Bray Hubbard reveals how Alabama football pulled off Kalen DeBoer's birthday surprise

Alabama football coach Kalen DeBoer didn't get warm birthday wishes from his team.

Instead, the Crimson Tide celebrated the 31-20 Texas A&M victory on Saturday, Oct. 24 − and DeBoer's 52nd birthday − with an ice cold Gatorade shower.

"I said, 'You get a win, you can do whatever you want,'" DeBoer said after victory bath.

It was team captain and safety Bray Hubbard who made sure DeBoer had a day to remember, and it all started with a conversation with Jeff Allen, Alabama's senior associate athletic director and head athletic trainer.

"Jeff, I need an ice bucket just full of water, full of ice," Hubbard recalled telling Allen.

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There was just one problem. When the bucket arrived, it was full of towels.

"I was like, 'No, I gotta take the towels out. We can't have towels flying on him,'" Hubbard continued.

Then, Hubbard enlisted help from teammates Jackson Lloyd and Keelon Russell to sneak the bucket into position, and more importantly, keep DeBoer's eyes off of it.

Players began moving out of the way of the bucket once it was perfectly placed, but Hubbard needed them to stay put, and urged them to do so, in order for DeBoer not to catch on.

Enter Russell, who found a (undisclosed) way to distract DeBoer from the opposite side of the locker room.

The plan worked.

"He turned right into it," Hubbard grinned. "He was completely shocked. He didn't know. I thought he saw the bucket, but he didn't see the bucket."

After consecutive losses to Georgia and Tennessee, Alabama gave its coach the birthday present he needed most.

"The win on his birthday," Hubbard said. "He had to get hit with the ice bucket."