On Thursday the Oklahoma Sooners announced they would be mutually parting ways with Ted Roof who had been the defensive coordinator at Oklahoma since 2022. That immediately brought speculation about who the next guy would be for the Sooners.
Would they promote from within with [autotag]Brandon Hall[/autotag], [autotag]Todd Bates[/autotag] or [autotag]Jay Valai[/autotag]? Or would they look for someone outside the program? Reports started surfacing Thursday night the Sooners were expected to hire Jacksonville State defensive coordinator Zac Alley.
Now, it hasn’t been made official yet but let’s take a look at what Oklahoma could be getting from Alley as defensive coordinator.
Alley has a lot of familiarity with [autotag]Brent Venables[/autotag]. He worked for four years (2015-18) under Dabo Swinney as a graduate assistant at Clemson. Alley spent the entire time on the defensive side of the football, where he worked primarily with the defensive tackles and linebackers.
He would leave there and head to Boise State to be the co-special teams coordinator and linebackers coach. His first opportunity as a defensive coordinator came from Louisiana-Monroe.
He turned what was the No. 125 ranked rushing defense in FBS in 2020 into the 69th-ranked rush defense in 2021. The Warhawks improved in 11 of 14 defensive categories from 2020 to 2021.
He took the same position with Jacksonville State in 2022. 2023 was their first season in FBS.
In 2023, they allowed 352.8 yards per game, 111.5 rushing yards per game, 241.3 passing yards per game and teams converted 32% of their third downs. They also ranked No. 8 in the nation in stop rate, in the 96th percentile in run defense success and 67th percentile in pass defense success.
Jacksonville State led Conference USA in almost every statistical defensive category including, total yards, rushing yards, yards per carry, sacks, forced fumbles, total touchdowns allowed and was second in interceptions.
More: Social media reacts to reports that Zac Alley will be the next defensive coordinator
From reports, Alley is a “mini” Venables. In fact, in an interview with the Post and Courier back on Nov. 2, 2023, he talked about the similarities.
“I laugh about it,” said Alley, the JSU defensive coordinator who learned the trade while working as a student assistant and graduate assistant when Venables was defensive coordinator on Clemson’s best teams. “But I talk like Coach V. I coach like him. My parents tell me my mannerisms are like him on the sidelines.” – exceprt from the Post and Courier article
He also requires the services of a “get back coach” just like his new boss used to. You can even see the similarities from practice when he was Mic’d up at ULM.
Meet Oklahoma’s new DC Zac Alley
Great video here from his days at UL-Monroe…he is essentially a young Brent Venables
(via ULM Warhawks Video) #Sooners pic.twitter.com/135nBfygQD
— Josh Callaway (@JoshMCallaway) January 5, 2024
All signs pointed to this type of move. Bringing in someone Venables had trust in to run the defense and had a similar philosophy. Venables can hand his defense off to someone so he can be more of a “CEO” type of head coach.
That doesn’t mean he won’t have any part in the defense because he will. Every head coach still has a say in everything going on. It just means he can now focus on other things more because he has someone he trusts leading the defensive group.
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