John Cohen

John Cohen (born September 21, 1966) is an American former baseball player and coach who is currently the 16th athletic director for the Auburn University Tigers. He is former head baseball coach of Mississippi State University, where he also served as the athletic director from 2016 to 2022.

Playing career Cohen played college baseball at Mississippi State (1988–1990) after spending a single season at Birmingham-Southern College in Alabama (1986). In 1989, he played collegiate summer baseball with the Hyannis Mets of the Cape Cod Baseball League and was named a league all-star. He also played on the 1990 College World Series team his senior year at Mississippi State. He then spent two years in the Minnesota Twins farm system (1990–1991).

Coaching career Cohen served as an assistant coach at the University of Missouri from 1992 to 1997 before becoming head coach at Northwestern State University from 1998 to 2001, where he won two conference championships. He moved on to the University of Florida for two seasons (2002–2003) as an assistant before accepting the head coaching job at the University of Kentucky. On June 6, 2008, Cohen was announced as the head coach of his alma mater, Mississippi State.

Tenure as athletic director John Cohen became the new Auburn athletic director in November 2022, replacing Allen Greene. In Cohen's previous stop, he was AD at his alma mater, Mississippi State University. John Cohen guided the Bulldog program to record-breaking success since being announced as the school's 17th director of athletics on November 4, 2016. Cohen leads a department that encompasses 16 sports and more than 350 student-athletes.

Personal life John Cohen is originally from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, as is his wife, Nelle Bashinsky Cohen. They have a son and a daughter. Cohen is Jewish.