Auburn is closing in on its next athletic director after nearly a two-month search and it is someone with a deep knowledge of the Southeastern Conference.

Auburn has zeroed in on Mississippi State athletic director John Cohen and is working to finalize a deal to make him the school’s 16th all-time AD, a source with knowledge of the situation confirmed to AL.com. ESPN’s Pete Thamel first reported news of Auburn pursuing Cohen.

Cohen would replace Allen Greene, who stepped down as Auburn’s athletics director at the end of August. In the two months since, the Tigers have had two people oversee the athletics department. Chief operating officer Marcy Girton served as acting AD for 12 days before university president Dr. Chris Roberts named executive associate AD for compliance Rich McGlynn as the Tigers’ interim AD.

Prior to entering the administration side of athletics in 2016, Cohen spent 25 years as a college baseball coach, including eight years as head coach at Mississippi State, where he led the Bulldogs to five postseason appearances, including three Super Regional berths and a College World Series runner-up finish in 2013. Before arriving at Mississippi State, Cohen was head coach at Kentucky for five seasons, and prior to that was an assistant coach at Florida.

Cohen would be the second consecutive Mississippi State athletics director to leave Starkville, Miss., for another SEC job. His predecessor, Scott Stricklin, left Mississippi State to become Florida’s AD in 2016.

Since taking over Mississippi State’s athletics department, Cohen has been responsible for the hiring of 12 head coaches across the Bulldogs’ athletics programs. Among those were Mike Leach, who took over as football coach prior to the 2020 season, and former New Mexico State men’s basketball coach Chris Jans, who was named the Bulldogs’ head coach in March.

One of Cohen’s first and most crucial decisions as Auburn’s athletics director will be to determine the fate of head football coach Bryan Harsin, who is in just his second season with the Tigers but has been under immense scrutiny since his first season ended with a five-game losing streak and a 6-7 overall record. That was followed by an offseason of upheaval, both with the roster (19 transfers out of the program) and coaching staff (including changes at offensive, defensive and special teams coordinators), that led into a February university-run inquiry into Harsin’s handling of the program.

Harsin emerged relatively unscathed, and he challenged skeptics to “watch” Auburn’s on-field product this season. He hasn’t delivered on that, though, as Auburn is just 3-4 on the season and 1-3 in SEC play, as the Tigers have a losing record during Harsin’s tenure.

John Talty is the sports editor and SEC Insider for Alabama Media Group. He is the bestselling author of “The Leadership Secrets of Nick Saban: How Alabama’s Coach Became the Greatest Ever.”

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.