Iron sharpens iron: Who needs a win more this week, Kalen DeBoer or Hugh Freeze?

Argue with a wall, the Iron Bowl is the best rivalry in college football. You can throw away your game that is steeped in pageantry and tradition. What I love the most about the Iron Bowl is people living amongst each other in one state absolutely hating each other 24/7/365. This game just means more, dammit. It is why some of the wackiest imaginable happens whenever Alabama takes on rival Auburn.

While this year's rendition of the Iron Bowl is not as packaged as well as it is most years, there is still so much at stake for the Crimson Tide and the Tigers. For Alabama, they need to win to have any outside shot at making the College Football Playoff with a 9-3. For Auburn, they need to beat their arch rival to achieve bowl eligibility at 6-6. I would not want to be the team who loses this rivalry game.

The other interesting wrinkle in this year's Iron Bowl is we have two relatively new head coaches at their respective institutions going at it. This is Kalen DeBoer's first year in Tuscaloosa after leaving Washington after a national championship game run the season prior. This is year two for Hugh Freeze at Auburn after having had great success coaching at Liberty after his Ole Miss scandal.

Simply put, what head coach needs a win more in the Iron Bowl: DeBoer or Freeze? It is not that easy...

Who needs a win in the Iron Bowl more: Kalen DeBoer or Hugh Freeze?

As strange as it sounds, the most obvious answer actually has to be DeBoer. See, Alabama was deemed as a playoff contender throughout all of his first year on the job in Tuscaloosa. DeBoer led Washington to a Pac-12 title and a national championship game appearance in last year's playoff. He may be replacing the legendary Nick Saban on the sidelines, but DeBoer has won everywhere before.

As for Freeze, a win in the Iron Bowl would be both unexpected, yet highly rewarding. It would essentially take him off the hot seat entering year three down on The Plains. Achieving bowl eligibility is really about one thing and one thing only: Bowl game practices, meaning more opportunities for the players and coaches on the staff to get better as a team. You cannot ever put a price on that...

While a win over Auburn does not guarantee that Alabama will be in the 12-team playoff field, it would match the mark I thought they would achieve at the start of the year. I had Alabama in the playoff hunt until the very end. I felt that major coaching attrition would result in a transitional year of sorts for the Crimson Tide. It seems like a brutal SEC gauntlet was a bit too much for DeBoer to handle this soon.

I would say for the most part that if Alabama finished the regular season at 8-4, 4-4 in SEC play and riding a two-game losing streak with losses to Oklahoma and Auburn to help them miraculously achieve bowl eligibility would be a cause for huge concern next year. Alabama was a chaotic mess before Saban arrived. The Crimson Tide faithful might want to run poor DeBoer out of town already.

The Paul Finebaum Show will be completely unhinged on Monday after an Alabama Iron Bowl defeat.