Chat with the Top Dog (Part 3): John Cohen talks athletic department finances and more

Mississippi State athletic director John Cohen quickly hits on finances, facilities and his mid-pandemic coaching search.

(Note: This is the final part of a three-part series featuring Mississippi State athletic director John Cohen's exclusive interview with Sports Illustrated's Cowbell Corner. It is slightly edited in spots for clarity. If you missed Part 1 of the Q&A with Cohen, it can be found by CLICKING HERE. Part 2 can be found by CLICKING HERE.)

Cowbell Corner: From a financial standpoint, has the athletic department been okay? Have there been furloughs or anything like that or has everything just kept clicking along from a financial standpoint?

Cohen: I say this a lot, but I credit (former MSU athletic directors) Larry Templeton, Greg Byrne and Scott Stricklin. And yeah, over the last three years we’ve been able to mount some resources in such a way to help us for a rainy-day situation like this. I’ve heard it described by many athletic directors as not a rainy day, but a tornado. Or not a rainy day, it’s a monsoon. Whatever you choose to call it, I’m just going to say that I feel like financially, we’re in as good of a position as we can be. But, there will be tough decisions that have to be made depending on how long this virus continues to be with us.

Cowbell Corner: How has all this impacted the timeline of the construction of the indoor tennis facility and the planned Humphrey Coliseum renovation and things of that nature?

Cohen: Well the tennis center did get delayed a little bit. I don’t think it was the virus so much as it was the really wet early spring/late winter that we had. But I really believe our brand new tennis facility is going to be ready for the fall. It is still our intention to upgrade the Humphrey Coliseum. Does that get delayed at this point? We don’t know. But it is, at least from a facility standpoint right now, it is our main focus and we look forward to starting that project as soon as we can.

Cowbell Corner: I can’t help but ask this as we wrap up. A month ago, you conducted a coaching search (hiring new women’s basketball coach Nikki McCray-Penson) in the middle of this pandemic. What exactly was that like?

Cohen: It was different. There was a lot of Zoom. There was a lot of Webex. It depends on your form of communication of choice at that moment. But I really didn’t think (the situation) was prohibitive. It wasn’t ideal, but I don’t think it was prohibitive. I thought it was a really good process. I don’t like having to do the process, for obvious reasons. But I will say that every time we go through this process, it really galvanizes in my mind what we are all about and the strides we’re trying to take at Mississippi State.

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