If you believe message boards and other shadowy areas of the internet that Mufasa warned us about, one could be led to believe that Florida Gators coach Todd Golden was going to be the successor to Bruce Pearl at Auburn. Golden got his big break in college basketball as an assistant coach at Auburn under Pearl, so it's plausible why one would float the idea.
But now that Pearl has stepped away from the game, Golden is perfectly content staying in Gainesville, forcing Auburn to anoint Steven Pearl as its head coach moving forward.
So not only did Auburn not get Golden, but they are left with a coach who has never been a head coach before.
Steven Pearl isn't Todd Golden
So let's just get the obvious out of the way:
Steven Pearl is going to get to take the reins of a Final Four school and get a five-year contract to do it, despite the fact that he has never been a head coach at any level in his life.
If he were Steven Johnson or Steven Henderson, he would still probably be in sales as a career.
Despite the fact that Walter Clayton Jr. had more points in the 2025 NCAA Tournament than Steven Pearl had during his entire career playing at Tennessee while his dad was the coach there, Pearl has been able to ride the wave of what his father built since 2014.
Pearl might wind up being a perfectly fine coach, and Golden had some nice words for him upon the announcement of him taking over at Auburn, but if you are an Auburn fan, who would you rather have:
- Guy who won a national title
- Guy who is a nepotism hire because the previous guy waited until 41 days before the season started to announce he was leaving, meaning Auburn couldn't conduct a full coaching search
In general, the history of the son living up to the shadow that their father left behind is usually low.
May the odds forever be in your favor, Auburn.