Auburn vs. Arkansas
Auburn wide receiver Melvin Ray (82) celebrates a touchdown pass during overtime Saturday, Oct. 24, 2015, at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, Ark. (Julie Bennett/jbennett@al.com)
(JULIE BENNETT)
When a football team finds something that works, others quickly imitate it, even if they're rivals.
It's how Alabama and eventually the New England Patriots ended up using a variation of an old trick play from Gus Malzahn's playbook, which Auburn still uses today.
An offensive tackle splits out wide, acting as though he is an eligible receiver but is actually ineligible, and an eligible receiver lines up as a down lineman. The offense hopes to create a personnel mismatch should the defense mistakenly cover the lineman decoy rather than the actual receiver.
Malzahn called the play, which dates back to "probably 1996" during his days as coaching at Shiloh Christian High School in Arkansas, "Fight Song" because if the deception works, the offense scores a touchdown after which the band plays the fight song.
"I threw a touchdown pass my junior year against Rison (in the Arkansas Class AA state championship game)," offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee said. "I can't remember if that was the first time that he had ran it, I know it was the first time I did. Josh Floyd may have run it two years earlier. We've had it ever since.
"We ran it at Arkansas; we scored in '06 against Vanderbilt and against USC in '06. It's always been a part of what we did. I think we scored in '09 against Mississippi State and so we've had it for a while."
The play managed to make its way to Tuscaloosa and Alabama notably used it against LSU in 2014.
"Obviously it's something that is a recognition play for the defense," Alabama coach Nick Saban said. "If you don't line up correctly they can get somebody wide open or you don't end up covering all the eligible receivers."
Where Alabama got the idea to run the play is a bit murky.
Malzahn and Lashlee believe Jeff Norrid, who was an offensive graduate assistant with them at Arkansas in 2006 and spent six years as an analyst at Alabama, passed along the play.
"I didn't know if it was all him, but he has some, 'Hey guys we ran this before,'" Lashlee said. "Obviously it worked in a big time for them. ... I know they ran it last year, and then I guess the Patriots just got it. I think even before they stopped making the NCAA Football (video) game it was on the game. It's been out a while."
Saban said he didn't think Norrid, now an offensive analyst at Auburn, was responsible for Alabama utilizing the play.
"Several of our opponents do it and we had seen them do it in the past and I really don't know where it originated," said Saban, who cited LSU as the first team he remembered seeing run the play during former offensive coordinator Gary Crowton's tenure from 2007-10. "I don't know where it came from."
The Patriots saw Alabama's success with the play against LSU in 2014 and used it against the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC Divisional round of the playoffs last season.
In a twist, New England didn't even split out a true offensive lineman, instead having receivers declare themselves ineligible before the play, which is announced by the referee in the NFL, and caught Baltimore's defense completely off guard.
In the NFL Films documentary "Do Your Job," Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels explained the decision not to run the tackle eligible plays, which were named "Baltimore" and "Raven," until after halftime so the defense had a harder time adjusting on the sideline.
Saban, who coached under Patriots coach Bill Belichick while with the Cleveland Browns in 1991-94, wasn't surprised to see the play make its way to the NFL.
"A lot of people run it," Saban said. "It's not surprising to me that anybody runs it."
The NFL changed its rules during the offseason and eligible receivers who declare themselves ineligible must lineup within two yards of the next interior offensive lineman in the "core" of the formation.
"The college rule there is very different," SEC coordinator of officials Steve Shaw explained. "In the college game, if you're wearing a jersey numbered 50-79 you can never be an eligible receiver to catch a forward pass. Now we've seen some unusual plays where they throw a backward pass and anybody can catch a backward pass, but if you're 50-79 you can never be eligible. ... The only announcement we'll make is if a guy changed his jersey to go from ineligible to eligible or eligible to ineligible."