Rutgers football continues to reshape its defensive coaching staff following the hire of South Dakota’s Travis Johansen, making a second hire on Monday afternoon. Shortly after announcing the hire of previous
Drake head coach Joe Woodley as a defensive assistant, they have added former Drake defensive coordinator Adam Cox as their safeties coach. Previous safeties coach Vic Hall took the secondary coaching position at Virginia Tech.
With Cox working under Woodley at Drake, the two have familiarity with each other and will join outside linebackers coach Julian Campenni and defensive tackles coach Charlie Noonan on the 2026 defensive staff. Campenni and Noonan were the only two defensive coaches retained by Schiano after a disastrous 2025 season that saw both defensive coordinators get fired and many assistants take other jobs.
Cox began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Central Michigan from 2018 to 2020, working with the secondary and special teams. His biggest coaching experience came at Iowa as a graduate assistant under Phil Parker from 2021-23, who has been the mastermind behind an always-elite Hawkeyes defense. Cox previously played fullback for Iowa from 2011 to 2015.
Following his stint in Iowa City, Cox took over as safeties coach at Indiana State in 2024 before taking the defensive coordinator position with Drake in 2025. The Bulldogs went 8-4 this past season, making the FCS playoffs but falling to Johansen’s Coyotes 38-17 in the first round. Their defense ranked third in the Pioneer League, allowing just 17.7 points per game last year.
Cox will now join Woodley in Piscataway as the first two new hires of Johansen’s defensive staff, as the unit will look to rebound after a historically bad season.
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