Rutgers football defensive coaching staff taking shape with 2 more hires

Rutgers football's defensive coaching staff is continuing to take shape.

Sources confirmed the Scarlet Knights on Feb. 9 added Joe Woodley, who had been the head coach at Drake, and Adam Cox, the defensive coordinator at Drake this past season, as safeties coach.

Both will work under new defensive coordinator Travis Johansen, who had been the head coach at South Dakota.

Woodley, who worked with Johansen at Grand View from 2013-18, went 72-5 as the head coach of Grand View and 8-4 this past season at Drake.

Remarkably Woodley never lost a regular-season game while at Grand View, which included a 14-0 season and the NAIA championship in 2024.

His exact role on Rutgers’ staff has not yet been finalized.

Woodley was a linebacker at Iowa State from 1999-03, and was a team captain.

Cox previously coached at Indiana State as safeties coach in 2024. He was a graduate assistant and quality control coach at Iowa from 2020-23, where he worked under defensive coordinator Phil Parker.

He was also a GA at Central Michigan from 2018-19.

Together with Johansen, they’ll take over a defense that’s looking to bounce back from a subpar 2025 campaign.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Rutgers football adds two more defensive coaches