NORMAN — It's been seven months since Zac Alley was hired as the Sooners' new defensive coordinator.

While Alley has yet to coach a game from the sidelines in Norman, he's not exactly new anymore. He's got a full spring and offseason under his belt, and the Sooners are now more than two weeks into fall camp.

How has Alley settled in? For safety Peyton Bowen, Alley's biggest impact has been making things easier on the head coach, Brent Venables.

"I feel like it’s a weight lifted off his shoulders a little bit," Bowen said earlier this month. "Because he’s been in the system for so long at Clemson, that he just knows exactly what (Venables) wants. And that’s how Coach V is. He’s a very to-the-detail person. And so Coach Alley coming in gives him that kind of relief, I feel like."

When Alley's past experience with Venables is factored in, it's hardly been unfamiliar at all.

At Clemson, Alley spent eight seasons alongside Venables while he was the Tigers' defensive coordinator. Four of those years were spent as a student assistant before he transitioned to being a graduate assistant. Alley then spent stints as a defensive coordinator at Louisiana Monroe and Jacksonville State, where he utilized similar concepts that he learned from Venables.

While Alley hasn't been at Oklahoma long, he's already taken a greater control of the Sooners' defense than former defensive coordinator Ted Roof, who departed the program during the offseason after two seasons. Venables has indicated that he's been more focused on managing position groups on both sides of the ball, and a big reason for that is Alley's presence.

Venables said the transition for Alley — who's often been referred to as a "mini Venables — has been an easy one.

"It's really seamless, starting with Zach and I and the rest of the guys on defense and he hasn't had to try to figure things out," Venables said. "He speaks the same language from the first day and just building on what we've been able to foundationally build over the last two years. This is not a completely new world for Zac and it's not a completely new world for the staff. It's not for the players either. So I think that that's helped with the transition, and players will be the first ones to probably testify to that."

Here's a look at what some of the other players have said about Alley's impact, particularly in fall camp:

"I think he’s a great communicator. I think he’s really good at explaining, and I think he’s really good at setting guys up for success.”

"He’s helped tremendously. He just shows us how he had his old guys playing and he made it easier to categorize everything for us and made it 10 times easier... (He's) just taking the time and going in depth with everybody. He knows not everybody is on the same learning curve. He’s just helping everybody out."

"He’s like a miniature (Venables). It’s really interesting to see how they cooperate and how they do things. It’s a very different vibe from last year from the day he got in, and I can just see that he’s a very smart young man... The way he just sees the game, it’s so nice to have that second guy. So we can have Coach V down on one side, Coach Alley down on one side, and we can be getting the same (intel) and (they can be) giving out the same intel that they have, just working together for so long."

"He's great. We call him like the mini BV. He's got tendencies of V. So he's amazing. He really brings out the best in us."

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