Steven Pearl repeats a word after Tennessee’s win over Auburn that will have Vol fans chuckling and grinning

The former Vols and current Auburn head coach got real about how the game played out.

Craig Smith — College Football & NFL Trending News Writer
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The Tennessee Vols continued their recent winning ways, defeating the Auburn Tigers 77-69 on Saturday night in Knoxville.

Tennessee was without center Felix Okpara, who missed the game with a calf injury. As such, the Vols needed a lot more in the frontcourt out of J.P. Estrella, Jaylen Carey, and DeWayne Brown II. And it’s safe to say they got it. The Vols controlled the paint and the glass (46-30 rebounding edge) and were clearly the more physical team of the two.

And after the game, Steven Pearl admitted that fact in a frank and ironic fashion that will likely evoke a couple of chuckles from Vol fans.

Steven Pearl repeatedly said after Tennessee’s win that the Vols ‘punked’ Auburn

“Yeah, credit to Tennessee,” Pearl said. “They beat us at our game. They pushed us around. They punked us. Got to the foul line eleven more times than we did. They did a really good job of attacking the paint. They hit four early threes. They didn’t continue to settle for threes like we did. They just continued to attack the rim. They just outphysicaled us and kind of had their way. A lot of things that disrupted us were a credit to them.”

And it wasn’t the only time during his press conference that Pearl uttered the word “punked” about how Tennessee controlled the game physically against his Tigers.

“We got punked in the first fifteen minutes and it wasn’t just our bigs. We do a lot of switching, so it was our guards, too. It was the five guys on the floor in the first fifteen minutes. They got pushed around, and that’s what Tennessee’s really good at. When Brown and Carey and J.P. all play more minutes, those are the four guys that physically can really impose on you. And with Felix (Okpara) not being out there, he’s more of your shot blocker. He’s not going to duck you in as much.

“And when those three guys get to play more minutes, physically, they’re a load, and our guys just got punked tonight.”

It’s not the first time Pearl has mentioned Tennessee and “punked” in the same sentence.

Pearl previously made a quip about Tennessee getting ‘punked’ by Mississippi State in the SEC Tournament in 2024

Pearl, who played for Tennessee from 2007-11, took a dig at his former school after Tennessee got routed by Mississippi State in the 2024 SEC Tournament. He made a quip about the Bulldogs barbecuing and punking Tennessee, a pun on the infamous Bruce Pearl barbecue incident that he was allegedly responding to.

“I was walking to the game today and some Tennessee fans asked me if I was going to a barbecue, trying to throw a little shade,” Pearl said on the Auburn radio network during the tournament. “And that’s what we watched, Mississippi State barbecued Tennessee. A bunch of grown men went out there and just punked Tennessee, and Tennessee’s a hard team to punk.”

Well, it seems as though Pearl can direct the sharp tongue at his own team with credit to Tennessee in the process.

It’s been an up and down season for Pearl and the Tigers in his first year after taking over for his dad, Bruce. At 14-8 and 5-4 in the SEC, they’re likely still on the path to the tournament but certainly with no guarantees at this point, as they were a 7 seed in Joe Lunardi’s bracketology coming into Saturday.

But he’ll get no sympathy from Vol fans. That bridge went up in flames a while back.

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