Report: Auburn finalizing five-year deal with new athletic director John Cohen

Changes are officially back on the horizon for Auburn, as the Tigers are finalizing a five-year deal with John Cohen to leave his post at Mississippi State and takeover as the school’s athletic director.

After some back and forth of whether Cohen would take his talents to Auburn, Pete Thamel of ESPN confirmed the suspicions on Monday afternoon.

“Sources: Auburn is finalizing a deal today to make Mississippi State’s John Cohen the next athletic director,” tweeted Thamel. “The final details are being worked out on a five-year contract and an announcement is expected later today.”

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Additionally, Ross Dellenger of Sports Illustrated also revealed that Cohen has already informed the Bulldogs of his departure, and could be named the Tigers’ athletic director as soon as Monday.

“John Cohen has informed Mississippi State officials of his resignation from the school, sources tell @SInow,” tweeted Dellenger. “The expectations is he will be named the Auburn AD as soon as today in a deal that was being finalized over the weekend.”

Cohen, who graduated from Mississippi State and played baseball there from 1987-90, has served as the Bulldogs’ athletic director since 2016 after he coached the baseball team from 2009-16. At Auburn, he will reunite with baseball coach Butch Thompson, who served as his pitching coach in Starkville from 2009-15.

Thompson and Cohen led the Bulldogs baseball team to four straight NCAA Tournament appearances from 2011-14. They also won the SEC Tournament in 2012 and made it to the College World Series in Omaha in 2013. 

During his time as athletic director in Starkville, Cohen hired Mike Leach to lead the Bulldogs’ football program. He will likely have to make another big coaching call once he takes over at Auburn.

The biggest question at Auburn this year is the future of head football coach Bryan Harsin. His future has been up in the air throughout this season, and the feeling is his seat got hotter once Greene left. The Tigers dropped to 3-5 this season after Saturday’s loss against Arkansas on The Plains.

The last 18 months have been tumultuous for Harsin and the football program. In February, the university launched an inquiry into the program and Auburn Live’s Justin Hokanson reported Harsin’s future was “in question” after just one season. But the university opted to keep Harsin in place following the investigation.

Recently, multiple Auburn players announced their intentions to enter the transfer portal. Three players — A.D. Diamond, Tar’Varish Dawson and Landen King — all announced they plan to enter the portal when the window opens in December.

On3’s Chandler Vessels and Nick Schultz contributed to this report.