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Columnist Jeff Haney: Bettors Should Heed the 'Two Minute Warning'

Beech and his buddies, all NFL fans with analytical minds and high levels of computer expertise, craved new ways to dissect pro football games.

Today, gamblers everywhere should be grateful.

The efforts of Beech and his crew resulted in a website called Two Minute Warning, which features the most innovative -- and, from a gambling perspective, powerful -- NFL stats you're likely to find from any source.

On the Internet at www.twominutewarning.com, the site appeals to everyone from fantasy league owners to hardcore bettors.

As the site enters its fifth season, Beech plans to beef up the gambling content even more.

"We're trying to make it more upscale this year, make a concerted effort to appeal to people interested in the gambling-oriented stuff," Beech said from his home base in Northern California. "We already have many more articles up on the gambling side than we've had before."

In years past the Two Minute Warning staff tracked every NFL game, play by play, and used the data to develop its own "drive-chart stats," which turned out to be quite reliable in predicting upcoming games against the point spread.

Last season, Two Minute Warning's NFL picks produced a winning percentage that many professional bettors would envy. The site's proprietary "Ultimate Prediction Machine" compiled an overall record of 111-83 (57 percent) in 2000, with its top-rated picks going 37-20 (65 percent).

And Two Minute Warning posts its picks against a neutral, or consensus, betting line. Shopping around for the best line is likely to add at least a couple of percentage points to a win-loss record over the course of a season.

"In previous seasons, we had all the statistics, but we didn't put enough emphasis on how to use the numbers (in betting)," Beech said. "Now we're focusing a bit more on how to use them, how to spot those big overlays. We're also working on some teaser and totals stuff, and a money-line version of the 'Ultimate Machine.' "

Among the staff's current projects is rating individual NFL linemen by tracking tackles and missed tackles, and blocks and missed blocks.

It's not just blind number crunching, though. One of Two Minute Warning's strong points is its ability to conduct an objective, empirical search for answers to such useful questions as:

"I'm really disturbed that John Robinson is going to be the athletic director," veteran sports handicapper Arne Lang said. "Robinson is a cool guy, the locals here really like him, he's put a winner on the field. (His career) is a nice, kind of 'High Noon,' gunslinger story.

"But here's a 66-year-old man who has one of the most demanding jobs in town, and now they want to give him another demanding job. ... No 66-year-old man can adequately fulfill both of those roles. If you're a Rebel booster, you should be troubled by this development."

Russ Culver of VegasInsider.com shared Lang's opinion.

"It's too many hours," Culver said. "You can't really shun your A.D. responsibilities; you can't put them on a back burner. There's a certain number of hours in the day you have to devote to it, and (Robinson) is going to have to rely on his assistants to do an awful lot of the work."

Culver noted that with UNLV's frequent television appearances this season, no opponents will be taking the Rebels lightly.

"Teams are going to be up for UNLV," he said.

Both men made their comments at a recent betting symposium held at Palace Station and sponsored by the Vegas Insider website.

UNLV is a 3 to 3 1/2-point underdog against visiting Northwestern in Friday's game at Sam Boyd Stadium.

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