Kalen DeBoer, Kane Wommack Discuss Alabama's Struggles Defending Shovel Pass

The shovel pass was detrimental to Alabama's defense against Vanderbilt and South Carolina.

South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers makes a shovel pass to running back Oscar Adaway III vs. Alabama / Alabama vs. South Carolina

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— Alabama's defense had its ups and downs against South Carolina this past Saturday, but the Gamecocks' first drive of the second half truly created a momentum shift.

South Carolina converted on all five of its third-down attempts on opening possession of the third quarter, with the final conversion coming in the end zone. But an argument could be made that the most memorable third-down conversion was the fourth one of the possession, as Gamecocks quarterback LaNorris Sellers moved a couple steps to left after the snap and shoveled it up the middle to running back Oscar Adaway III for a 14-yard gain on third-and-short.

While the sample size is small, the shovel pass has been a weakness of the Crimson Tide defense as Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia made a couple of these plays that went for big gains in the Commodores' historic upset over Alabama on Oct. 5.

During Monday's press conference, Alabama defensive coordinator Kane Wommack opened up about the shovel pass and its recent usage against his defense.

"I think that particular play, we've seen probably Tebow and those guys at Florida were one of the first ones who started doing that. The late 2000s. It's kind of been sprinkled in," Wommack said. "When teams sprinkle it in just here and there, it's really challenging for your guys who are up front in terms of eye progression. You're getting an action at you that looks like sprint out for a quarterback or option for a quarterback. Then all of sudden, they're pitching the ball back underneath behind us to pursue. You've got to be very disciplined and very detailed in doing that. And your backside pursuit has to be able to fit and get back overtop."

"It's a challenging play. It's a really good wrinkle. It's one we're probably going to continue to see every single week. We're looking at the different ways they can do those plays and run those things so we can be prepared. Nobody is going to do it exactly the same way necessarily, but they're going to have their own nuance. It's a hard play that we've got to get prepared for."

Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer agreed with Wommack on Monday that the Tide will continue to see this from other teams and that "it's going to get thrown at [us] in different ways" until it is consistently shut down.

"The personnel or the formations that people line up in, you're going to try to find from an offensive standpoint, putting those shoes on and just trying to understand what that's going to look like in their scheme," DeBoer said. "15-20 years ago, I was running that quite a bit myself because it's a play that you have to defend."

"It might be presentation off of a boot, it might be presented off a sprint-out, option. But you've got to identify and everyone's got to fit their gaps and apply your rules is really the significance of it. People are going to use different things to really try to challenge your eye discipline as a defense. That's one of the plays that's obviously been used the last two weeks to challenge us in that regard."

No. 7 Alabama is beginning its preparation for Saturday's massive road test against No. 11 Tennessee. The Crimson Tide defense will have the challenge of taking on quarterback Nico Iamaleava, whose pocket movement will all but certainly give him an opportunity to make a shovel pass attempt.

How will Alabama respond to it?