Jimbo Fisher anxious as coaching debut draws near

NCAA Football Betting Lines

09/01/2010 -

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -Jimbo Fisher's last play on a football field was for Samford. His first play as a college coach will be against the same small Alabama school.

After more than two decades as an assistant coach at a handful of southeastern schools, Fisher debuts as Florida State's head coach Saturday when the 20th-ranked Seminoles open their season against the small Baptist-affiliated school in Birmingham where he claims to have enjoyed some of his happiest years.

``That was a great time in my life,'' said Fisher, who played one season for the Bulldogs before joining Terry Bowden's Samford coaching staff. ``Maybe one of the most fun times I've ever had, developing as a person, developing as a coach, building a program. A lot of my roots are there.''

Fisher was the Division III Player of the Year at Samford in 1987 when he threw 34 touchdown passes. He spent the next 11 years on Bowden's staffs at Samford and Auburn, establishing a connection with the coaching family that resulted two decades later in Fisher being the choice to replace Bobby Bowden at Florida State.

Fisher, 44, is not only stepping in behind one of the most successful and revered college coaches of all time, but Saturday marks the first time he'll be in charge of a game as the head coach.

``It's really starting to dawn on me right now,'' Fisher said during Wednesday's Atlantic Coast Conference coaches teleconference, acknowledging he was getting jittery as Saturday's noon kickoff draws nearer. ``Anxious butterflies.''

Fisher, however, can achieve something Bowden failed to do - win his first game at Florida State. Memphis State defeated the Seminoles 21-12 in Bowden's Florida State debut in 1976.

After a 5-6 start in his initial season at Florida State, Bowden finished with a pair of national titles during 33 straight winning seasons.

Samford, which is also Bobby Bowden's alma mater, was known as Howard on its last trip to Tallahassee - 60 years ago with the elder Bowden starting at quarterback.

``It's a banner day for Samford in that it starts off with coach Bowden, playing on a field that's named after a Samford graduate ... a legend,'' Samford coach Pat Sullivan said. ``Then he's been replaced by another Samford graduate. For us to be able to be there, I think it's tremendous for us.''

Fisher knows his Seminoles are a prohibitive favorite against the Football Championship Subdivision school, but he invokes the long-standing coaching standard of saying only nice things about an outgunned opponent.

``You've got to expect a great game,'' he said. ``We've got to stay aggressive.''

After two years as coach in waiting to the iconic Bowden, Fisher was named head coach less than 72 hours after archrival Florida throttled the Seminoles for the sixth straight time, leaving Florida State with a 6-6 regular season record for the second time in four years. A win over West Virginia in the Gator Bowl in Bowden's coaching finale left the Seminoles with a 7-6 record for the third time in the last four years.

Bowden will not attend Fisher's debut Saturday. He has said for years that he wanted to give his successor plenty of space and avoid any second-guessing. Bowden will, however, be in town the previous day for a book signing.

Samford, which is in the Southern Conference, finished 5-6 last year under Sullivan, the former Heisman Trophy winning quarterback from Auburn.

Fisher, a West Virginia native, said earlier this week that he'd prayed for years that one day he'd get an opportunity to coach at a major university. Now that day is here.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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MySportsbook.com: New College Football Clock Rules Examined

Coaches and bettors alike are desperate to make sense of the new time-keeping rules on the NCAA gridiron. One of the big stories to come out of the Ohio State-Texas clash last weekend was Texas coach Mack Brown's criticism of the NCAA's new clock rules that are intended to shorten the duration of college football games, therefore affecting college football betting.

"They scored with six minutes left and the game was over before we had a chance to do anything," Brown told ESPN.com. "I really hope whoever made these changes will go back and look them over."

Sure, it might be sour grapes; the Buckeyes thoroughly trounced the defending national champion Longhorns 24-7. However, Brown isn't alone in giving the changes their due thought. Bettors are also wondering about them, albeit for a completely different reason. Most experts agree that the changes will result in games being shortened by anywhere from 10 to 20 plays. The obvious consequence is lower scores, with more time rolling off the clock during changes of possession. (The Ohio State-Texas game flew well under the total of 52.)

According to research at the online sportsbook MySportsbook.com, more than 18 plays a game disappeared last weekend into thin air. That's a 10-percent reduction. In 2005, a typical game had 168.58 plays. For 2007 already, it's down to 150.26.

As a result, teams combined to gain an average of about 100 fewer yards a game last weekend versus the 2005 openers. Scoring was also down by about 4.5 points (attention Las Vegas sports lines).

Of course, oddsmakers were able to adjust to the changes before the season started. Proof of that came as the over went a balanced 8-9 at My Sportsbook on Saturday.

Other angles to consider:A shorter game should theoretically result in shorter lines. Whereas Team A might have been a 14-point favorite in a 168-play game (last year), if there are 10 percent less snaps in 2007, the line should also be reduced by 10 percent (to 13 or 12.5). Of course, this is an over-simplification of the matter, but something to keep in mind.
Less possessions means a better chance the game will be decided by three or seven points. For example, what might have been a 20-10 final score in 2005 may end at

17-10 in 2007. Granted, a 24-17 game last year might end at 21-17 these days, but the former - a three- or seven-point advantage being preserved as opposed to created - is the most likely scenario.

*UPDATE* - Sept. 25, 2007

New Clock Rules Boon for online bookmakers

By adjusting the time-keeping rules to shorten the duration of college football games, the NCAA hoped to make its product more enjoyable for the fans. While the NCAA's success in this regard is still up for debate, bookmakers couldn't be happier with the results.

"We are seeing a massive jump in college football betting," noted the MySportsbook.com management team. "With all the early Saturday games (12 a.m. ET) ending before the second wave begins (3:30 p.m. ET) - something that didn't always happen before the changes - bettors are now able to re-invest their winnings from the morning session in the afternoon games."

While not all bettors will choose to roll over their winnings, it doesn't take much for an impact to be seen on the bottom line. "Not all of the millions of dollars in morning payouts get re-bet. In fact, it's probably only 10 to 20 percent," noted the sportsbook management team. "Still, the increased football betting lines window will create a ton of growth for us over the course of the season."

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