Ainslie: Auburn athletics director John Cohen inks two-year contract extension, now set to run through 2029

QuoteAuburn athletics director John Cohen has inked a two-year contract extension which extends his contract through October 2029, according to an addendum to his initial employment contract, which AL.com received a copy of via public records request Tuesday.

The addendum to Cohen's contract was signed by he and Auburn University president Chris Roberts on May 2.

Cohen initially entered into agreement with Auburn on Nov. 1, 2022 — a contract that was set to run through October of 2027.

Prior to coming to Auburn, Cohen spent six years as the athletic director at Mississippi State, where he also served seven seasons as the Bulldogs' head baseball coach.

Cohen has been tasked with hiring a pair of head coaches in Auburn football's Hugh Freeze and the recent addition of Auburn women's tennis coach Jordan Szabo. In addition to those hires, Cohen has also helped spearhead a number of facility improvements to Auburn football's Jordan-Hare Stadium and Auburn baseball's Plainsman Park.

Cohen also recently led the effort in landing a partnership with Nike as the official apparel and equipment provider of Auburn athletics.

O'Gara: 5 SEC assistants who'l be FBS head coaches at this time next year (with destinations)

QuoteSEC loses assistant coaches who get head coaching opportunities. It comes with the territory.

What's unique about the post-2023 cycle is that there wasn't a single SEC offensive/defensive coordinator who took an FBS head coaching job. The only 3 SEC assistants who got FBS head coaching gigs were South Carolina special teams coordinator Pete Lembo (Buffalo), Georgia running backs coach Dell McGee (Georgia State) and Georgia defensive backs coach Fran Brown (Syracuse).

(That's not including Oklahoma OC Jeff Lebby getting the Mississippi State job because the Sooners weren't in the SEC at the time of his departure.)

1. Glenn Schumann, Georgia DC
It's fitting that Schumann is No. 1 on this list because, for my money, he's the best defensive coordinator in the SEC. His play-calling chops have been evident.

2. Kirby Moore, Mizzou OC
How much do I believe in Moore?

3. Blake Baker, LSU DC
Speaking of reasons Mizzou completely turned things around in 2023, Baker was a huge part

4. Tim Banks, Tennessee DC
After several candidates turned down Josh Heupel, I wasn't crazy about the idea Heupel hiring Banks as his DC because I didn't like the lack of reps with total autonomy on defense at Illinois.

5. Collin Klein, A&M OC
After he led Kansas State to a top-10 offense in a post-Deuce Vaughn world, Klein was one of the best assistant hires of the offseason. Mike Elko got Klein to leave his alma mater to run an A&M offense that's loaded with potential, most notably at quarterback with a healthy Conner Weigman.

But don't sleep on ... Oklahoma OC Seth Littrell and Georgia DL coach Tray Scott

Quote from: donnie on Today at 06:48:46 amRight. And Mike rarely used him as a roller where he could have started to develop his passing abilities out of the short roll to a shooter on a team that had Mason Jones and I. Joe. His stock literally got worse coming back. Don't know what else to tell you.

Quote from: Johnnie5 on Yesterday at 12:16:41 pmI think getting pryor and van lubin is more likley than pryor and hawkins. Van Allen lubin can bang I beleive. 6'8 230+ I think

Quote from: Scott7703 on Yesterday at 10:35:21 pmThey are both much better players than most everything left on our roster. I don't need rankings to see that, just my eyes. We don't have 2-3 total sec level players left on the roster. Outside of Lawrence about every ounce of talent has left.