What Auburn basketball coach Bruce Pearl said about former AD Jay Jacobs retiring
MIRAMAR BEACH, Fla. — Auburn basketball coach Bruce Pearl offered some high praise Wednesday for former AU athletics director Jay Jacobs, who announced his retirement earlier this month through the Associated Press.
Jacobs served as Auburn's AD from 2004-17 and hired Pearl in 2014. The 62-year-old administrator resigned from his position on the Plains in 2017 before he was hired at Florida as an executive associate AD in June 2018. He was also a walk-on football player at Auburn in the 1980s.
"What a career," Pearl said when asked about Jacobs retiring at the SEC spring meetings. "I mean, what a career in the SEC as a player, as a student-athlete, as an administrator. (He) obviously brought me to Auburn. I'm grateful for that. I think he did a great job getting the football program at Florida kind of up and running. I think they're excited about their future. (He's) just an unbelievable man of integrity.
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"I'll tell you what, at some point when they do something honorary for SEC administrators − lifetime achievement − Jay Jacobs will certainly be someone that is on that list."
Jacobs oversaw 10 national championships and 24 conference championships across all sports during his time at Auburn, but he also saw some lows. In the year leading up to his resignation, AU saw controversies surrounding its softball, men's basketball, track and field and football programs.
Jacobs became an administrator at Auburn in 1991 and rose through the ranks, eventually becoming the AD in 2004, replacing David Housel.
Richard Silva is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at rsilva@gannett.com or on Twitter @rich_silva18.
This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: What Auburn basketball's Bruce Pearl said about Jay Jacobs' retirement
