REPORT: Auburn is supposedly negotiating the open Athletic Director job with current Mississippi State AD John Cohen

Mississippi State higher-ups would love for Auburn to solve their John Cohen problem

Pete Thamel, senior college football writer for ESPN, dropped a bombshell on twitter during Auburn's matchup against Arkansas: Auburn is apparently "in discussions" with Mississippi State's current athletic director John Cohen for the open athletic director job vacated by Allen Greene earlier this year.  

Sources: Auburn is in discussions with Mississippi State AD John Cohen to become Auburn’s next athletic director.

— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) October 29, 2022

Sports Illustrated's Ross Dellinger was able to independently confirm the report.

Auburn is targeting John Cohen in the search for its next athletic director, sources tell @SInow. Nothing finalized but could be soon.

— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) October 29, 2022

Cohen, 56, has spent the last seven years as the Athletic Director at Mississippi State after one year as Associate AD and, prior to that, a college baseball coaching career that saw him serve as the head coach at Mississippi State from 2009-2016 and Kentucky from 2004-2008 before that.

Despite common perception that Cohen has excelled at Mississippi State, including capturing a national championship in baseball in 2021 under head coach Chris Lemonis, conversations coming out of Starkville paint a different picture. 

According to Justin Hokanson of On3, multiple sources have expressed concern about the longevity of Cohen's tenure in Starkville, with conversations expressing concern that he is on his way out of the Bulldogs top spot. 

The Mississippi Clarion Ledger recently wrote about the "legacy" of Cohen, citing recent regression in all major sports, even baseball, as well as questionable handling of NIL and uncertain hires both within the athletic administration and coaching staffs.

One particular note about the recent slide in on-field performance was rather sobering:

If the coaches fail, it’ll be on Cohen. He extended Leach, who is below .500 in his tenure at State with two Egg Bowl losses. Lemonis followed up baseball’s first national title with a losing season. Women’s basketball fell from a Final Four program to one with four coaches since 2020. Men’s basketball hasn’t been to the NCAA Tournament since 2019 and had an average attendance of only 6,830 last season.

A highly involved source within Mississippi State athletics tells us that this would be an ideal scenario for State, as it solves their problem of how to fire a former coach and "lifer" for inexperience and poor performance.

— Lindsay Crosby, big baseball guy (@CrosbyBaseball) October 29, 2022

Higher-ups at Mississippi State would reportedly be happy with Auburn taking John Cohen, as it's never easy to move on from a former player and "lifer" (similar to Nebraska's experience with Scott Frost). 

The rumored favorite for the Athletic Director position at Auburn, Utah State's John Hartwell, is still considered to be in the running, as well as New Mexico's Eddie Nunez. Both men are considered to be accomplished and experienced athletic directors, with Hartwell having run the Old Miss Athletics Foundation as well as being AD at Troy before his current stint at Utah State while Nunez has 15 years of experience, including 14 at LSU in various capacities within the athletics department. 

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