TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — This is the type of “rat poison” Nick Saban warns his players about. Still, a few Alabama players will have the opportunity to pull off a rare Iron Bowl feat this weekend.
Alabama has dominated its rivalry against Auburn in recent years, wining 11 of the last 15 meetings between the two schools. However, the Crimson Tide’s longest winning streak over the Tigers is three games during that span. In fact, you have to go back to 1981 to find the last Alabama senior class to pull off a four-game sweep over the Tigers. That came during a nine-game Iron Bowl winning streak for the Crimson Tide, the longest streak in the rivalry’s history.
Three Alabama senior classes have come close since then, but securing that fourth win has been elusive.
The Tide’s nine-game Iron Bowl winning streak was snuffed out in 1982 when Auburn running back Bo Jackson leaped into the end zone on fourth-and-1 to lead the Tigers to a 23-22 win inside Birmingham’s Legion Field. Alabama won three straight games in the rivalry from 1990-92 but couldn’t pull off an upset in 1993 when it’s No. 11 ranked team suffered a 22-14 defeat to the No. 6 ranked Tigers at Auburn. Before this year, the latest opportunity for a senior sweep came in 2017 when then-No. 6 Auburn upset top-ranked Alabama 26-14 inside Jordan-Hare Stadium.
Now, Alabama’s senior class finds itself in a position to pull off the feat as the Crimson Tide rides into the Plains with another three-game winning streak over the Tigers. So what would a chance at Iron Bowl perfection mean for the Tide?
“It would definitely be big just to go 4-0 against them,” said senior defensive back Malachi Moore, a Trussville, Alabama native. “It’s something that we take pride in here just because we never want to lose a game first of all, but second of all it’s a rivalry and we’re just going to go out there and compete and do our best to have fun out there.”
Moore is expected to leave for the NFL next year, so a win would allow him to obtain the rare four-game perfection against Auburn. Redshirt years and extra COVID eligibility might cause other fourth-year Alabama players to wait another year if they want to accomplish the perfect slate.
However, this year’s Iron Bowl is going to be a big one regardless.
No. 8 Alabama (10-1, 7-0 in the SEC) needs to keep on winning in order to keep its hopes of reaching the College Football Playoff alive. Meanwhile, Auburn (6-5, 3-4) is looking to move on from an embarrassing loss to New Mexico State last week and would like nothing more than to spoil the Tide’s season in Hugh Freeze’s first year as head coach.
“It’d be a big deal,” said Roydell Williams, a senior running back from Hueytown, Alabama. "In the meeting room, the month of November is pretty big. We got a lot of challenges in the month of November, and we have one more game left... and we have to go out and dominate and continue that streak.”
Alabama is currently listed as a 14.5-point favorite over Auburn, according to Caesars Sportsbook. Saturday’s game will kick off at 2:30 p.m. CT and will be televised on CBS.
