Kalen DeBoer's first Iron Bowl may also be his most important

Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer will coach in bigger games in his Crimson Tide coaching career, Lord willing. But Saturday night's Iron Bowl is of the utmost importance for DeBoer in his first season in Tuscaloosa.

It has been an up-and-down season for DeBoer in year one at Alabama. The highs have been great - like beating Georgia at the end of September, and then blowing out LSU in Baton Rouge and, for the moment, announcing itself once again as a championship contender.

But the lows have been awful. There was the loss to Vanderbilt for the first time in 40 years. There was losing to Tennessee for just the second time since 2006. Then there was this past weekend, a total failure, top-to-bottom, against a .500 Oklahoma team. After announcing itself as a championship contender two weeks prior in Baton Rouge, Alabama fell flat on its face in Norman.

DeBoer threw away a lot of the good graces he'd earned. It has been a long time since the last time an Alabama team looked that unprepared for a single game.

The loss ended Alabama's hopes of getting to Atlanta for the SEC Championship, and likely ended its hopes of making the College Football Playoff. With everything that was on the line, it's hard to stomach how poorly the Crimson Tide played when it looked like they might be hitting their stride.

As disappointing as being 8-3 is for a team that hasn't lost three regular season games since 2010, DeBoer needs to understand one thing:

There's a big difference between going 9-3 with a win over Auburn in the Iron Bowl than going 8-4 with a loss to Auburn. Unfortunately at Alabama, nobody will be satisfied with a 9-3 record. But an 8-4 regular season, Alabama's worst record since 2007, compounded with a loss to Auburn to finish the season? That's almost unthinkable coming off the greatest run in the history of the sport.

And it's probably enough to place DeBoer squarely on the hot seat heading into 2025, fairly or not. In this era of college football, coaches are given less and less time to find success. At Alabama, that's always been the case. Compound it with this era, and DeBoer will be coaching for his job next season if Alabama loses to Auburn on Saturday.

He might be even with a win. So while DeBoer hopefully will coach in much bigger games in his Alabama coaching career, Saturday afternoon against Auburn might be the most important Iron Bowl he'll ever coach in.

It's unrealistic to expect DeBoer to win every Iron Bowl. But he can't lose the first one, not having already lost three games this season.