Bears promote Babich to defensive coordinator

Football Betting Lines

02/20/2007 - Lake Forest, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Chicago Bears named Bob Babich the team's defensive coordinator on Tuesday, one day after announcing that Ron Rivera would no longer own that title.

Babich has been an assistant coach in Chicago since 2004, starting as the team's linebackers coach before later being promoted to assistant head coach/linebackers last season.

Rivera was almost immediately hired as the Chargers' linebackers coach after officially being relieved of his duties in Chicago.

Throughout his time with the Bears, Babich has held the responsibility of signaling the defensive play-calls to the players on the field from the sideline. During that time the Bears have led the NFL in percentage of points off turnovers, total defensive takeaways, third-down defense and opponent quarterback rating while ranking second in the NFL in defensive red-zone touchdown ratio, defensive touchdowns and interceptions.

Babich was the first coach to join Lovie Smith's staff, coming over from St. Louis where he served as the linebackers coach while Smith was the defensive coordinator for the Rams. The two also worked together at Tulsa (1984-86) where Smith oversaw the linebackers while Babich worked with tight ends and assisted with the offensive line.

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Big 12 Conference betting odds

Work left to do: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State

Texas joins Texas A&M and Kansas as locks after getting league win No. 11. Texas Tech greatly helped its own hopes and crippled OK State's with the two-point win Saturday. Is K-State the last reasonable hopeful? Could be an elimination match in Stillwater on Tuesday, at least for the Cowboys.

Work left to do:

Texas Tech [18-11 (7-7), RPI: 44, SOS: 12] A critical two-point win over OK State leaves the Red Raiders with Baylor and at Iowa State left. Get both and the Red Raiders likely are good to go. Get one and there could be some interesting comparisons with a K-State team that could finish two or three games "ahead" of them in the standings but doesn't have any of the quality wins Texas Tech has. Not a lot in nonconference play (against Arkansas in Little Rock being the best win, by far) to lean on.

Oklahoma State [18-9 (5-8), RPI: 50, SOS: 35] Still without a road win, the Cowboys now need to win two on the road just to get to .500 in conference play. It's hard to recall a team (OK, other than Clemson) falling so precipitously from lock status to almost certainly out of the NCAAs at this point. There are wins to be had in the last three, including a very big home game against K-State on Tuesday, but this team is reeling. Can you tell the pressure to win is getting to them with the way the final possession played out at Texas Tech? There are some good nonconference performances to lean on, specifically beating Missouri State and Syracuse on neutral floors and Pitt in OK City, but if the Pokes don't right this very, very soon, that won't be enough.

Kansas State [20-9 (9-5), RPI: 56, SOS: 96] It pays to be in the Big 12 North. The nine league wins are Colorado (twice), Missouri (twice), Iowa State (twice), Baylor, Nebraska and (a good one against) Texas. That helps explain the middling computer profile. The win over USC is nice, but the nonconference leaves a lot to be desired. The game at OK State in Stillwater on Tuesday is huge, as it could KO the Cowboys and leave K-State with a home date against Oklahoma with which to work.