No matter the rankings, no matter future bowl games and playoff spots, the stakes for the Iron Bowl are both simple and infinite. If you can give your fans an edge over the opposition at every barbecue, church gathering, grocery store line, and tee box in the state of Alabama for an entire year, that washes away a lot of sins. And right now, there are a few coaches who are in dire need of the kind of divine providence that comes with an Iron Bowl victory.
It’s always been that way, every time Auburn and Alabama have faced each other. Gene Stallings, a national championship-winning head coach at Alabama and Bear Bryant student, had a simple rule for coaching in Tuscaloosa. “If you want to be a successful coach at Alabama, you have to beat Auburn,” he said in 2013. “You don’t have to beat them every year, but you have to beat them more often than they beat you. ”
The same rule applies on The Plains. You can work your way through an entire season at Auburn, but if you can end the year with a win over those Alabama elitists – even better, if you can ruin their title hopes – that will earn you both good graces and job security.
Together, Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer and Auburn’s Hugh Freeze have coached in a total of one (1) Iron Bowl. That was an instant classic – last year’s victory over “Gravedigger” Alabama – but even the games that seem routine from outside Alabama have a groundbreaking weight.
“Sitting in this seat and losing one like last year is still not good,” Freeze said earlier this week. “I know the Auburn faithful had to endure that, and we want to change that feeling in this building and for our great fan base in this state.”
“I think since I’ve been here, I hear about it every day,” DeBoer said this week, “and understand what it means and the excitement.” All respect to the head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide, but that is not possible yet Real understand. Not until kickoff, and not until the aftermath, either way.
For coaches, the weight of the Iron Bowl hangs like storm clouds in the distance. Former Alabama head coach Bill Curry failed to win the Iron Bowl in all three of his attempts for Alabama, including the first ever played at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, and he (reportedly) had a rock thrown through his window thrown for his efforts. After the third loss, he left Tuscaloosa for a less stressful job leading the Kentucky Wildcats.
The opposite also applies. Former Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville once won six straight over Alabama – his final victory coming over first-year Alabama coach Nick Saban – and parlayed the name value of that success into a seat in the U.S. Senate a decade later. Freeze got the job at Auburn in part because of his success in beating Saban back-to-back in the mid-2010s while at Ole Miss.
“It’s being talked about, and not just told to me, but it’s being talked about among everyone in their homes, and it’s Thanksgiving weekend, so if you’re not at the game, you’re watching it at home with your friends and family ” says DeBoer. said. “I’ve heard stories about families being divided in many different ways because of it, so that’s what rivalry games are about, and I know this is a rivalry on another level.”
Freeze may have kept the Wolves at bay with last week’s win over Texas A&M, but he would quiet them down nicely with a win over Alabama. That would be Auburn’s sixth win of the season, putting the Tigers in bowl eligibility and easing concerns that Freeze isn’t the man to return this program to national competitiveness.
DeBoer walks an even higher tightrope. Alabama (8-3) hasn’t lost more than three games — or total single-digit wins — since Saban’s freshman year, when the Tide had a 7-6 on-field record. Yes, DeBoer is still in his first year, but an uninspiring record, failing to make a twelve-team playoff field, And A loss for Auburn? Honeymoon long over, trial separation already being considered.
At both Alabama and Auburn, Iron Bowl victory is both necessary and sufficient for a head coach to claim success. Statues are built of you at national championships, but victories in the Iron Bowl make everyday life a lot easier. Beat those bluebloods, or that cow school, on the other side of the state, and all is right with the world. Lose, and it’s 364 long days… with no guarantee you’ll still be around to see the next one.
