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ESPN Anoints This Alabama Sleeper for a Breakout Season

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Sam Dunn | Last updated Jul 3, 2025 8:00 AM ET

It's always college football season in Tuscaloosa. I think it's written into the city's charter. Despite no games on the calendar until the end of summer, you can nonetheless find Alabama football fans far and wide enduring the dog days binge-watching highlights, tinkering with hypothetical depth charts, and poring over next year's recruiting board.

And while playmakers like star wideout Ryan Williams and ascendant quarterback Ty Simpson have garnered a huge share of the preseason buzz around Kalen DeBoer's Crimson Tide football program, a cadre of experts at ESPN has designated a sneaky stalwart as an enticing candidate for a meteoric rise this season at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

As Chris Lowe wrote for the Worldwide Leader, Bama fans ought to take a closer look at the backfield.

The defensive backfield.

Welcome to Bray Hubbard's world.

A humble three-star safety prospect in the 2023 recruiting class out of Ocean Springs, Mississippi, Hubbard played in all 13 games last season and earned a starting spot in the defensive backfield halfway through the campaign.

He made a key interception in the Iron Bowl against archrivals Auburn and flashed some major sideline-to-sideline toughness in Alabama's losing effort against Oklahoma, setting career highs for total (11) and solo (eight) tackles and adding a forced fumble.

As ESPN's Lowe wrote:

"Hubbard is poised to be an All-SEC caliber player and will team with a healthy Keon Sabb to give Alabama one of the best safety duos in the SEC... look for Hubbard in 2025 to be one of the top names on Alabama's defense."