Rutgers football has hired former Drake defensive line coach Joe Evans to be its new assistant defensive line coach, according to a report by Brian Fonseca of NJ Advanced Media. Evans joins the Rutgers coaching staff after just one season as a Drake assistant. Evans joins rush ends coach Joe Woodley and safeties coach Adam Cox as former Drake coaches now on Rutgers’ defensive coaching staff.
During his one season at Drake, Evans helped to develop defensive lineman Jacob Auen, who had six sacks last
season, Nolan Korzeniowski, who had four sacks last season, and Gene Blalock, who also had four sacks last season.
Evans joined Drake’s coaching staff after having a standout college career at Iowa. After walking on at Iowa in 2019, Evans finished his college career with 135 total tackles, 35.0 tackles for loss, 28.0 sacks, four forced fumbles, and one fumble recovery. Evans competed against Rutgers during his time at Iowa, terrorizing the Knights in their 2022 matchup, recording four sacks in the Hawkeyes 27-10 win over Rutgers.
Evans went undrafted after leaving college, but landed on the Baltimore Ravens practice squad in 2024 for a brief stint before being released.
Evans will now work under Rutgers’ new defensive line coach, Dennis Dottin-Carter.
