Hitting The Links: March 12th, 2013

Pour a little out for TWIN peeps. Behind the scenes we have been discussing assorted options for discussing "news" more often than once a week. After a fair amount of deliberation we have decided to go with a plan that we can utilize with greater frequency in the off-season.

The format will essentially remain the same as TWIN we'll just try and do it a little bit more often. A few links, a splash of commentary and a healthy discussion with you all in the comments. You know, the usual.

Since we plan on doing this more than once per week "The Week in News" moniker needed replacing so we opted for something that just gets straight to the point. Or does it?

As always starting elsewhere and ending in South Bend

Heisman trust sets deadline, threatens voters who don’t hide ballots | SI
Betta hide yo ballots!

USC's Marqise Lee and Max Wittek suffer knee injuries - CBSSports.com
Can Kiffin navigate this lack of depth?

Mack Brown and Texas Longhorns football are creatures of habit - Barking Carnival

Reading this post on Barking Carnival really made me think about the last decade of Notre Dame football. It not only discusses Mack Brown and Texas it discusses some big picture conceptual things about the game that are worth discussing in relation to any program.

"I submit that the biggest change of all was the sheer amount of reps young coaches were finding ways to cram into their limited practice time. Tiger Ellison once said that if you couldn't practice your entire offense every day you were doing too much, and offensive football now seems to reflect that. Air Raid teams go through their entire base pass game in 20 minute chunks."

Mountain West nears seven-year, $116 million media rights deal - CBSSports.com

The Mountain West is about to get paid. All things considered this is actually pretty impressive.

"The Mountain West Conference expects a total media rights package -- including a likely football championship game with ESPN and digital rights -- to eclipse $20 million per year, according to a league source."

Hal Mumme bringing Air Raid to SMU, according to report - SBNation.com

How did I miss this? The father of the Air Raid is going to join June Jones at SMU? That should make for an interesting passing game. What do you call it when you take the Run N' Shoot and mash it together with the Air Raid? Run N' Raid? What conference is SMU in now anyway? Did they leave CUSA for that new new Big East Murica thing yet?

AJ McCarron of Alabama Crimson Tide played last 6 games with injured ribs - ESPN

Dat dangum AyJay is tuff.

"I had three ribs come out of place," McCarron told ESPN.com earlier this week. "They kept popping in and out of place, the one at the top, and it was just a nagging pain the whole time.

Johnny Manziel Courtside - March 10, 2013 - YouTube

Johnny Football doesn't care about things like ribs, that would interfere with his ongoing party circuit. I guess you can kick it courtside in Toronto when you don't have to play classes.

Nebraska coach Bo Pelini has some harsh words for his defense | Dr. Saturday - Yahoo! Sports

Bo Pelini is still Bo Pelini. Will he successfully shame the Blackshirts into being decent again?

"It’s a mentally weak football team and guys gave in and didn’t feel like practicing. I’m ashamed of what I just watched on that practice field."

Barry Switzer shows off his mink fur coat at Sooners’ spring practice | Dr. Saturday - Yahoo! Sports

Barry Switzer is still a baller. He probably still sprinkles gold dust on his Tyrannosaurus Rex eggs at breakfast just because it's a baller thing to do.

Paragraph of the Day: Cal Bears/Packaged Plays Edition | Smart Football
Chris turned us on to this piece on Cal and packaged plays. I'm personally pretty curious to see how Sonny Dykes does at Cal. The Pac-12 has assembled a pretty interesting crew of coaches in the last few years.

Notre Dame football: Kelly unravels bizarre offseason, looks ahead - southbendtribune.com
Eric Hansen published a great interview with Brian Kelly over the weekend. The two discussed several lessons learned from the last few months and also touched on a few things that the fan base will be interested in hearing about heading into spring football. The topics that Hansen covered with BK include the BCS Championship game, Everett Golson, Manti Te'o, and his thoughts on revisiting a jump to the NFL.

SBT: You’ve since rolled back your initial assessment a bit about the gap between Alabama and Notre Dame. But when you go back over the BCS National Championship Game, what exactly happened and why did you initially feel the gap between the two programs was so sizable?

Brian Kelly: "I think I miscalculated on the enormity of the game. I felt like playing at Oklahoma, playing at USC in a game that meant going undefeated, playing at Michigan State, just playing here at home before 80,000, that our kids would feel comfortable or would not be out of their element, if you will, playing in that kind of game. "It was larger than that."

ND Travels to Louisville for Final Big East Contest - One Foot Down

In the unlikely event that you didn't notice we added a couple of contributors this week and both of them happened to write their first post in the last few days. JoeSchu kicked it off with this roundball post and PBurns followed that up by taking a look back at the performances of Julius Jones and Joey Getherall in the 2000 Nebraska game. Top Notre Dame Football Performances since 2000 - One Foot Down

Notre Dame move appears imminent - southbendtribune.com
So it's looking like this ACC thing is going to happen sooner rather than later.

Barring an 11th-hour complication, the momentum for Notre Dame's jump into the Atlantic Coast Conference in men's and women's basketball and its Olympic Sports beginning in the fall of 2013 could morph into an official announcement Tuesday.

See you in the comments!