Auburn discussing AD job with Mississippi State’s John Cohen, sources say

Mississippi State athletic director John Cohen is in talks to develop into the following AD at Auburn, sources advised ESPN. A deal has but to be finalized however may occur within the close to future.

Cohen is in his seventh yr because the athletic director at Mississippi State, and his transfer can be a uncommon in-conference change for an athletic director. He would exchange Allen Greene, who negotiated a departure from Auburn in August as his contract was set to run out within the upcoming months.

Auburn’s potential rent of an athletic director from inside the SEC is a definite transfer for a faculty the place athletic leaders have usually competed with board members and boosters for energy. Cohen is a Tuscaloosa native who was Mississippi State’s baseball coach from 2009 to 2016.

Cohen has numerous familiarity with the SEC in his profession, as he frolicked as an assistant coach at Florida (2002-03) and because the head coach at Kentucky (2004-08). He took over at Mississippi State because the athletic director from Scott Stricklin, who left Starkville for Florida in 2016.

Cohen’s first main job can be to deal with the way forward for Bryan Harsin, the embattled Tigers soccer coach who’s broadly anticipated to be fired this yr. Harsin’s job was put in flux in February amid a college inquiry that adopted an exodus of gamers and assistant coaches.

That episode epitomized the instability that may happen at Auburn, because the inquiry doubled as a vote of no-confidence in Harsin and this system’s recruiting has toiled since. Auburn has additionally struggled on the sphere, as Harsin has an general dropping report in his two seasons, getting into Saturday’s recreation in opposition to Arkansas with a 9/11 report.