Danny Bethea

Biography

Danny Bethea enters his third year as an assistant coach for Rutgers in 2026 after joining the program August 2023. In his role, Bethea coaches the Scarlet Knight catchers and outfielders, assists with hitting/offensive development, recruiting and coaches first base. Bethea joined RU after five years on the coaching staff at St. John’s – including his last four as the Red Storm’s hitting coach. In his time at RU, Bethea has played a key role in the Scarlet Knights consistently ranking among the nation's best in fielding percentage, with RU being one of six program to have a fielding percentage of .976 in each of the last four seasons. Bethea has also played a key role in the development of a pair of third round MLB Daft selections in Trevor Cihen and 2024 Big Ten Player of the Year Josh Kuroda-Grauer. The 2025 season featured Trevor Cohen's historic offensive performance, which etched his name in both Rutgers and Big Ten record books. Cohen set a Big Ten record with 56 hits in conference play and batted .467, leading the conference by 86 points. His 24 doubles tied an RU program record. Both Cohen and Ty Doucette dominated conference batting averages, ranking first and third respectively, with Doucette hitting .374 in Big Ten games. As a team, Rutgers hitters were the most difficult to strike out in the Big Ten, with three Scarlet Knights ranking among the conference's top seven in lowest strikeout percentage. In 2024, Bethea helped oversee an offense that posted the Big Ten'