Iron Bowl coaching iterations: Kalen DeBoer, DJ Durkin add to history
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The Iron Bowl between Alabama and Auburn has been going on since the 1893 college football season, and is one of the all-time rivalry matchups in college football.
However, the 90th edition of the Iron Bowl, set for 6:30 p.m. CT kickoff on Saturday, Nov. 29 from Jordan-Hare Stadium, will unlock a unique piece of history for both teams. With Hugh Freeze’s firing at Auburn at the start of the month, it will mark the seventh consecutive year that a different pair of coaches on the Crimson Tide and Tigers’ sidelines, respectively.
Interim coach DJ Durkin, the Tigers’ defensive coordinator under Freeze, will look to lead the Tigers to bowl eligibility against Kalen DeBoer and the Crimson Tide, who are fighting to keep their College Football Playoff hopes alive.
Here’s what to know:
Iron Bowl coaching iterations
Saturday’s meeting between Alabama and Auburn will mark the seventh different head coaching matchup in the last seven years.
The stretch began in 2019, when former Alabama and Auburn coaches Nick Saban and Gus Malzahn went head-to-head in a 48-45 Tigers win.
In 2020, Steve Sarkisian opposed Malzahn on the sidelines, as the now-Texas Longhorns head coach served as Alabama’s active head coach due to Nick Saban testing positive for COVID-19. Saban returned to the sidelines in 2021 for the Iron Bowl, but it wasn’t against Malzahn. Instead, it was Bryan Harsin.
The Saban-Harsin matchup was short-lived, as Auburn fired Harsin following a 3-5 start to the 2022 season. Instead, interim coach Cadillac Williams led the Tigers in the Iron Bowl. Like his predecessors, he didn’t find much success against Saban, as Alabama rolled over Auburn 49-27 in 2022.
Saban, of course, won his last Iron Bowl in 2023 against Freeze thanks to Jalen Milroe’s miraculous touchdown pass to Isaiah Bond on fourth-and-31 to give Alabama the 27-24 win.
Kalen DeBoer won his Iron Bowl debut in Tuscaloosa last year behind a hat trick of rushing touchdowns from Milroe. The loss handed Hugh Freeze his second loss against Alabama in the rivalry series, and set him up on the hot seat for the 2025 college football season.
That all sets up the Nov. 29 coaching matchup between DeBoer and Durkin. Here’s a breakdown of the last six coaching matchups in the Iron Bowl:
- 2019: Nick Saban vs. Gus Malzahn
- 2020: Steve Sarkisian * vs. Gus Malzahn
- 2021: Nick Saban vs. Bryan Harsin
- 2022: Nick Saban vs. Cadillac Williams **
- 2023: Nick Saban vs. Hugh Freeze
- 2024: Kalen DeBoer vs. Hugh Freeze
- 2025: Kalen DeBoer vs. DJ Durkin **
* Sarkisian was acting head coach after Saban tested positive for COVID-19
** Interim coach
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Kalen DeBoer vs DJ Durkin is 7th different Iron Bowl coaching matchup
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