The Coverboys

Welcome to…The Coverboys! It’s not just a name, it’s what we do!

With a combined 60+ years of experience in sports wagering and 35+ years in broadcasting, Mark Atnip, aka Stats, and Johnny Hodge, aka Haji and The Sheik, bring a unique style to their sports betting show. 

“Stats” is the number crunching stats guru and "Sheik” is the trends and angles and emotional edge finder. Together they are The Coverboys: Winners vs the Spread. They share seven years working together in the broadcasting business and click on-air, feeding off of each other’s dry and sarcastic personalities. Most importantly they deliver consistently entertaining programming, jam-packed with insightful, relevant, and valuable content. Each one-hour episode is loaded with analysis of up to 16 college games each week. Through the 2024 season, The Coverboys are a documented 107-53 (6.68%) all-time on their documented official “Right Sides” picks. 

Mark’s voice over clients include XM/Sirius, The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, The Hugh Hewitt Show, and T.A.P.S. Regionally, his clients included ESPN Radio affiliates in Denver CO, Columbus GA, Knoxville TN, Huntsville AL, Winston-Salem and Fayetteville NC, Richmond VA, Pensacola FL, Biloxi MS, and Lafayette, LA. Live event clients include The Make-A-Wish Foundation and the NFL Alumni Banquet. He has been the play-by-play voice of and is still PA announcer for the SPHL Knoxville Ice Bears. As a sophomore in high school, for an Economics project, Mark ran a "bookkeeping" service for classmates and made four figures taking $1-$5 wagers. Brilliant! Teacher didn't see it that way and rejected the project and failed him for his efforts. Gambling advice: "Never chase a bad line" and "Don't bet on bad teams favored over other bad teams".

While Program Director for ESPN 1180 in Knoxville, TN, Johnny Hodge created and hosted Free Golf, the city's first weekly golf radio show; The Breakfast Team, later changed to Out of Bounds with Spanky Brown (vaulting Spanky into social media and stand-up comedy spotlights); and most importantly, The Coverboys radio show, debuting in four southern markets. "Haji" additionally sold sponsor packages and directed marketing and promotions for the above. As for sports gambling... Wagering on golf and putting contests started in his youth and he started running ball boards in his early 20s and the gambling blaze was lit. Haji has developed his own set of trends, betting on numbers instead of teams. His wagering mantras: "If it doesn't make sense, it must make dollars" and "Forget what you saw last week". He appears regularly as the "Golf and Gambling Guru" on Fox Sports Knoxville's The Drive with Russell Smith. His proudest accomplishment and blessing is being Daddy to 15-y.o. Paxton.