Bruce Pearl running for political office like Tommy Tuberville pondered on by reporter

AL.com's Joseph Goodman openly pondered about the idea of Bruce Pearl parlaying a coaching career at Auburn into a political career like former Tigers football coach and current Alabama congressional senator Tommy Tuberville.

Goodman believes Pearl's loud-and-proud social media attacks on national figures in the democratic party could be the seeds that could eventually be watered into being elected to public office.

"Pearl uses his celebrity as a high-profile employee of a public university to espouse political ideology. I think we can all agree that Auburn University doesn’t exist to amplify the politics of its employees," Goodman prefaced before saying, "It’s problematic, but we’ve seen it before.

"When Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) was a coach, he used that platform to insert himself into the political discourse of the day. What happened next? After Tubs retired, he used his celebrity to get elected. Considering the trend of former Auburn coaches and politics, it’s fair to question Pearl’s motives."

This was said in an opinion column, but Goodman is in the industry. Perhaps he's hearing things that aren't quite substantiated but could reflect the thinking of people close to Pearl. A head coach of his caliber does have many underlings, after all.

This isn't something Tiger fans should be expecting anytime soon, though.

Bruce Pearl has unfinished business at Auburn and potentially at Indiana

Pearl's Tigers haven't been able to escape the first weekend of March Madness since the 2019 Final Four run. They probably would've in 2020, but the NCAA's initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic took that chance away.

There's unfinished business on the Plains.

If the Tigers continue to fall short of the Final Four and Pearl feels he's done all he could at AU in a few years, handing the program over to his son Steven and taking the Indiana job, should it become available, is seemingly within the realm of possibility. Bruce said IU was his dream job, after all.

A political career would come after that. If it ever did come at all.