Les Miles wants you to help him get to 110,000 Twitter followers. (Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

By Zac Ellis

A coach’s success on social media doesn’t always translate to success on the field, but some coaches are definitely winning the popularity contest on Twitter.

TulsaWorld.com ranked college football’s most followed coaches as of this morning, and the list might not look exactly as you’d expect. You can check out the complete rankings by clicking on the link above, but we’ve corralled some of the best tweets from the top-five most-followed coaches. As you can see, these guys are definitely worth a follow:

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Notre Dame defender Louis Nix stole the spotlight Saturday with this rumbling two-point conversion play. (USA Today)

By Zac Ellis

After yet another weekend full of spring football games, here’s a rundown of the latest news and notes from across the nation:

• Notre Dame: The Irish defense came to play in the annual Blue-Gold game on Saturday, accounting for 10 sacks, two interceptions and a safety in the scrimmage. The offense, however, failed to find its groove, with second-year quarterback Everett Golson finishing 6-of-13 passing for 98 yards with one interception. He was also sacked three times. Coach Brian Kelly said he wasn’t concerned with the offense’s struggles, admitting he’d seen improvement on that side of the ball throughout spring. But the offense did find a spark late in the game when nose guard Louis Nix III took a goal-line snap and rumbled in for a two-point conversion. Perhaps Kelly should consider that package for the fall.

• Alabama: The Crimson Tide were anything but streamlined in Saturday’s A-Day game. The Crimson and White teams combined for nine turnovers — six interceptions and three fumbles — in the contest, leaving coach Nick Saban understandably upset. “The biggest thing I was concerned about was how the team would go out there and what would be their energy, their enthusiasm, and their attention to detail,” Saban said. “I don’t think that there were enough guys that answered that question in a positive way to my liking. But I’m never satisfied.” SI.com’s Lars Anderson reported on the game from Tuscaloosa. Oh, and AJ McCarron’s famous female companion Katherine Webb also made an appearance.

• Penn State: Around 28,000 fans ventured to Happy Valley for the Nittany Lions’ spring game this weekend, braving the icy elements in State College. But there wasn’t much closure for fans hoping to get a feel for Penn State’s quarterback situation, in which Steven Bench and Tyler Ferguson are battling for the starting job. Coach Bill O’Brien was non-committal when discussing both passers after the game, but the competition may become more heated when five-star recruit Christian Hackenberg arrives on campus this summer.

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Manti Te’o and the Notre Dame defense couldn’t stop Alabama’s offense in the BCS title game. (John Bazemore/AP)

By Zac Ellis

Those who watched Alabama’s drubbing of Notre Dame in January’s BCS title game saw the Crimson Tide overwhelm the Irish’s vaunted defense. While Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly can’t argue with that assessment, he doesn’t think the loss exposed one of the team’s defensive stars.

Kelly defended the play of star linebacker Manti Te’o, who was one of the country’s top defensive players and a Heisman Trophy runner-up in 2012. Kelly was asked in an NFL Network interview whether Te’o was exposed against Alabama, to which he simply replied, “No.”

Instead, Kelly contended that his team did not play up to its potential against a hungry Crimson Tide team.

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Brian Kelly, seen here crooning Demi Lovato songs softly to himself. (AP)

So Brian Kelly has a Spotify playlist that includes a track containing references to a girlfriend dying an imaginary death. Here’s why we support this: The fact that “50 Ways to Say Goodbye” made it onto this list suggests that Kelly made it himself and it’s not some carefully vetted p.r. offering. (Either that or, as suspected during Jack Swarbrick’s first Lennay Kekua hoax press conference, Notre Dame’s p.r. department is staffed entirely by holograms.)

The liking of Train and Pitbull, we’re not sure we can help with.

There is no such thing as a compelling photo of NCAA COI deliberations, so here is Sebastian in a vaguely menacing posture. (AP)

Assorted items of varying degrees of interest which you may have missed while grudgingly watching playoff football and sending surly tweets to the Golden Globes:

• The NCAA is Lucy, and Miami football is the football, and we are Charlie Brown running toward it, or something? This metaphor holds up only to demonstrate how very much we wish for this all to be over, but here we go: The Miami Herald is calling the release of NCAA allegations against the Hurricanes football program “imminent,” just short of the investigation’s two-year anniversary. Bylaw Blogger John Infante lays out all the ways this process could still be stalled, and how the Miami case might affect Oregon’s.

• Mike Stoops also a fan of Hi Haters Friday! Friday night, 6:06 p.m., Tulsa World‘s John E. Hoover posts a transcript excerpt of a Mike Stoops radio interview, specifically a question regarding Johnny Football: “They’re gonna be tough to deal with. If they can keep him out of jail or keep him eligible, he’s gonna be pretty good.” Friday night, 10:37 p.m., Tulsa World post headline: “Mike Stoops regrets controversial comments on Manziel.” Had Stoops’ defense possessed that kind of on-the-fly adaptability in the Cotton Bowl, perhaps Manziel would not have scored four touchdowns against it, PAAAOWL.

• Roster blotter. In better news for Miami: Seantrel Henderson, Brandon Linder and Curtis Porter announced Monday morning they all intend to return to the ‘Canes in 2013 … in even better news for Profiteroles fans, Dri Archer will stay on for his senior season at Kent State … Iowa State quarterback Jared “That Kid Who Beat Oklahoma State” Barnett and linebacker C.J. Morgan intend to transfer … Texas defensive tackle Brandon Moore will enter the draft … also declaring is USC corner Nickell Robey, whom we will dearly miss watching because of his too-perfect defensive name … Oregon linebacker Anthony Wallace will transfer … Case McCoy and Jordan Hicks have been reinstated at Texas … and Casey Pachall returns to the Horned Frogs.

