Early in the fourth quarter, two Novembers ago in Jordan-Hare Stadium, Auburn had Alabama in a dangerous place.

A game-tying touchdown was overturned moments earlier, then a field goal snap was botched with an undefeated season in trouble. Moving fast, Auburn was in position to put the game away. In the process, it pulled one of the trademark tricks from the Gus Malzahn bag on a second-down play from the Crimson Tide side of the 50.

They call it a sugar huddle.

You’ve seen it for the last several years when Auburn wants to move quickly with a degree of deception. Wider than the normally compact huddle and closer to the line of scrimmage, receivers sprint out first, followed by a quick break from the linemen.

It leaves little time to set a defense in what’s typically some form of a trick play. In the play two years ago, Auburn broke the sugar huddle in a Wildcat formation with an end-around toss back to Jared Stidham. He found Ryan Davis wide open in a disoriented Alabama secondary for a 25-yard gain that set up the final score in a 26-14 Auburn win.

No. 5 Alabama (10-1) will be rehearsing the response to sugar huddles all week ahead of the 2:30 p.m. CT Saturday return to Jordan-Hare. Most of the time, Nick Saban said, Auburn is unleashing a new look coming from the sugar huddle look -- one that requires a defensive adjustment and little time to make it.

“I think the players all have to stand in the sugar huddle in defense and definitely see how the players come out of the huddle,” Saban said. “A lot of times there will be tackle over unbalanced or some type of unusual type of formation. And then they want to quick snap the ball so you have a minimum amount of time to get ready for it. I think the only way you can prepare for it is doing it in practice so the players can anticipate to some degree what they might see and that’s what we’ll need to do this week.”

It can be a scramble on Alabama’s side of the ball when the sugar huddle appears across the way.

“It’s kind of hard to kind of judge what they might come out in because they’ve got a whole bunch of different formations,” safety Xavier McKinney said. “It’s hard to kind of guess what they may come out in, so when they do come out we’ve got to be prepared to make the call and make it quick.”

Jared Mayden is the other safety most of the time next to McKinney. Getting the defense in the middle of the formation ready to react is one of the first keys, he said.

Saban often talks about eye control and this is when that matters most.

“I'm focused on where the running backs break and kinda like where the slot receivers break to,” Mayden said. “The outsides are gonna line up first, usually, but you really gotta figure out where the backs are. Kinda the O-linemen's set, but really the backs and slot receiver."

McKinney is looking for the receivers first.

“Because a lot of times they might try to hide the tight end or hide a receiver somewhere,” he said. “They might try to move a lineman, so that’s kind of like the first thing that I look at just to see what formation they might be in and what we might play.”

Sometimes, however, the look is something not shown in the film preparation.

It’s probably the best time to spring a new formation when there’s no time to react to it. Even last week against Western Carolina, the FCS team gave No. 5 Alabama’s defense some early issues with new looks in the 66-3 Tide win.

They just had to adjust on the fly. McKinney gave an honest response to how they react in a frenzied environment when the opponent does something they weren’t planning to face.

“Sometimes it’s a little like, ‘I don’t know what to call,’” McKinney said. “But sometimes I just kind of call something, even if it’s wrong because sometimes it doesn’t really process that super fast like that. So, you’ve kind of just got to make a call quick and play something just so we’re not out there just running around. It can be tough sometimes, but one you get the adjustments of it then it’s not so bad.”

Michael Casagrande is an Alabama beat writer for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.