John Cohen left Mississippi State for Auburn on Oct. 31, but his first day in front of cameras on the Plains was Tuesday. Auburn's new athletics director met the media for his first press conference, 18 days before the Iron Bowl and 19-to-21 days before the ideal time to have the next head Tiger in place.
Cohen was asked for his ideal candidate and said he has a list of 58 items to check, but three all-encompassing ones are the most important.
“This is a very, very long process. In fact, I have 58 things on this piece of paper that we go through with this process of looking for a new head football coach,” said Cohen. “It starts with culture. It starts with X’s and O’s. And it starts with recruiting.
“Those three things have to be up front, but there’s a whole lot of other things that have to be answered before you get really deep into it.”
A baseball coach by trade, Cohen hired two football coaches in his six years in Starkville. Both shared numerous traits. Joe Moorhead and Mike Leach both had previous head coaching experience, both were relative outsiders to the SEC (Moorhead had never worked in the league, Leach spent 1998-99 at Kentucky), and both were offensive-minded.
Cohen fired Moorhead after going 14-12 in two seasons; Leach is 17-16 in nearly three full seasons.
But just because Cohen sought a certain trait at Mississippi State doesn't mean he will at Auburn. (Come to think of it, Bryan Harsin checked all three of those boxes before he got to Auburn, too.)
“What is a fit for Mississippi State University is a different fit for Auburn University,” said Cohen. “That alters the paradigm and you have to make those considerations.”
One question moving forward is how much autonomy Cohen will have to make this decision. Auburn was aware of its too-many-cooks-in-the-kitchen problem, and communicated to the media that he'll have more authority than his predecessors.
At the same time, Auburn just met the guy. They're not going to hand him the key to his office and say, "Here you go, let us know when you've made a decision."
Cohen tried to walk that line on Tuesday. It'll be his hire, but it'll also be a consensus hire.
“The 35-year old version of myself would have stuck my chest out and said, ‘This is how it’s going to be.’ The 56-year old version of John Cohen says, ‘I want all the information that is available to me from anyone I can possibly get it from at Auburn and beyond.’ Information is a powerful thing and I want that information," he said.
“Certainly, Dr. Roberts made it clear that these decisions will be my own, but it takes a village. It takes a group of people sharing information and sharing knowledge. Quite frankly, I have been on the phone a lot because we have to make great decisions. That’s what I’m charged with doing.”