Totally off-topic note, concerning the Official Band of RandBall: last night, I happened to be in a north-suburbs Target store, in the electronics section. There, the latest The Hold Steady album was filed, not with “Best Sellers,” not with “Rock” — but on the end of an aisle, under a strange sign: “Up And Comers.” Note to the Target Corporation: any band that I personally have heard of cannot possibly be an up-and-comer. I think it’s safe to move Craig Finn & company off that list.

*We start this week with perhaps the longest article in weekend links history. Some background: you may have heard the consternation about the “A-11″ offense in high school football. It’s an offensive formation that takes advantage of some arcane punt-formation rules to (basically) run a hybrid of the spread, the Swinging Gate, and the “Middle Huddle” that BYU, and later the Pittsburgh Steelers, have deployed.

Since I heard about it, I’ve been waiting for the always-great Chris Brown of the Smart Football blog to break the whole thing down — and he does not disappoint. His analysis covers the rules, the basics of the offense, the sheer lunatic hubris of the “creators,” the stupidity of the critics, his take on whether the whole thing should be outlawed, and a final discussion of some ways that the offense might be utilized — all in only 6,200 words!

Okay, so it’s a bit long, but if you’ve any interest in learning pretty much everything and anything there is to know about the offense and the surrounding controversy, Mr. Brown is the person to go to.

*Over at the Freakonomics blog, everybody’s favorite ex-Gopher UFC fighter takes some questions from readers.

*Seth Stohs of SethSpeaks.net is looking ahead towards September, and has a preview of who the Twins might think about calling up when rosters expand. Several of those people could pitch out of the bullpen; this makes them automatic, in my mind. (If they’ve *seen* a bullpen before, that’s probably good enough.)

*Minnesota Wild assistant GM Tom Lynn has a few things to say about the neutral-zone trap, and about the perception of the system as a newfangled defensive nightmare. The best part: Lynn seems to get angrier and angrier throughout the post; by the final paragraph, he’s practically typing “EVERYBODY’S STUPID BUT MEEEEE!” in bold and all caps.

*And finally, from EDSBS: there were many good candidates for the Texas A&M mascot position; unfortunately, not all could be accommodated.

That’ll do it for me; enjoy your weekends / baseball road trips. And a special shout-out to regular commenter Super Rookie, who’s getting married this weekend; judging by the past, you should be able to see plenty of photos of the nuptials in the Star Tribune.

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