TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Even though the University of Alabama offense had been practicing the trick play all season, senior lineman Austin Shepherd was more than a little skeptical that it would ever be used in a game.

“I figured it was to just have fun in practice,” he said, and wasn’t the only player who felt that way.

But before the Crimson Tide took to the field in overtime at LSU on Saturday night, where 102,321 fans made it nearly impossible for anyone on the field to hear anything, offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin called for the pass to sophomore tight end/lineman Brandon Greene on the first play.

“I was surprised,” senior quarterback Blake Sims said. “He said, ‘This is how it’s going to be’ and you just hear coach say that and be like ‘Man, we can’t imagine it being that good.’”

The play required the Crimson Tide to quickly break from the huddle and line up in an unusual formation designed to confuse LSU, followed by a fast snap. Specifically, it had Cam Robinson line up wide with four receivers to spread the defense, and the freshman left tackle pretending to be the intended target for a screen pass.

The player in his usual spot, Greene, was the real receiver and he nearly scored on the 24-yard play.

“We broke the huddle, we shift a little bit, I looked and I thought ‘Man, this play’s about to really work,’” Sims said.

The only setback on the play was that when Greene was stood up short of the end zone the Alabama linemen came crashing in to try and help. Senior guard Leon Brown was flagged for a personal foul, and the Crimson Tide went from first-and-goal from the 1 to first down at the 15.

“I thought it could have been called on all five of us, because if you watch it all five of us spring to the pile and try to knock the pile over,” Shepherd said. “It’s what the ref saw so he called it.”

Regardless, Alabama eventually scored for the 20-13 victory and the fun second-guessing with Greene was still being heard Monday. For example, Shepherd said he doesn’t have the hands for such a play (“I play O-line for a reason”), but thinks he could have gotten to the end zone.

“But we’ve been giving him little (jabs by) saying ‘You’ve got to get a little bit faster,’” Sims said. “We’re happy that it was successful for us.”