John Cohen, who has more than two decades of experience as a head coach and administrator in the Southeastern Conference, was named the 16th athletics director at Auburn University on Oct. 31, 2022. 

During Cohen’s first three years on the Plains, the Tigers have achieved tremendous success, highlighted by men’s golf winning the 2024 NCAA championship, the 30th national championship in the history of Auburn Athletics. Auburn has also earned a pair of national runner-up finishes from men’s track & field (2024) and equestrian (2023), and a Final Four appearance by men’s basketball (2025). Auburn has claimed five SEC Championships during Cohen’s tenure, and all 21 programs have advanced to their respective NCAA postseason tournaments.

Individually, Auburn student-athletes have also garnered incredible honors. Ja’Kobe Tharp won NCAA titles in 2025 in 60m hurdles (indoors) and 110m hurdles (outdoors). Auburn’s 4x100m relay team won consecutive NCAA outdoor titles in 2024 and 2025. Jackson Koivun, in 2023-24, became the first collegiate golfer to sweep the Fred Haskins, Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus and Phil Mickelson national awards in the same season. In 2025, Koivun became the SEC’s first repeat champion in 49 years. Consensus All-American Johni Broome was named 2025 SEC Player of the Year and Sporting News National Player of the Year. Equestrian’s Avery Glynn was the 2025 SEC and NCEA Rider of the Year in fences. Likewise, Auburn student-athletes have excelled academically, earning at least a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher each semester during Cohen’s tenure.

Fundraising and ticket sales have reached new heights under Cohen’s stewardship, including the largest single capital donation in Auburn Athletics history from Robin and Reid Dove supporting the future Jordan-Hare Stadium North End Zone Multi-Use Facility. From 2022-25, donations supporting Auburn athletics nearly doubled from the preceding three-year average. Season ticket sales in football and baseball have also reached all-time highs. Cohen also reimagined spaces in Jordan-Hare Stadium and Neville Arena to diversify premium options. The Locker Room Club opened prior to the 2024 football season and the Sharon and Robert Maddox Club opened prior to the 2024-25 basketball season.

Auburn has invested heavily in capital projects under Cohen’s leadership. After opening the innovative Woltosz Football Performance Center shortly after taking the helm, Cohen turned his attention to the $30 million Plainsman Park expansion and renovation, which was completed before the 2025 season. A state-of-the-art medical and athletic training facility opened prior to the Fall 2025 semester, offering on-site physician, physical therapy, sport psychology and athletic training services to all Auburn student-athletes. Other projects include a new video board in the north end zone of Jordan-Hare Stadium an expansion of team and offices spaces for men’s and women’s basketball, more than doubling their previous footprint; and the addition of a volleyball training facility.

Cohen has also inked strategic partnerships that fortify Auburn’s position as one of the premier brands in college athletics. In April 2024, Auburn reached a 10-year agreement to switch apparel providers to Nike. The Tigers also negotiated a new 10-year extension with Playfly Sports to continue Auburn’s multimedia rights partnership. The new agreement doubled the partnership's anticipated average annual value and included innovative opportunities for Auburn student-athletes to earn name, image and likeness opportunities as the revenue sharing era of college athletics takes hold.

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 athletics director on November 4, 2016, and led the Bulldog program to record-breaking success athletically, academically and in capital project campaigns.

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). 

After beginning his stint as the head baseball coach at MSU in July 2008, Cohen’s official role in administration began in 2016 when he assumed the role of associate athletic director in addition to head baseball coach. 

As the head coach at MSU, Cohen led the Bulldogs to the 2013 College World Series finals, an SEC regular season championship and an 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.

Prior to becoming the head coach at MSU, Cohen’s coaching career included assistant coaching stops at Missouri (1992-97) and Florida (2002-03) and head coaching stops at Northwestern State (1998-2001) and Kentucky (2004-08).

Along with winning 284 games as a head coach at MSU, 138 of Cohen’s 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 just two individuals who have played, coached and later served as director of athletics for a program participating in the College World Series. He is the only coach in SEC history to win an SEC championship, SEC Tournament title, and advance to the College World Series both as a player and head coach.