Jumbo Package: Bray Hubbard looks to lead a title-worthy secondary

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Happy Gump Day, everyone. Alabama’s secondary is expected to be one of the best in the nation in 2026, and Bray Hubbard is a big reason why.

After a 2025 campaign where he was named first-team All-SEC and second-team All-American by the American Football Coaches Association, Bray and those in his circle fielded calls from NFL personnel who lauded Bray’s versatility, physicality and tenacity, traits that would transition to the next level.

Mark said Bray also had “numerous opportunities” to play his senior season at other college football programs, opportunities Bray never entertained.

“He’s been loyal to coach Saban and now he’s loyal to coach DeBoer,” Mark said. “He’s like, ‘I committed to play here, and this is where I want to play and this is where I’m going to graduate.’

“He just has been Alabama this whole time.” 

Perhaps his experience as a high school QB has helped him become the ball hawk that he is.

In three seasons as a passer, Hubbard had 5,288 passing yards, 55 touchdowns and 10 interceptions, completing 65.4% of his 587 pass attempts. As a runner, Hubbard added 4,044 yards and 52 touchdowns, averaging 7.9 yards per touch. 

As Ocean Springs’ quarterback, Hubbard led the Greyhounds to 32 wins in 37 games, a player who “ticks a little bit differently than your average high school athlete,” Pennock said.

“He was so physical as a quarterback, that we finally had to calm him down and tell him to slide, and to go out of bounds,” Mark Hubbard said. “Coach Pennock, he was very adamant about, ‘You got to play the next play. You want to run over people.’

“He didn’t have that quarterback mentality, that finesse. He just didn’t.” 

I imagine that Bray wasn’t easy to tackle.

Matt Stahl covered Javvin James in the “50 players” series.

James spent the 2025 season in Starkville after beginning his college career at Akron. He started nine games at left tackle for the Bulldogs last year, allowing three sacks over the course of the campaign.

He also earned starting experience with the Zips as a sophomore. Alabama will hope that seasoning will help out what could be an extremely young offensive line in 2026.

The Crimson Tide likely won’t have James in the same spot that he played last year for Mississippi State. UA offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb has already pointed to Lloyd to fill that position.

James will compete for a starting role on the other side at tackle, a spot far less settled with Carroll potentially sliding inside to play guard. Regardless of whether he’s starting or not, James could be a crucial player for Alabama.

Blake Brockermeyer, father of former Tide OL prospects Tommy and James, does not have Alabama listed among the top ten QB rooms in the nation. He loves some Oregon, though.

Dante Moore is my top-ranked QB entering the season season and it is still baffling that he turned down life-changing money to return to Oregon. More power to him.

The Ducks have also done a strong job over the last few seasons of adding capable backup quarterbacks with starting experience as insurance. Dylan Raiola is now the next man up after starting the last few seasons for Nebraska, giving Oregon one of the rare quarterback rooms with both high-end talent and real experience behind the starter. Moore resurrected his career by transferring to Oregon and learning behind Dillon Gabriel for a year, and Raiola is going to replicate that come 2027. 

Oregon’s quarterbacks enter the season with 42 combined starts on a loaded roster that looks like my favorite to win the national title. In today’s college football, that kind of quarterback depth is almost impossible to find.

AJ McCarron spoke about how Alabama weaponized the weather during the Saban era

“If you’re playing somebody that is not used to this heat and the humidity that comes with being in Alabama,” AJ McCarron said on The Dynasty. “During our time, we were out there all day long, every day. So the heat didn’t bother you nowhere near as it was messing with the other team. So you knew late in the game, especially in the second half, like you’re going to wear the other team down and there’s no way they can hang for 60 minutes.”

McCarron was not the only one who believed Alabama could turn climate into an edge. Nick Saban often built practice around preparation and repetition, and Alabama players have long said the team trained hard enough to make September heat feel normal by kickoff.

Chris Vannini at The Athletic has the skinny on this year’s conference realignment.

Pac-12

Out: None
In: Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State, Texas State, Utah State, Gonzaga (non-football)

In 2024, the Pac-12 lost 10 schools to the Big Ten (four), Big 12 (four) and ACC (two), leaving just Oregon State and Washington State. What had started with USC and UCLA’s departure for the Big Ten snowballed into an existential crisis by 2024. Rather than close up shop and join the Mountain West, Oregon State and Washington State spent 2024 in a scheduling partnership with the Mountain West for football and with various leagues for other sports. A year later, the Pac-12 added five Mountain West schools. There were lawsuits, which were recently settled.

To reach the FBS-mandated minimum of eight members, the Pac-12 also added Texas State from the Sun Belt. The league will have a “flex” rematch game to close the regular season, giving everyone eight conference games. Basketball powerhouse Gonzaga is also coming over as a member in all sports, though the Zags don’t have football.

That’s just sad.

Last, if you haven’t already started to acquaint yourself with Jaxon Richardson, you’re late to the party.

This dude is exciting.

That’s about it for now. Have a great day.

Roll Tide.

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