Oklahoma has officially announced the hiring of Zac Alley as its new co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach, just days after the Sooners and Ted Roof "mutually agreed to part ways" after two seasons.
Alley comes to Norman as a product of the Brent Venables coaching tree, and at 30 years old, is seen as one of the fastest-rising stars in the coaching ranks.
"I'm incredibly excited to welcome Zac to our coaching family here at Oklahoma," said Venables. "He's going to fit in really well from a cultural, chemistry and philosophy standpoint. Obviously, there's a familiarity and comfort based on our background together at Clemson. He's exceptionally hard-working and tough, and has earned his way up the professional ladder by going out on his own and establishing himself. He's incredibly bright, innovative and passionate.
"Our players are going to love him. He's got great humility and confidence, and is always finding ways to get better. He's coached linebackers and the defensive line, he's been exposed to the secondary and he was an award-winning special teams coordinator at Boise State. Wherever he's been he's molded his units into better versions, and he'll do the same here. He really fits in well with our staff."
The relationship between Alley and Venables dates back to 2012 when Venables took the defensive coordinator position at Clemson. At the time, Alley was a sophomore assistant for the Tigers and eventually took a grad assistant position there after completing his college courses.
From there, Alley was under the tutelage of the best defensive mind in college football for the next seven seasons before branching out to start his own career path. Alley took a job at Boise State coaching linebackers for the 2019 and 2020 seasons before he was hired as the defensive coordinator at Louisiana Monroe in 2021.
Alley joined Rich Rodriguez in leaving ULM after the 2021 season and followed him to Jacksonville State, where he's spent each of the past two seasons calling the defense for the Gamecocks.
In that time, JSU holds an 18-6 record and a 9-4 finish in 2023, which included the program's first-ever FBS Bowl win in the New Orleans Bowl. The Gamecocks were a stalwart defensively this season, especially considering it was their first year competing at the FBS level. JSU led the C-USA in several statistical categories, including:
Total Defense - 352.8 ypg (42nd nationally)
Scoring Defense - 21.2 ppg (32nd)
Rush Defense - 111.5 ypg (14th)
Sacks - 39 (14th)
Turnovers Gained - 25 (T-8th)
3rd Down Defense - 32.5% (T-20th)
Alley is as close a thing as there is to a Venables clone, and it doesn't just show in his unit's production sheet. After just 30 seconds of listening to Alley talk it becomes very apparent who he's modeled himself after to this point in his career.
The Sooners' newest hire will inherit a defensive unit that is set to return nine of 11 starters, including four of the most experienced defenders in college football with Danny Stutsman, Billy Bowman, Woodi Washington, and Ethan Downs all foregoing their options to declare for the NFL Draft and come back for another year.
With a move to the SEC now officially in motion, Venables has his guy on the defensive controls, and it's safe to say he couldn't have picked someone who better emulates the same version of himself that walked into Norman back in 1999.
"This a tremendous opportunity," said Alley. "Oklahoma is an elite and historic program that has consistently competed for championships. The opportunity to come to OU and work for someone I really respect and who thinks like I do on defense and who wants to be aggressive and get after people on that side of the ball is exciting.
"Everything I do is based on what Coach Venables did at Clemson. That's been the foundation for how I've built defenses. I always respected how he handled himself as a coach and as a man, and I wanted to emulate that as best I could. From the moment I met him, I always wanted to be like him, have a career like his, lead the best defense in the country like him. He's obviously had a huge influence on me and I'm excited to be back with him."
Alley, 30, will be one of the youngest defensive playcallers in the country, but his time and work under Coach Venables has prepared him for this moment, now being back under his leadership once again.
"I hope I can bring some of the same energy and juice that Coach Venables has," added Alley. "As a younger guy, I relate to the players really well and hopefully I can bring some knowledge and energetic leadership on the field."
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