Rutgers has added Minnesota’s Dennis Dottin-Carter to be the new team’s defensive coordinator, according to ESPN’s Pete Thamel.
Dottin-Carter spent the last three seasons with the Golden Gophers. He was
listed as a senior defensive analyst for the 2023 and 2024 campaigns and was elevated to defensive line coach for the 2025 campaign. Minnesota, as a team, recorded the 11th most sacks in the country last season and posted a top 30 run defense as well. Dottin-Carter played a role in developing Anthony Smith, who led the Big Ten in sacks (12.5) last season and ranked 12th nationally in tackles for loss.
Dottin-Carter brings a lot of northeast connections to the Scarlet Knights, having coached at Maine, his alma mater, for four seasons before coaching at Delaware for four seasons until 2017, when he joined the UConn coaching staff as the defensive line coach. He stayed at UConn for five seasons before he moved to Yale in 2022 to be the team’s co-defensive coordinator/ associate head coach.
In addition to his work at Minnesota, Dottin-Carter has developed talent at every level. During his one season at Yale, he developed two second-team All-Ivy League defensive linemen, Reid Nickerson and Clay Patterson. During his time at UConn, he developed defensive tackle Travis Jones into a third-round pick and helped develop defensive tackle Foley Fatukasi into sixth round pick.
Dottin-Carter has several connections to the Rutgers roster, including wide receivers coach Dave Brock, who worked with him at Delaware, and Rutgers assistant defensive line coach Luke Carrezola, whom he coached at UConn.
Dottin-Carter played linebacker at Maine before joining the coaching staff in 2008.
