Current Auburn basketball and former Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl is retiring as the Tigers’ head coach effective immediately, ESPN’s Pete Thamel and Jeff Borzello first reported Monday afternoon. Auburn named his Steven Pearl its new full-time head coach following the announcement. This will also open up a 30-day window for players on the roster to transfer out with no penalty.
Pearl has led Auburn to its greatest run in the program’s history. In 11 seasons as head coach, Pearl led Auburn to a combined four SEC Regular-Season and Tournament Championships with two trips to the Final Four. Ironically, Pearl has made it out of the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament just twice at Auburn. But the Tigers made the Final Four each time.
The 2024-25 season was a banner year for the Tigers, with Auburn winning the SEC Regular-Season Championship before falling to Florida in the National Semifinal.
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This news of his retirement comes less than a month after Pearl admitted he didn’t know how much longer he intended to coach.
“Not that much longer,” Pearl said to Jon Rothstein. “I think it’s kind of a balance of life, of time, of work. I love Auburn. I truly do. Auburn has been unbelievable for us and our family. Part of the thing is, I want to do it (retire) when I’m on the top of my game. Coaches, we want to be on top of our game because we owe that to our players and our fans. As you get a little bit older, you take it one day at a time.”
There has been speculation this summer and early fall that Pearl was considering a run for US Senate in the state of Alabama but there’s been no reports that Pearl’s retirement means that he is running.
Pearl was the head coach at Tennessee for six seasons. In that time, he accumulated a record of 145-61 and 65-31 in SEC play. His 2010 team was the first Vols squad to ever reach the Elite Eight. However, since then, Rick Barnes has led a team to that round in each of the past two seasons.
Pearl was fired at Tennessee after NCAA recruiting violations surfaced and heavy penalties were imposed. Pearl finished his Auburn career with a 9-8 record against Tennessee with the two teams splitting the last eight matchups and both meetings last season.
