Alabama football’s offense stepped to the line of scrimmage in the third quarter and for one of the few times this season, quarterback Jalen Milroe stayed right behind his center, Seth McLaughlin. Milroe crouched down, received the snap and mushed forward for….a first down in a 14-point game.

The play wasn’t a major highlight in Saturday’s 40-17 win over Mississippi State. It was one of the Tide’s five conversions on third down. Yet, the merits of a quarterback sneak had been public discourse since Alabama’s disastrous -22-yard drive a week ago against Ole Miss.

On Saturday night, Alabama (4-1, 2-0 Southeastern Conference) head coach Nick Saban explained the state of the sneak in college, and why UA doesn’t run that play more often with the 6-foot-2, 220-pound Milroe:

“I watch games on TV, and everybody’s in the gun. Some people never get under center. When we’re in the gun, we clap. The players get in a rhythm. When you get under center, you have to go on voice command, and it was pretty loud out there on a couple of those occasions. I think we had some things that we wanted to do in short-yardage with the quarterback under, but I think were a little apprehensive about using verbal cadence.

” … You’ve got to worry about getting the snap and you’ve got to worry about voice command. But I do think there is a place in short-yardage situations where the quarterback being under center and not handing the ball off five yards deep in the backfield. But you can’t allow penetration like we did either.”

Alabama rushed for 193 yards on 43 attempts for three touchdowns against the Bulldogs (2-3, 0-3). An overwhelming majority of those plays were shotgun formation. Saban recalled that when he played, it was always I-formation, or the quarterback, fullback and running back lined up in a row directly behind the center.

Alabama had three false start penalties amid a wave of cowbells in Davis Wade Stadium, McLaughin also had a handful of low snaps, a season-long issue, and snapped it once while Milroe wasn’t looking, nearly leading to a fumble.

“So it still comes down to executing. All them other plays that we ran in the game that made – how many yards did we have rushing? 193 – we were in the gun every time. Explain that to me,” said Saban.

Alabama will travel to Texas A&M next week. The Aggies are allowing opposing rushing attacks to gain 96.2 yards per game with one touchdown allowed across 20 quarters.

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Nick Alvarez is a reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @nick_a_alvarez or email him at [email protected].