When I first saw the title I thought it was a hit job on our coach but once I read the story I realized it was actually something special about him and his history. Its a good read and what they had to say about his AU interview is really interesting. Its amazing just how lucky we are he is here and he is our coach.
He wanted Bruce Pearl.
Pearl was Jacobs’ top candidate when he and colleague David Benedict boarded a private jet to Bristol on March 14, 2014. At around 10 that night, after Pearl had finished a full day of NCAA tournament studio analysis, Jacobs and Benedict interviewed the former coach at a Bristol hotel.
Jacobs expected to get Pearl the salesman, the showman, the extrovert. What he got instead was a man seemingly wracked by indecision and self-doubt. Not once did he pitch himself as the best candidate for Auburn. He explained why he wasn’t sure he’d ever coach again so often that it was almost like he was bracing himself for that possibility.
“Generally when you interview coaches, it’s 100 percent them trying to sell themselves to you,” Jacobs told Yahoo Sports. “That was not the case with Bruce. He was carrying a lot of remorse and guilt for his family, for his staff, for his former players, for the University of Tennessee. He couldn’t let it go.
“It was really a little concerning. I had taken myself to the place that this was the guy Auburn needs right now, yet when I left that interview I was no longer convinced of that because of his own personal battles.”
In the wee hours of the morning, Pearl called his wife, admitted the interview didn’t go well and reiterated that he wasn’t sure if coaching was for him anymore. She told him that when he woke up in the morning, he should put on two jackets. In one, he’d be the vice president of marketing at H.T. Hackney and an analyst at ESPN. In the other, he should visualize himself as Auburn’s new basketball coach.
“The next morning,” Pearl said, “the Auburn jacket felt good.”
When Pearl showed up for a second interview that Saturday morning, Jacobs said it was as if he was a completely different person. He spoke excitedly about the potential of the Auburn job, about having the chance to make a difference in young people’s lives again, about how Jacobs wouldn’t regret it if he took a chance on Pearl.
Jacobs was ready to slap an orange and blue striped tie on him and hire him on the spot. Pearl told him he wanted to accept but wouldn’t until he flew home the following Monday, spoke to his wife and kids in person and made sure they were comfortable with the move.
“If she’s OK and my kids are OK, we’re all in,” Pearl said.
Three days is an eternity in the middle of a coaching search, but Jacobs agreed to wait. Pearl rewarded him not only by accepting the job but by jumping into a mosh pit of 100-plus fans who greeted him when his flight landed at the airport in Auburn.
In Pearl’s first year on the Plains, he sold Auburn basketball as well as he ever did any goods in three years at H.T. Hackney. He crashed an Auburn marketing class to promote the school’s version of Midnight Madness. He dressed up as then-Auburn football coach Gus Malzahn. He even donned a blonde wig and unleashed his best version of Taylor Swift’s “We’re Never Getting Back Together” during a lip sync battle with Auburn’s women’s soccer coach.
Eventually, Pearl rebuilt Auburn to the point that the basketball program sold itself. The Tigers won a share of the SEC title in 2018, advanced to the school’s first Final Four in 2019 and this year secured an outright league title and a No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament.
A few weeks ago, when Auburn visited Thompson-Boling Arena for a key late-season SEC clash against Tennessee, Sansom attended the game to watch his former vice president of marketing. Though Sansom is happy to see Pearl back on the sideline where he belongs, the H.T. Hackney CEO has fond memories of Pearl’s three years in the private sector.
“A lot of people thought, ‘What are you hiring him for? What can he do?’” Sansom recalled. “Well they would be surprised what he can do. He was a great asset for us.”
sports.yahoo.com
Pearl's first interview at Auburn was a near disaster
As he prepared to hunt for the next coach of Auburn’s long-irrelevant men’s basketball program in March 2014, former athletic director Jay Jacobs made a check list of the qualities he valued most. He wanted someone who had achieved sustained success in a power conference, someone who was unfazed by a rebuilding project, someone who could energize an apathetic fan base and have a presence in the community.He wanted Bruce Pearl.
Pearl was Jacobs’ top candidate when he and colleague David Benedict boarded a private jet to Bristol on March 14, 2014. At around 10 that night, after Pearl had finished a full day of NCAA tournament studio analysis, Jacobs and Benedict interviewed the former coach at a Bristol hotel.
Jacobs expected to get Pearl the salesman, the showman, the extrovert. What he got instead was a man seemingly wracked by indecision and self-doubt. Not once did he pitch himself as the best candidate for Auburn. He explained why he wasn’t sure he’d ever coach again so often that it was almost like he was bracing himself for that possibility.
“Generally when you interview coaches, it’s 100 percent them trying to sell themselves to you,” Jacobs told Yahoo Sports. “That was not the case with Bruce. He was carrying a lot of remorse and guilt for his family, for his staff, for his former players, for the University of Tennessee. He couldn’t let it go.
“It was really a little concerning. I had taken myself to the place that this was the guy Auburn needs right now, yet when I left that interview I was no longer convinced of that because of his own personal battles.”
In the wee hours of the morning, Pearl called his wife, admitted the interview didn’t go well and reiterated that he wasn’t sure if coaching was for him anymore. She told him that when he woke up in the morning, he should put on two jackets. In one, he’d be the vice president of marketing at H.T. Hackney and an analyst at ESPN. In the other, he should visualize himself as Auburn’s new basketball coach.
“The next morning,” Pearl said, “the Auburn jacket felt good.”
When Pearl showed up for a second interview that Saturday morning, Jacobs said it was as if he was a completely different person. He spoke excitedly about the potential of the Auburn job, about having the chance to make a difference in young people’s lives again, about how Jacobs wouldn’t regret it if he took a chance on Pearl.
Jacobs was ready to slap an orange and blue striped tie on him and hire him on the spot. Pearl told him he wanted to accept but wouldn’t until he flew home the following Monday, spoke to his wife and kids in person and made sure they were comfortable with the move.
“If she’s OK and my kids are OK, we’re all in,” Pearl said.
Three days is an eternity in the middle of a coaching search, but Jacobs agreed to wait. Pearl rewarded him not only by accepting the job but by jumping into a mosh pit of 100-plus fans who greeted him when his flight landed at the airport in Auburn.
In Pearl’s first year on the Plains, he sold Auburn basketball as well as he ever did any goods in three years at H.T. Hackney. He crashed an Auburn marketing class to promote the school’s version of Midnight Madness. He dressed up as then-Auburn football coach Gus Malzahn. He even donned a blonde wig and unleashed his best version of Taylor Swift’s “We’re Never Getting Back Together” during a lip sync battle with Auburn’s women’s soccer coach.
Eventually, Pearl rebuilt Auburn to the point that the basketball program sold itself. The Tigers won a share of the SEC title in 2018, advanced to the school’s first Final Four in 2019 and this year secured an outright league title and a No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament.
A few weeks ago, when Auburn visited Thompson-Boling Arena for a key late-season SEC clash against Tennessee, Sansom attended the game to watch his former vice president of marketing. Though Sansom is happy to see Pearl back on the sideline where he belongs, the H.T. Hackney CEO has fond memories of Pearl’s three years in the private sector.
“A lot of people thought, ‘What are you hiring him for? What can he do?’” Sansom recalled. “Well they would be surprised what he can do. He was a great asset for us.”
Auburn's Bruce Pearl spent 3-year exile from college hoops working at a grocery distributor – 'I wasn’t sure I’d ever coach again'
He treated the job as if it could be his last one. There was a time not that long ago when Pearl assumed he’d still be there, not leading a 27-win Tigers team back to the Big Dance.
