Fourth-and-goal, the quarterback takes the snap and rolls to her right.

A scoreless tie has a fair amount of tension this Tuesday night on the outskirts of the University of Alabama campus.

"Run it!" was the instruction from the sideline as Anna McCormick saw daylight. Instead, the Zeta Tau Alpha quarterback whipped a pass across her body into traffic.

Her coach dropped to two knees.

Touchdown.

Mac Jones couldn't believe it. He probably wouldn't have thrown that ball, but as the offensive tactician for the ZTA sorority intramural team, Alabama's third string quarterback celebrated the key touchdown like it was a Saturday afternoon.

Along with running back Damien Harris, tight end Irv Smith Jr., and a few others, Jones brought a different dimension to the sorority intramural league. As coach of ZTA, Jones is combination of Nick Saban, Scott Cochran and offensive coordinator Mike Locksley.

He's smiling most of the night but Jones isn't kidding around.

This is a place where the Crimson Tide players can have a little fun outside the spotlight, though the competitive streak isn't something they lose. Jones wasn't available for interviews for this story as a redshirt freshman, but his players explained the experience of playing for him and the other coaches.

"They get excited," said McCormick, the bold quarterback. "And it's more excited than you would ever think about an intramural sport. It's joking around, it's not all serious because it's obviously an intramural, but it shows you can have fun and work hard and win at the same time. It's just a good experience."

Winning helps, too.

ZTA is 3-0 after the two-score win that Tuesday night over AOPi. The team is full of former high school athletes who are every bit as intense as their coaches.

Team members woke up on the morning of their second game to a group chat from Jones.

"Wake up," the 8 a.m. message read. "It's game day."

Mac Jones schemes a new play for the ZTA flag football team.

The spiral notebook Jones carries down the sideline is the playbook complete with 12 or 13 offensive plays. Team captain Kelly Keil had seven or so to start and Jones added a few more.

When communicating the plays from the sideline became a problem, Jones had the solution. He made one of those wrist bands with each play drawn out and named so he could just shout out a word or number.

"It saves time and nobody does that in intramurals," said McCormick who wears the improvised equipment. "It's just, it's funny."

Keil had to clear it with intramural officials and it debuted for the Week 2 win over Chi Omega.

This is actually Year 2 of ZTA using celebrity coaches for flag football. Tua Tagovailoa, then a freshman backup, helped Irv Smith coach the team last year.

The Heisman candidate was a little less high strung compared to Jones, players said. He helped adjust after possessions but wasn't running up and down the sidelines or devising game plans.

"Tony Brown came by," Keil said with a smile, "and he added another level of enthusiasm."

This year, the energy cranked up even more with fresh blood in the coaching staff. ZTA practices weekly for about an hour on Sunday evenings.

"But we've had a practice go two hours," McCormick said, "because we get caught up in wanting to try new things and the guys get excited and we want to keep trying other things because we remember what shut us down in the last game and what we heard about this team we're playing next. They know what they're doing."

McCormick has an eye for it too. She played three years of elementary school flag football as the only girl on the team. While watching Alabama's win over Arkansas, a few things caught her eye. Razorback quarterback Ty Storey's little fake run and quick pass was one.

"It beat them in the play," McCormick said, "and I was like, 'Let's do that.'"

Two plays before throwing the daring touchdown pass, McCormick ran the play Arkansas used to score an eight-yard touchdown. The intramural version didn't work, but the double reverse on the point-after did with the quarterback catching the conversion.

McCormick said she wasn't intimidated playing quarterback for someone on scholarship to do the same thing down the street in the 101,821-seat Bryant-Denny Stadium. Jones worked with McCormick on her footwork, how to locate defenders and read the field and the general timing needed to let the play develop.

Mac Jones shields his mouth sharing strategy as the ZTA flag football coach.

The Week 1 win over Alpha Chi Omega saw Jones help adjust the defensive alignment. ZTA went 3-and-out on the first possession, then allowed a touchdown. He moved Keil to a different spot in the secondary, which led to a Pick-6 touchdown.

"And the other team didn't score again," Keil said. "And we ended up winning like 30-6."

Maria Pacos was a member of the ZTA team last year before an ankle injury took her off the field. She's still at all the games and has a front-row seat to Jones, Harris and Smith scheming with the playbook.

"Kelly is on the field and sometimes she doesn't notice what they're doing on the sidelines," Pacos said. "I get that sideline perspective and it's really cool. They're flipping through the pages. They get super into it."

That was especially true in the win over AOPi. This was a tight one after the opposition answered the ZTA touchdown in the second half. AOPi actually recruited Alabama freshman linebacker Eyabi Anoma off the sideline to coach after halftime and it got close.

Referees a few times asked the ZTA sideline to quiet down because they couldn't hear each other on the field. At one point late in the game, Jones got thrown out with a smile, shaking his head on the way out. An interception returned for a touchdown in the closing moments cemented a third straight win for ZTA.

Jones honked his approval from the parking lot. His team was undefeated and looking like the best in the league.

Ultimately, it's a good time for Jones and the other Alabama players.

It doesn't take away from their work across the street at Alabama's football facility, but the ZTA players appreciate the time and energy that has made Tuesday night a high-energy experience at the Alabama intramural complex.

It makes Saturday afternoons a little more fun for McCormick, the quarterback.

"It's seeing that everything they say is, it turns out to be successful," she said. "They know what they're doing and they're good at it. It's cool saying 'That's my coach.'"

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