TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — On August 8, less than one month before Alabama's season opener against East Carolina, BamaCentral conducted a case study.
We asked nine different players the same question: if you could only vote for one captain, who would it be? After counting the ballots, safety Bray Hubbard won by a landslide. A couple of weeks later, Hubbard was officially named one of the Crimson Tide's three captains.
Leadership is a trait needed in every football team at every level, and it needs to be the most apparent after a loss. Well, Alabama has dropped consecutive games (Georgia and Tennessee) for the first time since 2013. Doubt has been cast on the program by the college football world, and before Tuesday's practice, Hubbard stood up at the morning meeting.
"To start the day off, Bray Hubbard gave an incredible speech about being uncomfortable," Alabama tight end Marshall Pritchett said on Tuesday. "I think (Kalen) DeBoer addressed the media with that after the game.
"Bray's obviously an incredible leader, but this morning I guess there was something strong on his chest and he's a guy we all look up to for leadership. He stood up, we listened and I thought he did a great job setting the tone for the day."
Alabama offensive lineman Michael Carroll was in the room with the rest of the team this morning as well. He commended Hubbard's abilities as a vocal leader, but how did everyone react to the speech?
"Definitely an elite response from the guys all around as a group," Carroll said. "Taking this week extremely serious and definitely an uptick in the tenacity from everyone in effort."
Pritchett shared that Alabama has a motto: Be Comfortable Being Uncomfortable. He gave the haunting summer workouts on Practice Field 3 as an example and said he remembered pushing a sled with six plates in the heat. The motto is a "blessing and opportunity" for him.
As previously stated, head coach Kalen DeBoer said after the game that "it’s going to be really uncomfortable" from here on out. The Crimson Tide has two losses, and no three-loss team has ever made the College Football Playoff.
"Everything is ahead of us on the horizon," Pritchett said. "We're pretty much in the playoffs now with no errors really allowed. So being comfortable with being uncomfortable has been the motto of the day.
"And we went out on the practice field, nobody was moping, no one was dragging their head, it was just, 'Let's go out there and fly around and have fun.' I thought the tone was set on the first play. People were hitting each other, talking the talk, and that's exactly what you want. That's exactly how I can picture-perfect imagine coming back off a loss."
Alabama needed some sort of leadership to step up, and Hubbard delivered. Now the Tide has to respond on Saturday against Texas A&M on Oct. 24 at Bryant-Denny Stadium. After that, Alabama will face LSU in Baton Rouge. While the teams they lost to are different from Alabama, the Tigers also have two losses and are in a similar make-or-break boat.
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