Rutgers adds two Drake coaches to new defensive staff
Rutgers Football has made its first addition to the new defensive coaching staff.
The Scarlet Knights will add Drake head coach Joe Woodley as a defensive assistant, as reported by ESPN’s Pete Thamel. He becomes the first defensive addition for new defensive coordinator Travis Johansen, having worked together earlier in their careers in the NAIA ranks.
Woodley boasts an impressive track record as a coordinator and head coach.
Rutgers will also hire Bulldogs defensive coordinator Adam Cox as the program’s safeties coach, a source confirmed to TKR. Cox brings FBS coaching experience, as well as Big Ten playing experience.
Woodley’s background
The connection between Woodley and Johansen comes from the NAIA days, as they both worked at Grand View in the 2010s.
Woodley worked with the Vikings for 14 years all over the staff, working as both the offensive and defensive coordinator during that stretch, before taking over as head coach in 2019. Johansen and Woodley both worked as the defensive coordinator from 2013-17, before Woodley became the offensive coordinator in the 2018 season while Johansen remained the defensive coordinator.
In 2019 — the same season Johansen left for South Dakota — Woodley was elevated to become Grand View’s head coach. The Vikings won at an impressive pace in his six-year tenure, working a 72-5 record, with all five losses coming in the NAIA playoffs. From 2019-23, Grand View made it to the championship game, two semifinals, and two quarterfinals.
The Vikings eventually broke through in 2024 with a 14-0 undefeated season and NAIA Championship. He finished his time at Grand View with a perfect record in regular-season games.
Woodley was then hired as the head coach at Drake to replace Todd Stepsis, who took over as Northern Iowa’s head coach.
The Bulldogs went 8-4 in Woodley’s lone year at the helm, and made it to the FCS playoffs, where they lost 38-17 to Johansen’s Coyotes. Drake allowed the third-fewest points and yards per game in the Pioneer Football League.
Woodley played linebacker at Iowa State during his playing days from 1999-03, and was a co-captain as a senior in 2003.
He now comes to Rutgers as an assistant with ties to Johansen and a successful coaching record across the NAIA and Division I FCS levels.
Cox’s background
As the Scarlet Knights’ incoming safeties coach, Cox takes over a position group that struggled for much of the 2025 season.
He spent one year on the Drake staff as Woodley’s defensive coordinator, and was previously the safeties coach at FCS Indiana State. Before his time in Terre Haute, Cox worked as a graduate assistant at Iowa, his alma mater, for three years from 2021-23. He played fullback for the Hawkeyes from 2011-15, after first joining the program as a walk-on.
Cox first joined the coaching world as a graduate assistant at Central Michigan from 2018-20, working with the secondary and special teams. The Chippewas won the MAC West division in 2019.
The Bulldogs’ defense performed as one of the PFL’s top units in Cox’s lone year in 2025.
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