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If Brian Kelly takes the Eagles job, maybe there will be an NFL team that Alabama could beat

— Brandon (@TeamSpeedKills) January 10, 2013

• Eagles to turn next to R. Kelly. There are folks getting awfully het up at Brian Kelly (subscription required) for his dalliances with the Philadelphia Eagles, who are just trying to live frugally after printing up all those WE <3 COACH KELLY cocktail napkins for Chip.

Elsewhere in coach-hirin’ follies: Obvious international superspy Bob Toledo will rejoin Rocky Long as offensive coordinator at San Diego State … Chuck Bresnahan will coordinate Willie Taggart’s defense at South Florida … Bill Young is out and Glenn Spencer is in as Oklahoma State’s defensive coordinator … Texas A&M swipes West Virginia’s quarterbacks coach to serve as co-offensive coordinator in College Station … and from Regular Virginia, Kevin Sumlin snags an assistant who’d been with the Cavaliers for just over a week.

• Roster blotter. Eddie Lacy, Dee Milliner and D.J. Fluker will all leave Alabama early to enter the NFL draft … Clint Moseley has left Auburn football, though not Auburn … also draft-bound, Clemson’s Nuke Hopkins, Washington State’s Marquess Wilson and Georgia’s Kwame Geathers … Joseph Randle to turn pro, per Joseph Randle … LSU has, at last count, 11 early departures … notable non-departures include Texas A&M’s Jake Matthews and Texas’ Mike Davis … and spare some healing vibes for Notre Dame’s Kapron Lewis-Moore, whose BCS title game injury has been confirmed as an ACL tear.

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Cincinnati quarterback Munchie Legaux, seen here in a fair approximation of most of last night’s game. (AP)

• Cincinnati 34, Pitt 10.  “We need to play our type of football,” Paul Chryst said in his halftime interview. With respect, we would suggest that Pitt’s current type of football has given up 65 points and scored 27 within the past calendar week, and that the Panthers should perhaps try another kind instead.

Munchie Legaux recorded 322 all-purpose yards and two touchdown passes, both of them tossed to the Downton Abbey-ishly named Ralph David Abernathy IV. George Winn scored two rushing touchdowns for the Bearcats, including a 58-yard run on Cincinnati’s first offensive play. Pitt’s Tino Sunseri was sacked six times and threw a field goal as the clock ran out on the first half that was cruelly ignored on the scoreboard.

For more on the actual football played Thursday night, you may click on the following helpful links. Have a great day. [BOX | RECAP]

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“HOW CAN YOU NOT FEEL HOW SPECIAL YOU ARE IN THE VERY MOTES OF DUST WAFTING THROUGH THE VERY AIR?” (AP)

• See, it’s funny because Brian Kelly does this amaaazing Violet Beauregard impression while trapped in the persona of Mike Teavee. Notre Dame is special. You probably knew that. But did you know the Fighting Irish head football coach writes names of recruits on offer letters with his own hands? And then signs them? If stationery were a verb, ND would be stationerying like a champion today. And every day.

• Hail, mortal. Mark Blaudschun reports this morning that the Big East is set to name CBS executive Mike Aresco conference commissioner.

• Today’s Penn State update. The university’s accreditation “could be threatened as a result of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.”

• These are all good questions. We are less interested with the possibility of historical trends of academic fraud at UNC than with finding out how Julius Peppers’ transcript was publicly accessible in the first place. But never fear: Peppers’ agent is (allegedly) on the case!

• But he already got the tattoo. Reuben Foster met with the NCAA, says the AJC! No, he met with the AHSAA, says AL.com! But his mom says it was the NCAA, says the AJC! And so on.

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Once again, Brian Kelly is looking for a starting quarterback during Notre Dame's spring practice.
(US PRESSWIRE)

Early last season, we wondered if the quarterback races at Alabama, Penn State and Texas would ever be settled to anyone’s satisfaction. The Longhorns may be giving up their spot on the carousel before too long; players are being ranked and re-ranked at every practice, although the job is David Ash’s to lose. Mack Brown has some well-remembered reasons to be overcautious in prepping a backup.

We may also soon bid a fond farewell to the Matt McGloin-Rob Bolden QB1 tango. Two seasons of trading snaps hasn’t settled matters as much as it might otherwise have thanks to coaching turnover and a full season of nausea-inducing offensive game film. But new coach Bill O’Brien is at least on the record setting the finish line, however nebulously, “later in training camp.”

Notre Dame, though. Notre Dame could be fun. Find what you love and do it, they say. Follow your bliss, they say. And if what you’re good at is never settling on a starting quarterback, well, best make that part of your brand.

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Five-star tackle Andrus Peat headlines Stanford's terrifyingly fierce offensive line class. (US PRESSWIRE)

• “When you’re the first person in your family to graduate from high school, you don’t need to be sitting out.” Justin Taylor and family spoke to the AJC about Taylor’s decision to spurn Alabama’s offer of a grayshirt year and sign with Kentucky instead. The three-star running back and Atlanta native will look to infuse some life into a rushing offense that averaged just 124 yards per game in 2011.

• The SEC East resurgence comes not from the south, but from the sides. Andy Staples was on the scene in Nashville as James Franklin reeled in the flossiest class in Vanderbilt program history.

• “Urban Meyer can’t stop yawning.” An unfair excerpt from Stewart Mandel’s visit with the Urbz and his mighty crop of blue-chippers.

• They’ll breed. You’ll die. We legitimately fear the prowess of the linemen Stanford has landed.

• Go west, and north. Steve Sarkisian lost some in-state gems, but pillaged California in return.

• Jordan Payton settles! This counts as news at this point.

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