As for the "time-out" issue, if a team does not have a time-out, and calls for one, they are to be penalized. The clock had not stopped at that point, which is why ND ran on the field. Yes, the clock was reset, but even if the clock had stopped, the coach cannot run out calling for a team time-out if they do not have any.
You missed on both issues.
#1 the helmet spiking the ball happened almost directly on the sideline and was hit toward the sideline, not inbounds backwards. It left the field in the first inches after the hit, it most certainly did not travel in bounds 7 feet backwards before exiting out of bounds, so you have no issue there.
#2 Again, there was an automatic time out when it was spiked out, so there is no issue.
IMO they were just letting the refs know the ball was out of bounds and that a time out should be happening at that time...which it was.
They did want to make sure the refs didn't call the game over when it wasn't.
How do you call a time out when one is already happening? That makes no sense to me.
Both points are dead in the water.
Even ND didn't complain about that.
It was cute though that ND didn't cut the grass for over a week and wet it the night before. :-)
That is kind of dirty stuff and backfired IMO, they lost two players with bad knees from that piece of stupidity.