' from sharp players," said Jeff Gilroy, a spokesperson for the book. "We also knew from early in the week that we would need Miami, therefore (we dropped) the spread to encourage Rams money.

"At the end of the day, we liked the home team."

So the conclusion is this: MySportsbook.com respected the sharp action, and gambled that the sharp bettors had a better take on the game than the recreational bettors, who were hammering the visiting Rams.

In the end, the gamble paid off. Miami, desperate for a win in front of its home fans, pounded the overrated Rams, who are terrible on the road and even worse on grass. Final score: 31-14 Fish.

MySportsbook.com was also heavily exposed on numerous favorites in Week 7, including Philadelphia, Seattle and Denver. All three failed to cover.

The fact that sportsbooks are exposed to risk on certain games is really nothing new. The fact, that Sportsbook.com is willing to show the public where it's exposed is intriguing.

Armed with this type of information, bettors can make more educated wagers. They can get an idea where the sharp money is going and conversely where the public money is headed.

MySportsbook.com is opening up its cashbox, letting bettors look inside and challenging them to take their best shot at grabbing the cash.

To visit this online football betting got to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting odds needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.