Auburn University Athletics

John Cohen, who has more than two decades of experience as a coach and administrator in the Southeastern Conference, was named the 16th Director of Athletics at Auburn University on Oct. 31, 2022. Cohen spent the previous 14 years at Mississippi State in various capacities, most recently as the athletic director from 2016-22. 
 
Cohen hit the ground running in his role as Auburn’s athletic director as he immediately conducted an extensive search for a new head football coach and ultimately named Hugh Freeze to the role on Nov. 28, 2022, less than a month after Cohen arrived on the Plains.
 
Throughout Cohen’s first eight months at Auburn, 18 of 21 programs advanced to their respective national tournaments, highlighted by equestrian’s national runner-up finish, women’s tennis’ second straight super regional appearance and volleyball’s first NCAA Tournament win since 2010. Men’s basketball advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the third time in the last four postseasons, and baseball hosted back-to-back regionals for the first time in program history.
 
Also notably, Cohen played a major role in determining the final details of Plainsman Park’s $30 million expansion and renovation project, which began in July 2023.
 
A nationally respected leader within intercollegiate athletics, Cohen served as chair of the prestigious 10-member NCAA Division I Baseball Committee in 2023, completing a four-year term as a committee member.

Cohen’s career in college athletics began as a baseball player at Mississippi State before entering the coaching ranks for 25 years. A two-time SEC Coach of the Year, he was named MSU’s director of athletics on November 4, 2016, and led the Bulldog program to record-breaking success athletically and academically. Cohen also successfully completed many capital project campaigns during his tenure, including a nearly $70 million renovation of historic Dudy Noble Field.

Athletically, Cohen oversaw arguably the greatest era in Bulldog history, highlighted by a 2021 College World Series Championship – the school's first team national title in any sport. A total of five Bulldog programs turned in a program-best season with Cohen at the helm of the department, including softball (2022), baseball (2021), volleyball (2021), soccer (2018) and women's basketball (2017, 2018). 

Cohen, who spent 25 years coaching college baseball, was named MSU’s head baseball coach in July 2008. Due to his leadership in the department and respect amongst his peers, Cohen’s official role in administration began eight years later when he assumed the role of associate athletic director in addition to head baseball coach. 

As the head coach at MSU, he led the Bulldogs to the 2013 College World Series finals for the first time in MSU history, a SEC regular season championship and a SEC Tournament title. In the classroom, 133 of his players were named to the SEC Academic Honor Roll, including three straight SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year winners from 2013-15.

As a baseball player for the Bulldogs, Cohen was a key member of the 1989 SEC Champion and 1990 College World Series teams. He graduated from MSU with a degree in English and earned a master's degree in sports management from Missouri.

Following a six-year stint at Missouri as a graduate assistant and assistant coach from 1992-97, Cohen was the head coach at Northwestern State from 1998-2001. He spent two seasons as an assistant coach at Florida before becoming the head coach at Kentucky in 2004, a position he held for five seasons before returning to his alma mater. Cohen guided the Wildcats to the program’s first SEC championship in 2006 with a remarkable worst-to-first finish in his third season.

While winning 284 games as a head coach at MSU, Cohen demonstrated a keen ability to develop players and coaches. During his tenure, 138 of his players were selected in the Major League Baseball Draft, and numerous assistants, including Auburn’s Butch Thompson, are now or have been SEC head coaches.

Cohen is one of 16 individuals who have played and coached in the College World Series and one of just two among that elite group who have played, coached and later served as director of athletics for a participating school, which he has done three times in 2018, 2019 and 2021. He is one of three active SEC athletics directors to hire an eventual national championship winning head coach in any sport within the conference.
 
Cohen is the only coach in SEC history to win a SEC championship, SEC Tournament title, and advance to the College World Series both as a player and head coach. He and Ron Polk are the only baseball coaches in SEC history to lead multiple schools to SEC titles.