Alabama didn’t wait long to get Bray Hubbard back in the fold.
The Crimson Tide’s season ended with a Rose Bowl loss to Indiana on Jan. 10, and by Jan. 12 Hubbard had already made his call: he was coming back to Tuscaloosa for his senior year. That decision came after a draft evaluation that placed him at No. 84 overall on CBS Sports’ big board and No. 5 among safeties on Mel Kiper’s rankings.
It was a move that echoed beyond one locker. Safety Keon Sabb followed Hubbard back, and cornerbacks Zabien Brown and Dijon Lee also returned, giving defensive coordinator Kane Wommack four starters back in a secondary that helped carry Alabama to the College Football Playoff.
That’s the kind of ripple effect that puts Hubbard squarely among college football’s 25 most important players entering 2026.
He was everywhere for Alabama in 2025. Hubbard posted career highs with four interceptions, eight passes defensed, three forced fumbles and two sacks, while starting all 15 games and playing 784 defensive snaps, the second-most on the roster. His biggest swing came in the final minute of the Iron Bowl, when his forced fumble sealed the win over Auburn and clinched Alabama’s playoff berth.
The honors followed: first-team All-SEC from both the AP and league coaches, third-team AP All-America recognition and a spot on the AFCA All-America second team. Walter Camp then named him to its 2026 preseason All-America second team earlier this month.
None of that looked obvious when he arrived in the 2023 class as a three-star athlete out of Ocean Springs High School, where he played quarterback. Before Alabama entered the picture, he had committed to Southern Miss as a baseball player. Then Nick Saban offered him after a summer camp, and the rest has turned into a steady climb.
Three seasons in, Hubbard has played in 37 games with 21 starts, and his knack for takeaways fits cleanly into Wommack’s swarm approach on the back end.
"He talks to us about creating takeaways," Hubbard said of Wommack in December. "He harps on it every week, how to create takeaways. He puts it out there, and we go execute."
Wommack has been just as clear about what Hubbard and Sabb choosing to return meant for the program.
"Well, those are the decisions that are made in January that affect us from September to next January, hopefully, and those are some of the biggest wins in recruiting," Wommack said in March. "We try to be very open with our players about what we think the best decision is for them."
"But you know, if you look over the past here, when you've had a grouping of guys that have kind of made that decision to come back as a group together, there's typically been success to follow," Wommack said. "It certainly puts us in a great position."
Dijon Lee felt the impact too. "Whenever Bray returned, I called him," the sophomore corner said. "I was jumping on the phone, and we was laughing, but you know, we had to get to work."
That work is especially important now. All four of Alabama’s 2025 captains are gone, and only nine seniors remain on Kalen DeBoer’s roster. Hubbard looks like the leading candidate to wear the C, and with a new starting quarterback coming out of the Austin Mack and Keelon Russell competition, Alabama will lean on its veteran safety to steady a defense that has to navigate Georgia, Florida State visiting Tuscaloosa and road trips to Tennessee and LSU without early cracks showing.
Alabama opens DeBoer’s third season against East Carolina on Sept. 5 at 12 p.m. ET on ABC at Bryant-Denny Stadium, with Hubbard set to start at safety on a defense built around his return.
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