{"id":871358,"date":"2026-04-21T18:50:05","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T18:50:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/871358\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T18:50:05","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T18:50:05","slug":"rutgers-safeties-coach-adam-cox-talks-spring-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/871358\/","title":{"rendered":"Rutgers Safeties coach Adam Cox talks Spring Practice"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rutgers Football continued spring ball this week on Tuesday afternoon, and Safeties coach Adam Cox<\/a> spoke to the media for his first spring football press conference of the season.<\/p>\n

Noonan spoke for roughly eight minutes and addressed a range of questions, including his switch to a new position group this offseason, being the lone holdover from last year\u2019s defensive staff, and much more. <\/p>\n

Rutgers fans MUST take advantage of this deal, Get 50% off The Knight Report now<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Full Adam Cox Presser Transcript<\/p>\n

You spent a lot of time at Iowa working under some really touted defensive\u00a0coaches. Just what did you take from that experience and particularly working with\u00a0Phil Parker<\/a>? What did you learn that you\u2019re bringing here to to the Big Ten?<\/p>\n

Adam Cox: \u201cYeah, I\u2019ve just I think I\u2019ve been blessed to have a lot of great mentors over my\u00a0time in coaching. Starting with you know Coach Ferentz<\/a> and Coach Parker<\/a>, Coach\u00a0Wallace, those guys at Iowa they do a heck of a job on defense and excited to\u00a0bring that experience here to Rutgers and you know being in the Big Ten also\u00a0helps out you know kind of what you\u2019re getting into so really excited to bring\u00a0that here to Rutgers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Did that Big Ten experience, did that factor into the\u00a0decision to come here to Rutgers and just how did the opportunity come here?<\/p>\n

Adam Cox: \u201cYeah, it absolutely factored into it. I think any chance to play in the best\u00a0conference in college football, you don\u2019t turn that down. Coming from the\u00a0FCS, I think it was a no-brainer for me at this stage in my career and wouldn\u2019t\u00a0have done anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coach, what are some of the things you look for\u00a0in a player and when you\u2019re coaching your position, what do you want to see\u00a0from them?<\/p>\n

Adam Cox: \u201cYeah, I think it starts with intangibles. I think toughness, teamwork,\u00a0smart, physical player. Then obviously there\u2019s athletic markers that they have\u00a0to hit but it starts with the intangibles, toughness, smart, good teammate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Talk about your relationship with Joe Woodley<\/a> and how that helps you get here.<\/p>\n

Adam Cox: \u201cYeah, yeah really really thankful for Coach Woodley taking me over to Drake.\u00a0We met when I was at Iowa Clinic in a little bit.They\u2019d come over from\u00a0Grandview where he was prior to Drake and got to know him there and then got\u00a0the opportunity to work under him at Drake and really thankful for that and\u00a0still be working with him here at Rutgers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coach, you mentioned that the\u00a0safety room has looked improved so far in spring practice. I guess what have you\u00a0seen from that room as a whole and who are some of the guys that are sticking out?<\/p>\n

Adam Cox: \u201cYeah, we\u2019re just taking it day by day.It\u2019s a process, learning every day, taking\u00a0one day at a time and everybody\u2019s improved. I don\u2019t know that I would\u00a0single anybody out. I think the veterans are leading.I think Kaj is doing a great\u00a0job. He\u2019s taking strides as a leader but everybody\u2019s making strides.\u00a0Improvement and that\u2019s all we can ask for right now in spring.\u201d<\/p>\n

To go off on your\u00a0time at Iowa as well, you played for Kirk Ferentz then you coached under him. I\u00a0guess what was that experience like to be with him as a player and then\u00a0as a grad assistant as a coach moving into that world?<\/p>\n

Adam Cox: \u201cYeah, I think he\u2019s\u00a0a great man. I think that carried over from when I played for him to when I\u00a0coached for him.You see a certain side as a player and it\u2019s the exact\u00a0same when you\u2019re working under him. He doesn\u2019t change. He\u2019s very steady.I compare him a lot to Coach Schiano in terms of their pillars of the\u00a0Big Ten. They\u2019re established so it was awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sean Allison<\/a>, a player you\u2019re familiar with. What is he going to bring when he\u00a0arrives on campus this summer?<\/p>\n

Adam Cox: \u201cYeah, Sean\u2019s a guy I would never bet against.\u00a0I don\u2019t think he\u2019s a guy you\u2019d say you can\u2019t or won\u2019t do anything. He\u2019ll prove\u00a0you wrong.He\u2019s a great leader, tough, smart. He\u2019s everything I described when\u00a0I\u2019d be looking for and that\u2019s what I\u2019d say about Sean.\u201d<\/p>\n

You\u00a0mentioned Kaj. He\u2019s one of the few returning starters from last year\u2019s team.\u00a0He\u2019s been here for a couple years. Do you lean on him kind of as a returning guy\u00a0and just what have you seen from him this spring just as far as does he look\u00a0more comfortable? How would you evaluate his spring?<\/p>\n

Adam Cox: \u201cYeah, fresh start\u00a0for everybody and I think Kaj has done a great job.Obviously I have\u00a0expectations from him from a leadership perspective in terms of being that\u00a0returning starter in the room. He\u2019s done a great job with that. He\u2019s taking strides\u00a0as a player and really excited to see him this fall.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rutgers Football continued spring ball this week on Tuesday afternoon, and Safeties coach Adam Cox spoke to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":871359,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[118105,7,49,48,2117,58070],"class_list":{"0":"post-871358","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-adam-cox-11-stillman-valley","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-football","12":"tag-nj","13":"tag-rutgers-scarlet-knights-piscataway"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116444205175448569","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=871358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/871359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=871358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=871358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=871358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}