Auburn Tigers coach Bruce Pearl hinted at a potential exit for him from his current role in the foreseeable future. On Thursday, Sept. 4, Auburn-based reporter Peter Rauterkaus posted a quote on X/Twitter from a recent interview that Pearl did on “The Paul Finebaum Show” on the same day on YouTube that invokes this possibility.
This is because host Paul Finebaum asked Pearl about an interview he did earlier this year, right after the recently concluded 2024-25 campaign. Finebaum then detailed how in that interview, Pearl admitted that he is starting to think of what his life could be like past coaching Auburn. Pearl then guaranteed that this is indeed a possibility in the next five years.
“I did that interview like about a month ago and a half ago, and like any kind of 45-minute interview, it was one of a lot of questions and he asked me, ‘How much longer do you think you’re going to coach?,’ And I probably said, you know, not that much longer. And, there’s still some truth to that…I’ve got five years left on my contract, and I would be surprised if I were to last five years, let’s just put it that way,” he explained. (5:28)
Bruce Pearl on @finebaum when asked about his future:
“I’ve got five years left on my contract and I would be surprised if I were to last five years”
— Peter Rauterkus (@peter_rauterkus) September 4, 2025
Pearl is set to enter his 11th year at the helm of the Tigers‘ coaching staff in the upcoming 2025-26 season. His most successful run with the program came in the 2018-19 season, as well as in the last campaign, since he went all the way to the NCAA Final Four of that year’s national tournament.
Bruce Pearl Went Into Retrospect With The Auburn Tigers’ 2024-25 Campaign
Also, during his guest interview on The Paul Finebaum Show, Bruce Pearl talked about the 2024-25 season for his Auburn Tigers. Last season, Auburn was one of the highly-touted programs in collegiate basketball to make it all the way to the NCAA championship game. Unfortunately, however, they were bounced out of this year’s national tournament in the Final Four.
“That team was good from start to finish. We got on Houston from the opening tip, had a great contest with them and then just played such a tough non-conference schedule, the toughest non-conference schedule in, maybe, the history of college basketball, and then stayed on top. Then, somehow managed to keep it together at the end of the year, and made a run to the Final Four,” Pearl said. (2:35)
The 2024-25 Tigers finished with an overall record of 32-6 (15-3 SEC), and were eliminated by coach Todd Golden’s Florida Gators, who ended up winning this year’s national title, through a 79-73 loss.
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