Oklahoma made the hiring of Jacksonville State defensive coordinator Zac Alley official on Saturday, marking a new era in the development of the Sooners' defense for the future.

Alley spent each of the past two seasons as the defensive play-caller for the Gamecocks and implemented an aggressive and productive unit that mirrors many of the concepts that we see Brent Venables utilize with the Sooners' defense.

During his time in Jacksonville (Ala.), Alley showed a tendency to use 3-3-5 personnel more frequently than the traditional 4-2-5 group that we've seen from Venables in the past.

However, the Gamecocks were still multiple and showed a lot of different looks throughout the year, which is something you can expect from the Sooners under Alley's direction.

Venables will surely still have a direct impact on calling and running the defense, but Alley's addition to the staff will certainly kick the intensity up a notch for Oklahoma.

Here are a few things that Sooner fans can expect from Alley going forward and what it might look like with the personnel that OU is returning in 2024.

Creating chaos and negative plays is the name of the game for Alley's crew, as has always been the case for Venables' units. It's led to success on that side of the ball.

In 2023, their units performed very similarly in creating chaos and keeping opponents off-schedule. In fact, they were eerily similar in some cases.

• Tackles for loss: OU (98, 7.54 per game), JSU (92, 7.04 per game)
• Sacks: OU (24), JSU (39)
• Total QB pressures (PFF): OU (252), JSU (238)
• 3rd down conv. rate: OU (30.96%), JSU (32.5%)
• Turnovers forced: OU (26), JSU (25)
• Points per game allowed: OU (23.5), JSU (21.2)

The Sooners and Gamecocks certainly played two different levels of competition in the Big 12 and Conference USA, but it's also fair to say that they're working with two different levels of talent. The scheme is clearly built to be productive in creating chaos, and that shows up in the numbers.

After Alley's hire became official Saturday, it was time to dive into some of the film on the 2023 Jacksonville State defense. After six games' worth of studying, there were a few key takeaways worth sharing, if for nothing else but to give some context on what Sooner fans should expect from the new DC.

• Unit shows great lateral pursuit and does a good job in run fits, gap responsibility, keeping contain.

• Just like Venables has been for much of his career, Alley is incredibly aggressive in late-down situations. More often than not, there is pressure coming from somewhere in passing situations.

• Zone blitzes throughout the season seemed to be most successful when JSU overloaded one side of the opponent's offensive line. Making a tackle pick one defender and turning the other loose resulted in big plays time and again.

• It's very common to see defensive ends drop into coverage and be replaced by a defensive back or linebacker on a blitz. Again, more confusion for the opposing O-line.

• JSU likes to show pressure and back out at the snap, only to bring it from somewhere else. Again, like Venables, Alley seems to have a knack for disguising his blitzes well.

• Alley loves the 0 blitz, or man across the board on receivers and everyone else is coming after the quarterback. It's a fantastic way to create chaos, but against elite quarterbacks or wideouts, safety help is a necessity. It will be interesting to see how Alley and Venables hash that one out.

• You'll get quite a few different looks up front with Alley calling plays. There was everything from two down linemen to a true bear front in the games that I watched. Most often, JSU seemed to like three-down with an upright edge rusher. It seemed a fairly even split between 4-2-5 and 3-3-5 personnel in those situations.

• Twists and stunts up front were consistent. Lots of gap exchange with interior and exterior defensive linemen, as well as linebackers coming on blitzes. Very creative.

• Alley is not afraid to leave his corners on islands. Being aggressive in the box means trusting cornerbacks in 1-on-1 situations.

• The nickel/SAM linebacker (or Cheetah) played a pivotal role for Alley's group in 2023, just like it does in Venables' scheme. If they have a freak athlete at that position, the entire defense takes a big leap. The versatility that a true playmaker at Cheetah brings to this scheme can have a tremendous impact on the overall effectiveness of the defense.

After watching Alley's group in 2023, I feel even more confident in saying that he's a 30-year-old version of Brent Venables.

He's a creative and instinctive playcaller who airs on the side of aggression rather than caution. Sure, there are times that his group will get burned downfield in a one-on-one situation, but that comes with the territory of living and dying by the blitz.

Jacksonville State routinely created pressure under his direction in 2023 and certainly had their pressure pay off more often than it bit them.

Will there be times of frustration with the secondary? Yes. That's bound to happen with a lot single-man coverage. However, forcing a quarterback to get rid of the ball faster than he'd like will lead to more turnovers as well, which Oklahoma saw plenty of this past season.

Heading into 2024, the Sooners have a young and exciting staff on the defensive side of the ball, but they've also got a wealth of player experience as well. Alley didn't have players like Danny Stutsman and Billy Bowman at his disposal over the last few seasons, which is an exciting prospect. Add to that players along the defensive line that can cause disruption on their own and Alley has all the pieces he'll need to recreate the same kinds of defenses that he saw while coaching under Venables as a grad assistant.

Not an OUInsider.com premium member? Sign up today to get loads of inside information on Oklahoma football, basketball and recruiting, all for just a few dollars a month. Click HERE to get started!