Kalen DeBoer will coach the most important game of his career in Saturday’s Iron Bowl
By David Wasson
Published:
Kalen DeBoer has won a lot of football games as a collegiate head coach – 122 of them, to be precise, over 12 seasons.
That’s almost 10.2 games per season and an 87.1% win rate — truly insane numbers by any standards. Along the way, he has won 3 national championships (NAIA titles at Sioux Falls) and had the Pac-12 champ Washington Huskies on the cusp of a College Football Playoff national crown in 2023.
But for all those wins, all those championships and all those accomplishments, Kalen DeBoer faces inarguably the most important game of his decorated coaching career Saturday.
The Iron Bowl.
Why is DeBoer’s second go-round with That School Down The Road so pivotal, you ask? Let’s break it down…
Rivalries don’t get any bigger
How a coach (and a player) fares against the rival school is part of what makes college football singularly unique. And perhaps nowhere on this rock is winning the rivalry game more important than in Tuscaloosa.
From even before Mama called Paul Bryant home all the way to DeBoer’s esteemed predecessor, the coach at Alabama has always felt a little bit safer if the Tigers had to spend the next year explaining away a loss.
Winning the Iron Bowl 6 straight times gave Tommy Tuberville enough juice in the state to make a run for the U.S. Senate. And Bill Curry had a brick thrown through his window in part because he couldn’t ever solve the Tigers.
Making DeBoer’s second run at Auburn – and his first trip to the Plains – slightly juicier is the omnipresence of Nick Saban. The former Alabama coach who took the Tide to the national championship mountaintop 6 times might not make the trip to Lee County this season, but you better believe his presence is subconsciously felt every day by the current occupant of the Alabama head coaching office.
Saban’s record against Auburn was 12-5, with plenty of stunning heartbreak along the way. DeBoer is currently 1-0 after a 28-14 victory in Tuscaloosa last season, and is blithely unaware of the scars the Iron Bowl can afflict on even the hardiest of coaching souls.
The rival always lurking
One cannot fully understand what the Iron Bowl means to residents of the 22nd state admitted to the Union without living within its borders. Alabama has no major professional sports, thus no pro team to geographically latch onto. That also means that children born in the state are assigned as Alabama or Auburn fans pretty much seconds after drawing their first breath.
No, the Iron Bowl isn’t the only rivalry game out there coming up this weekend. Michigan-Ohio State will get more hyperventilating by the networks, Florida and FSU just plain dislike each other, and this year’s Egg Bowl has the added flavor of Lane Kiffin Mania. But there is just something… different about the Iron Bowl.
Consider this: Either Alabama or Auburn went to the BCS or CFP 12 times in 13 years from 2009 to 2021, with Alabama going 10 times (2009, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021) and winning 6 (2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2020) and Auburn going twice (2010, 2013) and winning once (2010).
In other words, this game both matters to every resident of a football-mad state and – more often than not – to the national picture. Which brings us to 2025.
The result of a win… and a loss
We have arrived at the final, most crucial facet of DeBoer’s Saturday night reckoning. For all the above reasons, any Iron Bowl is a big deal. But for the Alabama coach on this particular Saturday night, the 2025 Iron Bowl will mean either a signal of long-term success or a second straight bitterly disappointing season for a fanbase that has zero patience for disappointment.
Should DeBoer’s Tide win on Saturday, Alabama will be well-positioned to earn a spot in both the following week’s SEC Championship Game and – far more importantly – the 12-team College Football Playoff bracket. Getting to Atlanta is great and all. But the CFP? That’s where legends are made – and after Alabama’s 2024 tumble from midseason No. 1 to fizzling ReliaQuest Bowl loss to Michigan, it feels absolutely necessary for the Crimson Tide to get back into the tournament.
But should DeBoer’s team lose to Auburn? That’s the nightmare scenario for both the coach and the program. A loss to the Tigers makes the SEC Championship Game and CFP instantly evaporate, of course, and further signals to every decision-maker associated with Alabama football that DeBoer might not actually be the guy to continue the Saban Dynasty into the future.
If you think of Alabama fans as stockholders, and enough of them get upset that DeBoer coughed up a very winnable game to Auburn – with another interim coach and still searching for bowl eligibility entering the season’s final week – well, that’s how doom spirals happen. We aren’t suggesting DeBoer would get called into Alabama AD Greg Byrne’s office for a firing, but DeBoer would certainly enter 2026 on a very hot seat.
Win, and DeBoer is in – both the SEC title race, the CFP and the good graces of everyone who has ever worn Crimson and White. Lose, and DeBoer a gigantic step toward being out of a job.
Win, and it’s all smiles and huzzahs on a wobbly-yet-progressing Alabama bandwagon. Lose, and DeBoer better watch out for the bricks.
No pressure, right?
An APSE national award-winning writer and editor, David Wasson has almost four decades of experience in the print journalism business in Florida and Alabama. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and several national magazines and websites. He also hosts Gulfshore Sports with David Wasson, weekdays from 3-5 pm across Southwest Florida and on FoxSportsFM.com. His Twitter handle: @JustDWasson.
