On Monday, September 22, 2025, a video surfaced of Bruce Pearl announcing that he was stepping down from his head coach position for Auburn Tiger’s basketball team, reports ESPN. According to KOB4, Pearl started coaching at Auburn in 2014, where he has compiled a record of 232 wins and 125 losses, which have been officially recognized by Auburn, making him the winningest college coach in Auburn Tigers’ basketball history. ESPN reported that in his 11 seasons as head coach of the Tigers, Pearl led them to six March Madness appearances, two final four appearances, three SEC titles, with three SEC championships.
“I need to focus now on being a great husband, being a great father, being the best grandfather I possibly can be,” said Pearl in the 14-minute-long video posted on Auburn Tiger Athletics social media accounts.
Pearl’s family includes a wife, four children, and grandchildren, who also play a big role in his life. The life of a college head coach is very time-consuming; balancing a job with practice, games, recruiting, traveling, weekend work, and even dealing with issues involving staff and players on the team, which can get stressful. It is hard to make much time for other important aspects of life such as family.
ESPN reported that in the video, Pearl said he felt like he could no longer give his all to the basketball program and could not be the same head coach he was before. Knowing how much effort and time are put into being a college coach, giving it all is a lot of work for a person. He is 65 years old and when you get older it’s harder to give 100% to tasks, let alone one of the hardest jobs and most time consuming jobs in the world.
According to USRCBB, Pearl started his head coaching career in 2014. In the year before he joined the team, they had a record of 14-16 under coach Tony Barbee. According to USRCBB, Pearl led Auburn to a standout season where they had a record of 30-10 in only five seasons. The Tigers won the SEC tournament and entered the NCAA tournament (March Madness) as a fifth seed, where they made it all the way to the final four before losing in the semi-finals to the Virginia Cavaliers (#1 seed) 63 to 62. In the preseason poll, the team was ranked eleventh overall, and finished the season as the fourteenth best team in the nation.
In the 2024-25 season, the Tigers produced a record of 32-6 and made it all the way to the Final Four. USRCBB reported that this strong season has created high expectations for next season. Offensively, the team had a phenomenal season with their 83 points per game, which was ranked thirteenth out of all NCAA teams. Tahaad Pettiford is a sophomore on the Auburn Tigers basketball team who is expected to lead their offense. ESPN reports that Pettiford averaged 11.6 points per game, 3 assists, along with a field goal percentage of 42.1%, but they also lost Johni Broome, who contributed 18.6 points per game and 2.9 assists. According to ESPN reports that, the team might regress defensively a little bit because they lost two key players in Johni Broome, who accounted for an average of 10.8 rebounds per game as well as 2.1 blocks per game, which led the team. Overall, the team is expected to remain a top 25 team in the league and will compete for a national championship in the upcoming 2025-26 season. Although Pearl never won a championship, he will be remembered as a legend in the Auburn community as a program builder who shaped Auburn basketball from a consistently underperforming team into a consistent championship contender.
