At a remote press conference on Monday, Auburn University head men’s basketball coach Bruce Pearl reacted to the news from the previous day that head football coach Gus Malzahn’s contract was terminated by the university.

Malzahn had led the Tigers football program since 2013, and Pearl joined him on The Plains in 2014.

“Yesterday was a tough day here on campus,” Pearl acknowledged. “Being an old ball coach, you hate to see another old ball coach leave the program.”

He then gave a nod to Malzahn’s wife, Kristi, whose Facebook post on Sunday graciously reacting to the day’s news went viral.

“I have so much respect for Gus and Kristi, that coaching staff and that family,” Pearl said. “I’ve learned so much from them. I’ve absolutely taken their lead.”

“Gus has been the leader of our coaches. People don’t give him near enough credit for how he did lead our coaching staff in so many ways. He is a dear friend. I feel fortunate to be his friend,” the basketball coach continued.

Pearl advised that coach Malzahn “understands the job as well as anybody.”

“Nobody had a higher expectation for Auburn football than Gus Malzahn,” he noted. “Nobody. Even our most passionate fans. Gus expected to win championships, compete for national championships, and he held himself to that standard. … He had an understanding that he would’ve liked to have been able to win a little bit more.”

Pearl stressed some positives of the Malzahn-era, which finished with a 68-35 record over eight seasons.

“I think he’s got an awful lot to be proud of for what they accomplished. I always admired how he always had his locker room. Those kids loved him. They played for him,” Pearl explained. “They always had great coaches, great chemistry and culture.”

“I want to wish him the very, very best,” he added. “One of the greatest things about being here at Auburn is being around the amazing people that I’m around. I get to be around coaches like Butch Thompson, have been around Coach Pat Dye and had a chance to earn his respect, Coach Malzahn – we have the greatest soccer coaches, the greatest baseball coaches, the greatest golf coaches, etc. We’re so fortunate, and I’m so fortunate to be a member of this coaching staff.”

He was then asked about his favorite memory of Malzahn’s overlapping tenure at Auburn.

“The timely text messages,” Pearl responded. “The text messages when only another coach would know when you needed to hear that.”

He also shared, “Gus came in and talked to my team my first year. My first year was like varsity and JV. I’m sending my guys out there and they are just outnumbered. He came into my locker room before we went to the SEC Tournament, and he told our guys how much he enjoyed watching them play and compete knowing they were outnumbered. After that talk, we went to Nashville, and we won three games. I think his talk had a lot to do with it — just to have earned his respect.”

“Now, we had some trash-talking events on the golf course that were a lot of fun. More than anything, just to have earned his respect and become a friend,” Pearl concluded.

Sean Ross is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn