Two good articles on timeouts, delay-of-game penalties, and clock management today.
The first, by (ahem) "The Head Nacho" at AllMySportsTeamsSuck.com looked over college football data to determine when an offense should call a timeout to avoid a delay-of-game penalty, and when they're better off keeping the timeout in their pocket and just taking a 5-yard loss. This is something that has always driven me nuts -- it seems to me you're almost always better off taking the penalty. As John Madden once wrote, you can get those 5 yards back, but a burned timeout is gone forever.