Steven Pearl has been to Knoxville plenty of times before. He’s sat on both benches - first as a Tennessee walk-on, then as an Auburn assistant.
But Saturday night will be different. This time, he returns to his alma mater as the head coach of the Auburn Tigers.
And while Pearl insists he’s not making it about himself, there’s no denying the emotional weight of the moment.
“I’ve been there before as an assistant, so I don’t think the emotions will be much different,” Pearl said Thursday. “I played five years there and gave all my blood, sweat and tears to that university, and had a lot of great times and won a lot of games.”
Pearl’s connection to Knoxville runs deep. He moved there in high school when his father, Bruce Pearl, took over the Tennessee program. He stayed for nine years - playing four seasons as a walk-on, working in medical sales after graduation, and eventually launching his coaching career under his father at Auburn.
But it’s not just basketball that ties him to Tennessee. It’s life.
“If I didn’t play basketball at Tennessee, I don’t meet my wife, I don’t have my daughter,” Pearl said. “It’s all connected.
From that standpoint, half of my groomsmen I went to Tennessee with. That was the best thing that ever happened to me - being in Knoxville.
“And if they hadn’t fired our asses, we wouldn’t be here.”
That last line says a lot. There’s history - personal and professional - wrapped up in this matchup. And while Steven Pearl isn’t dwelling on it, the rivalry between Auburn and Tennessee has had its share of high-stakes moments over the years, especially during Bruce Pearl’s tenure.
There was the road win that snapped a 10-game losing streak in Knoxville and helped Auburn secure its first regular-season SEC title under Bruce. Then came the 2019 home win that denied Tennessee an outright SEC championship, followed by a dominant win in the SEC Tournament title game a week later.
In 2023, Auburn’s win over the Vols helped punch their NCAA Tournament ticket. A year later, Dalton Knecht dropped 39 points in a statement performance that helped earn him SEC Player of the Year honors.
And last season’s showdown in Neville Arena - the highest-ranked SEC game in Auburn history at the time - came down to a clutch Miles Kelly three-pointer in the final 30 seconds.
Now, Auburn rides into Knoxville on a four-game winning streak, facing a Tennessee team that’s found its rhythm with back-to-back ranked road wins. The stakes are high, as always in the SEC, but for Pearl, there’s also a sense of reflection.
“There’s so many things that happened at Tennessee that have shaped my life to what it is today, so I’m eternally grateful,” he said. “I would like a Letterman’s jacket at some point, because I still haven’t gotten that, but my years there were some of the best of my life personally, because it shaped the man I am today - and a lot of things kind of fell in place for me to be where I’m at, in this chair.”
Saturday night will be about basketball. But for Steven Pearl, it’ll also be about coming full circle - coaching against the school that helped shape his life, on the court and off it.