SECMD26: Tide not high on list for best team in the conference this year
Senior Bray Hubbard is part of the Alabama secondary that expects to have a big season in 2026. (Courtesy Unv. Alabama Athletics)
By GRAHAM DUNN
TAMPA - It might not be unusual for a team to bring two defensive backs to SEC Media Days. Yet Alabama head football coach Kalen DeBoer chose a couple of players, seniors Bray Hubbard and Zabien Brown, to bring to Tampa.
The defensive back corps, at least at the start of the 2026 campaign, is the top unit for the Crimson Tide with no less than three receiving preseason accolades.
Alabama ranked ninth nationally in total defense and a big part of that was a stifling secondary that created 11 interceptions, including a couple for touchdowns. Safety Bray Hubbard was the leader with four while Brown, a cornerback, had two Pick-6’s including a 98-yard return against Tennessee on the last play of the first half in Bama’s 37-20 win.
The other turned the tables in Alabama’s playoff win over Oklahoma.
“We've all played together for about two years now” Hubbard said. “So just the unity that we have and the trust that we have built between all five of us back there -- whether that's D.J. (Dijon Lee), Z.B. (Brown), me, Keon (Sabb) and Red (Morgan), and even some of the younger guys that are our backups -- we just trust each other. But that also allows us to play fast.”
Brown admits it all feels like a normal part of the game for him.
“I feel like I'm a natural ball player,” Brown said, “I grew up playing on the other side of the ball, so catching the ball, having the ball in my hand, it's just natural to me.”
But that unit does not have enough to keep the howling from fans and media when talking about the Tide’s fortunes in 2026. A second-straight four-loss season seems to have everybody questioning DeBoer’s ability to put the Tide back in the hunt for a national championship.
“We always want to have that expectation (of winning a championship). We felt like we righted a wrong a little bit last year compared to the year before with some of the things we accomplished. We also understand we fell short of our expectations internally,” DeBoer said when asked what was needed to get the program back to the “standard” which is winning national titles.
“I guess that's my experience over the years, is you can see what the bar is at and sometimes you can look and say you're this close and sometimes you're further away. Sometimes it's the perspective and the way you look at it. A coach might look different than a fan or an analyst.”
What stood out more than anything - including finishing on top in the SEC regular season with a 7-1 record - was a lack of a rushing attack, one that managed just over 100 yards per game and was punished in both the Georgia loss in the SEC Championship game and the Rose Bowl against eventual national champ Indiana.
The offensive line has gotten most of the grief, but DeBoer believes some of that is unwarranted.
“Last year we had a number of guys that were in the mix, in the rotation, and I think a lot of it is always -- there is a piece to it where we were trying to find the right combinations, but there was also a lot of times where it was out of necessity, you know, injuries and other where we needed to make those changes,” he explained.
“What I appreciate about the guys that have come in, I guess really the whole unit, is how open they've been to just being coached, being taught, wanting to come together. You know, feeding off of the energy or the talk around it being an area that needs to be improved. You know, but just focusing on what they can control and not making it more than it needs to be and also understanding the urgency that needs to happen to be an elite group.”
It’s been a while since expectations have been as low as they seem to be this season. Few have the Crimson Tide on anyone’s radar for a national title run, or an SEC championship, for that matter.
DeBoer can see that as an advantage.
“Yeah, I understand (the low expectations) with a lot of new faces,” DeBoer said. “And that's okay, because we got to go prove it. We got to go out and get the job done.
“Last year I think we returned 16 seniors and we had to go prove it. We had to do some things, not just talk it. We had to go decide what we were going to accomplish, decide and commit to the process, commit to what we needed to do to get it done, and then make sure that action supported the goals we had.”