Report: Auburn offered AD job to Hunter Yurachek before hiring John Cohen

It was a busy Monday for the Auburn Tigers. John Cohen, formerly of Mississippi State, was hired as the new athletic director. Shortly after that, Bryan Harsin was fired as the head football coach.

Now, according to a report by Gwen Moritz of Arkansas Business, John Cohen wasn’t the first choice that Auburn had for the role as athletic director. Instead, Arkansas athletic director Hunter Yurachek was actually the first choice for the job. In fact, Auburn offered the job to him before moving on to Cohen.

The offer to Yurachek was, reportedly, for more than $2 million annually. However, even with that incentive, Auburn was unable to lure him away from Arkansas.

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Arkansas is currently paying Yurachek $1.25 million. However, his deal is set to grow to $1.5 million on January 1, 2023. Reportedly, Auburn is set to pay Cohen $1.5 million annually. That’s less than Yurachek was reportedly offered, but does match his salary, at least.

It’s unclear if Arkansas, who declined to comment on the report, made a new offer to Yurachek. However, it would make sense that they would have given him a raise to prevent losing him to Auburn.

Auburn owes Bryan Harsin a massive buyout

Along with spending $1.5 million annually on its new athletic director, Auburn also needs to pay for Bryan Harsin’s buyout. As it stands now, that number is reportedly more than $15 million. Add in the cost of hiring a new coach and it’s no small amount of money to be paid out.

Half of Bryan Harsin’s buyout is due within the first 30 days after his firing. There also is no offset language in Bryan Harsin’s contract. That means that if he takes a new job, Auburn will still need to pay him the full amount that he is owed.