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Paul Finebaum calls Bruce Pearl admitting to using nepotism to get son Steven Pearl Auburn job 'pretty embarrassing'

Grant Grubbs Profile Pictureby: Grant Grubbs03/06/26grant_grubbs_

In September, Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl stunned college basketball fans when he announced he was retiring. Pearl’s announcement was only 42 days before Auburn’s season-opener. With so little time to search for a new coach, Auburn hired Bruce’s son, Steven Pearl, who’d been an assistant at Auburn since 2017.

Steven Pearl has no coaching experience outside of Auburn. The school signed the younger Pearl to a five-year contract. In a recent conversation with Dan Dakich, Bruce Pearl admitted that nepotism played a role in his son landing the Auburn head coaching job.

With Auburn on the NCAA Tournament bubble, some fans didn’t take kindly to Pearl’s comments. During an appearance on Another Dooley Noted Podcast, ESPN’s Paul Finebaum criticized Bruce Pearl for his comments on nepotism.

“The Auburn thing is pretty embarrassing,” Finebaum said. “Bruce Pearl, who had a show cause for three years after Tennessee, who was banned from the game. It took an act of Congress to get him the Auburn job, his program immediately went under investigation. One of his former coaches ended up going on trial. He lets people think he’s running for Senate, which he wasn’t going to, by the way, and on the day of the first practice, he announces his retirement, and his son gets the job.

“We’ve both seen the movie before. Any father who has a son in coaching, it’s the same thing, except he was able to pull it off because he had capital. Steven Pearl has a couple of big wins under his belt, including one in Florida. But, other than that, he’s been a disaster. He shouldn’t have gotten the job on a full-time basis. He should have been an interim coach for a year, and he wouldn’t have gotten the job for next year.”

Only one year after reaching the Final Four, Auburn is 16-14 and 7-10 in conference play. If the NCAA Tournament began today, the Tigers likely wouldn’t be included. Auburn will need to make some noise to solidify an at-large bid to the Big Dance.

Auburn has especially struggled to secure résumé-boosting wins. The team is 4-11 in Quad 1 games, and only has four Quad 2 victories.

Auburn ended its two-game losing streak in its last outing, picking up a much-needed win over LSU. On Saturday, the Tigers will look to build on their momentum as they square off against Alabama in their regular-season finale at 7:30 p.m. CT. The game will air live on ESPN.