Key Alabama defender is confirming all of the preseason hype after rocky start to the 2025 college football season
Alabama’s been getting stellar play from one key defensive player over the last two weeks after a rocky start to the 2025 college football season.
The Alabama Crimson Tide are playing much better defense as of late. After a rocky start against Tommy Castellanos and Florida State in the season opener, defensive coordinator Kane Wommack has seen this group play with more passion and energy over the last two weeks.
One player who’s put forth a drastic turnaround is junior safety Bray Hubbard. After earning criticism on social media for not giving 100% effort at times against the Seminoles, the Mississippi native has left no doubt against Louisiana-Monroe and Wisconsin. Really, Saturday’s game against the Badgers was easily his best performance of the season so far.
The 6-foot-2, 213-pound defensive back finished the game with five tackles and two interceptions. Impressive numbers, even on the surface, but if you actually turn on the tape, he was extremely active locating and getting to the football, whether that be as a tackler or a ball-hawk in coverage.
“Man, Bray’s been a ball player. He comes to work every single day, especially after Week 1,” Alabama linebacker Deontae Lawson said after Saturday’s 38-14 victory over Wisconsin. “You can tell he has a different mindset, a different approach to practice, to meetings, to all these things. Then he just let it loose on Saturday, that’s all we talk about.”
This is what we were expecting from Hubbard coming into the season. An Energizer Bunny-type of defender who’s always around the football and creating big plays. He’s only started nine games in his career so far, and yet, he’s already managed to secure five interceptions and force a fumble. That’s exactly the type of impact an All-SEC player puts forth.
Now, the real tests begin.
Alabama is heading into its first of two bye weeks, but then a road showdown against a top-5 Georgia awaits. From there, it’s No. 20 Vanderbilt (home), No. 23 Missouri (away), No. 15 Tennessee (home), South Carolina (away), No. 3 LSU (home), No. 11 Oklahoma (home), Eastern Illinois (home) and No. 22 Auburn (away). In other words, the Tide are currently scheduled to play seven ranked opponents over its last nine game.
If Alabama is going to figure out a way to navigate that type of schedule with enough wins to make its way back to the College Football Playoff, star players such as Hubbard, on both sides of the football, must continue to play at an elite level. There’s plenty of talent, but as head coach Kalen DeBoer said on Saturday following the game, “Don’t let off the gas.”
