AUBURN, Ala. (EETV)- After a two month search to replace Allen Greene, Auburn has finally hired John Cohen to take over as the athletic director. Cohen served as Mississippi State athletic director for seven years.
After Cohen announced his resignation from Mississippi State this morning, it was apparent that Auburn was ready to pull the trigger and officially offer him the athletic director position.
Cohen is very familiar with the SEC dynamic. In his career, he has spent time as an assistant coach at Florida in 2002-2003 and was the head baseball coach at Kentucky from 2004-2008.
Under Cohen's leadership, Mississippi State won three regular season championships, three SEC tournament championships and a College World Series title. Mississippi State’s football team was ranked four of the seven years he was there.
Cohen has shown smart hiring abilities in his time with the Bulldogs, as he was responsible for the hiring of Mike Leach to coach Mississippi State’s football team, as well as Chris Lemonis, who brought home a College World Series title for the university.
Cohen is expected to sign a 5-year, 1.5 million per year contract to take over the Tigers athletic department. This is a significant raise comparatively to his $1.1 million annual salary at Mississippi State. This deal to get Cohen to the Plains is a significant investment, as former athletic director Greene made $625,000 annually over the course of his five-year deal.
The Cohen hire was announced just hours after news broke that Auburn would be parting ways with Bryan Harsin. Cohen will be immediately tasked with hiring a new football coach to turn around the currently failing program.
