Josh Adams joined the Vanderbilt football staff in 2023 as a quality control assistant for the offense and currently serves as assistant running backs coach.
The 2024 season saw Sedrick Alexander become the workhorse of the Vandy backfield. The sophomore ran for 610 yards on 164 carries and six touchdowns. He scored twice in the team’s win over No. 1 Alabama, the first-ever win over the nation’s top-ranked team.
Vandy running backs also took care of the football in 2024. Alexander, AJ Newberry, Moni Jones and Chase Gillespie combined for 238 rushes with just one fumble lost on the year.
In Adams’ first season at Vandy, Alexander had an outstanding rookie campaign, leading all SEC freshmen with 371 rushing yards. He was the only SEC freshman with four or more rushing touchdowns and earned SEC All-Freshman accolades for his efforts.
Adams, a Heisman Trophy, Maxwell Award and Doak Walker Award candidate in his playing days at Notre Dame, joined the Commodores following a professional career that saw him play for the Philadelphia Eagles, New York Jets and New Orleans Saints. The Warrington, Pennsylvania, native appeared in 26 NFL games, rushing for 680 yards and five touchdowns over four seasons.
He played three seasons at Notre Dame (2015-17), rushing for 3,198 yards and 20 touchdowns. He set the Notre Dame record for rushing yards by a freshman in 2015, racking up 835 yards. Along the way, he set the single-game freshman rushing record with 168 yards against Stanford and posted the longest run in Notre Dame history, going for a 98-yard touchdown against Wake Forest. His most prolific season came as a junior in 2017, when Adams set the Notre Dame record for rushing yards per game (146.1) and average yards per rush (8.9) while totaling 1,430 rushing yards and nine touchdowns.
He was the quickest back in Notre Dame history to 1,000 rushing yards in a season (by carries), eclipsed the 100-yard mark in six games and broke 200 rushing yards in a pair of contests. His career-best game of 229 rushing yards came against Boston College in 2017 when he and quarterback Brandon Wimbush became the first duo in Notre Dame history to run for over 200 yards in the same game.
Prior to Notre Dame, Adams starred Central Bucks South High School where he ran for 2,085 yards as a sophomore, 738 yards as a junior while suffering a torn ACL and 1,623 yards as a senior.
Adams capped his collegiate career following his junior season to pursue the NFL and completed his degree in psychology from Notre Dame in 2020.
The Adams File
Hometown: Warrington, Pa.
High School: Central Bucks South
College: Notre Dame (psychology, 2020)
Playing Experience
2015-17 • Notre Dame (running back)
2018 • Philadelphia Eagles
2019 • New York Jets
2020 • New York Jets
2021 • New York Jets
Coaching Career
2023 • Vanderbilt • Offensive Quality Control
2024 • Vanderbilt • Assistant Running Backs Coach
Postseason Experience
2015 • Notre Dame • Fiesta Bowl (player)
2017 • Notre Dame • Citrus Bowl Champions (player)
2018 • Philadelphia Eagles • NFC Divisional Round (player)
2024 • Vanderbilt • Birmingham Bowl Champions