Regardless of the rankings, regardless of future bowl games and playoff spots, the stakes for the Iron Bowl are both simple and infinite. If you can give your fans a leg up on the competition at every barbecue, every church service, every line at the grocery store, and every tee ball in the state of Alabama for an entire year, that washes away a whole lot of sins. And right now, there are a few coaches who desperately need the divine providence that comes with an Iron Bowl win.

It’s always been that way, every time Auburn and Alabama competed. Gene Stallings, the national championship-winning head coach at Alabama and a student 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 struggle through an entire season at Auburn, but if you can finish the year with a win over these elite Alabama players – even better, if you can end their title hopes – it will give you both prestige and job security.

Kalen DeBoer of Alabama and Hugh Freeze of Auburn have coached in a total of one (1) Iron Bowl. That was an instant classic — the “Gravedigger” win at Alabama last year — but even the games that seem routine from outside Alabama carry epochal weight.

“Sitting in this seat and losing one like we did last year is still not right,” 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.”

“I’ve been hearing about it every day since I’ve been here,” DeBoer said this week, “and understanding what it means and the excitement.” All due respect to the head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide, but he can’t do it yet Really understand it. Not until kick-off and not until the aftermath, either way.

For coaches, the weight of the Iron Bowl hovers 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 attempt ever played at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, and was (allegedly) awarded for his efforts a brick thrown through the window. After the third loss, he left Tuscaloosa to take a less stressful job leading the Kentucky Wildcats.

The opposite is also true. Former Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville once won six straight against Alabama – his last victory coming against first-year Alabama coach Nick Saban – and parlayed the name recognition of that success into a U.S. Senate seat a decade later. Freeze got the Auburn job in part because of his success in beating Saban in back-to-back seasons at Ole Miss in the mid-2010s.

“It’s being talked about, and it’s not just being told to me, it’s being talked about by everyone at home, and it’s Thanksgiving weekend. “So if you’re not at the game, you can watch it at home with your friends and family,” DeBoer said. “I’ve heard stories about families being divided in different ways by this. That’s what rivalry games are all about, and I know it’s a rivalry on a different level.”

Freeze may have kept the Wolves at bay with the upset win over Texas A&M last week, but he would do just fine to calm them down with a win over Alabama. That would be Auburn’s sixth win of the season, giving the Tigers bowl eligibility and easing concerns that Freeze isn’t the man to lead this program back to national competitiveness.

DeBoer walks an even higher tightrope. Alabama (8-3) hasn’t lost more than three games – or won by single digits overall – since Saban’s freshman year, when the Tide had a 7-6 field record. Yes, DeBoer is still in his first year, but an uninspiring record, failure to reach a 12-team playoff field, And a loss to Auburn? The honeymoon is long over and a trial separation is already being considered.

At both Alabama and Auburn, winning the Iron Bowl is both necessary and sufficient for a head coach to succeed. Statues of you are erected at national championships, but wins in the Iron Bowl make everyday life much easier. Beat those bluebloods or the cow college on the other side of the state and all is right with the world again. Lose, and it’s a long 364 days…with no guarantee you’ll see the next one.