Bruce Pearl plans to step down as Auburn’s head basketball coach but will not enter the race for Alabama’s U.S. Senate seat.
In a lengthy video posted by the university on Monday afternoon, Pearl simply said, “it’s time,” and said he had promised himself and Auburn that he would walk away when he felt he could no longer give the job his best effort.
Pearl’s son, Steven, a longtime assistant under Pearl on the Auburn staff, will take over as head coach. The university announced that Steven had agreed to a five-year contract to become the school’s next head coach.
“That time is now,” Bruce Pearl said, through tears.
In the video, Pearl also specifically said he has no plans to run for Senate—long a rumor and a pathway that sources told APR Pearl was still considering as recently as this month—but would instead take on an undetermined role at Auburn. Pearl referred to it as being an “Auburn senator.”
The announcement likely comes as a relief to those in the senate race, particularly frontrunner Steve Marshall, the current Alabama AG, and U.S. Rep. Barry Moore. Pearl’s entrance into the race would have likely caused significant upheaval, as Pearl has a higher name ID and more access to financial support than either of them.
Behind the scenes, sources told APR, Pearl has toyed with the notion of running for Senate since shortly after current Sen. Tommy Tuberville announced his plan to not seek re-election and instead run for governor of Alabama. Pearl was still speaking with potential financial backers as recently as earlier this month.
However, in his video statement, Pearl noted that serving in the Senate would require him to leave Auburn. A new grandfather, he said, that wasn’t an option and instead thanked Auburn for offering him an opportunity to continue serving the university.
Pearl leaves Auburn as the school’s winningest basketball coach, having racked up 246 victories in 11 seasons and guided Auburn to the university’s only two Final Four appearances. But bigger than that, Pearl has transformed the Auburn basketball program into one of the nation’s elite and somehow managed to turn basketball into a hot ticket at a football-crazed university. Auburn basketball games are now routinely sold out—an unheard of occurrence prior to Pearl’s arrival—and secondary market tickets to big games often bring in Taylor Swift-level prices.
That success has afforded Pearl significant leeway at the university, and he has used his substantial platform to delve into an arena that’s typically off limits for college coaches and most public university employees—politics. Even controversial politics.
Pearl, who is Jewish, has not shied away from airing his political beliefs and advocating for perceived pro-Jewish policies and politicians. His views are primarily conservative, although he also drew praise for his actions and comments in the wake of the George Floyd murder, and he has been highly critical of some Democratic lawmakers.
