Alabama won the 2024 Iron Bowl on Saturday, beating Auburn 28-14 at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa behind Jalen Milroe’s three rushing touchdowns.
In honor of the Crimson Tide’s fifth straight win in the series, here are 5 Iron Bowl streaks that are now (or still) active after Saturday:
1. Alabama now has its longest Iron Bowl winning streak since Bryant era
The Crimson Tide has won five consecutive Iron Bowls, tied for the third-longest streak in the history of the rivalry. It’s Alabama’s longest Iron Bowl winning streak since Paul “Bear” Bryant’s teams beat Auburn nine consecutive years from 1973-81. Second on that list is Auburn’s 6-game winning streak under Tommy Tuberville from 2002-07. The current Alabama streak is tied with Alabama’s five straight wins under Bryant from 1964-68 and Auburn’s five in a row under Ralph “Shug” Jordan from 1954-58.
2. Auburn has 4th straight losing season for first time since pre-Jordan era
Saturday’s loss ended Auburn’s season at 5-7, the Tigers’ fourth consecutive losing record. Auburn went 6-7 (losing bowl games) in both 2021 and 2023 and 5-7 in 2022. The Tigers last had this many straight losing seasons when they had five in a row from 1946-50. Jordan was hired the next year, and coached Auburn to a 5-5 record his first year. Perhaps not coincidentally, Auburn has had a losing record every year since firing Gus Malzahn at the end of the 2020 season. Malzahn had his detractors, but it’s worth noting he never had a losing record in eight years at Auburn.
3. Kalen DeBoer, Hugh Freeze now part of small Iron Bowl coaching clubs
DeBoer became the sixth coach to win his Iron Bowl debut, and the fourth to do so at Alabama. Other coaches to win in their first Iron Bowl were Alabama’s Dennis Franchione (2001), Gene Stallings (1990) and Harold “Red” Drew (1948) and Auburn’s Malzahn (2013) and Terry Bowden (1993). Drew’s first Iron Bowl came in his second year at Alabama, as the two teams didn’t play from 1908-47. On the flip side, Freeze is the first Auburn coach to lose his first two Iron Bowls since Doug Barfield in 1976-77. Every Auburn coach since who had coached in at least two Iron Bowls — Malzahn, Gene Chizik, Tuberville, Bowden and Pat Dye — had won either the first or the second. On a positive note, Jordan lost his first three Iron Bowls (1951-53), then won five straight.
4. Malachi Moore, other 2020 Alabama holdovers go 5-0 vs. Auburn
Moore will leave Alabama with wins in five straight Iron Bowls, something that generally wasn’t possible before the COVID pandemic gave college football players an extra year of eligibility. Other players from that 2020 Crimson Tide recruiting class who are still on the roster are defensive linemen Tim Smith (who, like Moore, played in all five Iron Bowls) and Jah-Marien Latham and linebacker Quandarrius Robinson, though Robinson suffered a season-ending arm injury in the LSU game on Nov. 9. A handful of Auburn players were part of five straight losses to Alabama (though none played in all five games). That list includes offensive linemen Jeremiah Wright and Tate Johnson, tight end Brandon Frazier and defensive lineman Zykevious Walker.
5. Alabama finally has a winning record over Auburn in Tuscaloosa
It took more than 100 years, but Alabama is over the .500 mark against Auburn in games played in Tuscaloosa. The Crimson Tide is now 8-7 vs. the Tigers in its home city, including two games that took place in 1895 and 1901. The modern-day Iron Bowl returned to Tuscaloosa in 2000, but Alabama lost its first four games vs. Auburn at Bryant-Denny Stadium. The Crimson Tide has won eight of its last nine Iron Bowls in Tuscaloosa, with the lone exception being the 2010 game in which the Tigers rallied from 24 points down to win 28-27 as part of their BCS national championship run. Saban went 7-1 in the Iron Bowl in Tuscaloosa, with DeBoer joining him as the only Alabama coaches to record a win over Auburn at Bryant-Denny (or any other facility in T-town).
