Regardless of standings, future bowl games, and playoff spots, the stakes in the Iron Bowl are both simple and infinite. If you can give your fans an advantage over the opposition at every barbecue, church social, grocery line, and starting box in the state of Alabama for an entire year, well, that’ll wipe out a whole bunch of sins. And right now, a few coaches 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 played each other. Gene Stallings, national championship-winning head coach at Alabama and disciple of Bear Bryant, 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 than they beat you. »

The same rule applies on the Plains. You can blow your way through an entire season at Auburn, but if you can close out the year with a victory over those elite Alabamas – even better, if you can ruin their title hopes – that gives you the both good grace and job security.

Between them, Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer and Auburn’s Hugh Freeze have coached in a total of one (1) Iron Bowl. This one was an instant classic – the “Gravedigger” win at Alabama last year – but even games that seem routine outside of Alabama have a period weight to them.

“Sitting in this seat and losing one like we did last year is still not a good thing,” Freeze said earlier this week. “I know the Auburn faithful have had to endure this, and we want to change that feeling in this building and for our great fan base in this state.”

“Since I’ve been here, I think I hear about it every day,” DeBoer said this week, “and I understand what it means and the excitement.” All due respect to the head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide, but he can’t yet Really understand it. Not until kickoff, and not until the next day, one way or the other.

For coaches, the weight of the Iron Bowl looms like storm clouds in the distance. Former Alabama head coach Bill Curry failed to win the Iron Bowl in his three attempts for Alabama, including the first ever played at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, and he (allegedly) got a brick thrown through a window for his efforts. After the third loss, he left Tuscaloosa for a less stressful job managing the Kentucky Wildcats.

The opposite is also true. Former Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville once won six straight games against Alabama – his final victory came against first-year Alabama coach Nick Saban – and transformed his name into a seat in the U.S. Senate a decade later. Freeze got the Auburn job in part due to his success in beating Saban back-to-back in the mid-2010s while at Ole Miss.

“We’re talking about it, and not just to me, but we’re talking to everyone in their houses, and it’s Thanksgiving weekend, so if you’re not at the game, you’re home for watch it with your friends and family,” DeBoer said. “I’ve heard stories of families being divided because of this in different ways, so that’s what rivalry games are for, and I know it’s a rivalry that’s on another level.”

Freeze may have kept the Wolves at bay with last week’s upset win over Texas A&M, but he would calm them down nicely with a win over Alabama. It would be Auburn’s sixth win of the season, making the Tigers bowl eligible and allaying concerns that Freeze isn’t the guy to return this program to national competitiveness.

DeBoer walks an even higher tightrope. Alabama (8-3) hasn’t lost more than three games — or had single-digit wins — since Saban’s first year, when the Tide had a 7-6 home field record. Yes, DeBoer is still in his first year, but an uninspiring record, a failure to qualify for the 12-team playoffs, And a loss to Auburn? The honeymoon is long over, the temporary separation is already being considered.

At both Alabama and Auburn, winning the Iron Bowl is both necessary and sufficient for a head coach to claim success. National championships will build statues of you, but winning the Iron Bowl will make everyday life a lot easier. Defeat those blue bloods, or that cow college, on the other side of the state, and all will be right with the world. Lose, and it’s a long 364 days… with no guarantee you’ll be around to see the next one.