It's been a tough week to be an Auburn fan. While still reeling from the football team's frustrating loss to Oklahoma, the news broke that legendary coach Bruce Pearl would be stepping down and retiring.
Pearl addressed the Auburn Family in a 14-minute-long video, and for most people, the highlight of the video was Pearl's statement that he would not be running for Senate and would instead remain on the Plains as Auburn University's senator. Athletic director John Cohen noted that Pearl would remain employed by the university as a "special assistant to the athletic director."
With Steven Pearl taking the reins as the new head coach and BP sticking around in Auburn, how involved will he be with the team moving forward? In his introductory press conference, Steven Pearl explained how he plans to approach things with his father.
“I’m not asking him to come to practice every day," Pearl said. "I’m not going to watch film with him every day. There needs to be some separation there. I’m going to ask him to come to practice every once in a while just to bring some additional love and energy into the building. Or if we lose a tough game and our guys need a little pick-me-up, I’d be crazy not to call him and ask him to come and talk to the guys.
"When some interesting scenarios pop up throughout the year that I just haven’t experienced yet, sure, I’m going to reach out to him and ask for his support and his advice because I think he can help. And I think I would be, like I said, I’d be a fool not to."
The reason for this approach, Pearl went on to say, is that his father needs the chance to truly enjoy his retirement after a long career.
"Part of it, too, is he needs to enjoy retirement," Pearl said. "He needs to enjoy spending time with his family. He needs to enjoy the things he hasn’t been able to do for close to the last 50 years. But when the time’s necessary, I'll reach out to him when I need to.”