Around SB Nation: How to (try to) beat Alabama and the John L. Smith era in Arkansas

Each Wednesday, we'll add an 'Around SB Nation' links post, separate from your regular scheduled Linking Laconically posts, to the lineup. The purpose of these posts, however will be simply to highlight some great content solely on SB Nation college football or team sites. Yeah, it's a little inbred, but there really is a lot of great content within the SB Nation family, and hopefully, these posts will point you to some new sites or writers who you find interesting. Links after the jump.

How To Beat Alabama: All-Access Look At Preparing For The Tide - SBNation.com

Steven Godfrey got incredible access to Western Kentucky as they prepared to play Alabama. Here's a brief excerpt, but the amount of detail in the entire post is incredible if you want to see what a team goes through to get ready for a tough game.

Through the eyes of those coaches who oppose him, Saban’s mystique is that he has none. They know his success is not a mystery of schemes or some reinvention of the game. It's the result of a single, almost otherworldly focus on reducing the probability of loss on a game-to-game basis. He hasn’t changed offensive or defensive football. His system is simplistic to the point of banality: run the ball aggressively in a mix of power and zone formations, pass out of play action, and play an aggressive, fast 3-4 defense built from the secondary out and measured by discipline before all else.

Notre Dame Football Stays Independent, Gets Everything At Once - SBNation.com

Spencer Hall with a commentary on what Notre Dame's move to alliance partnership whatever you want to call it with the ACC means.

It is a sensible deal, but also a profoundly weird arrangement that can be read a few different ways. Perhaps Notre Dame is worried about that next round of NBC television negotiations, and wants to diversify its revenue and prepare for the worst. Perhaps it wants a guaranteed pathway for any future playoff claims, which is ambitious. Or perhaps they just wanted what Notre Dame's always wanted: to do whatever the hell it wants, get football money while maintaining its status as an academic power, and be an independent getting its own deals while still belonging to a conference. Laugh at them for wanting it, but right now that is precisely what they are getting.

This Week In Schadenfreude: The Hog Containment Field Has Been Shut Off - SBNation.com

Brian Cook takes a look at how -- shockingly -- things are not going so well for John L. Smith at Arkansas after their loss to Louisiana-Monroe.

Hoo, boy, it's Arkansas time. They lost to Louisiana-Monroe in overtime. This was the equivalent of the EPA jerko turning off the containment unit in Ghostbusters.