Oklahoma officially hires Jacksonville State's Zac Alley as defensive coordinator

Oklahoma has officially hired Jacksonville State’s Zac Alley as its next defensive coordinator. On3’s Pete Nakos and Sooner Scoop’s Carey Murdock previously reported Alley as a top target for the Sooners.

Alley will replace Ted Roof, who was let go Jan. 4 after two years with OU. He worked with Brent Venables at Clemson as a student assistant and graduate assistant, and joined the staff at Boise State as inside linebackers coach in 2019. In 2020, he moved to outside linebackers coach and co-special teams coordinator in 2020 before taking over at Jacksonville State in 2021.

“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 Gamecocks just wrapped up their first season at the FBS level and led Conference USA in total defense, holding teams to 352.8 yards and a league-leading 21.2 points per game. That helped them earn a spot in the New Orleans Bowl — they got in because there weren’t enough bowl-eligible teams.

“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.”

Oklahoma took a big step forward on defense this year, going from 461 yards allowed per game to 389.4 yards on average. That helped the Sooners pull off a 10-win season before heading to the SEC. However, Venables decided it was time to make a change, announcing the decision to move on from Roof Jan. 4.

“I have the utmost respect and appreciation for Ted,” Venables said in a statement. “I told him Wednesday I made a decision to go in a new direction at defensive coordinator and offered him an opportunity to remain on our staff in a different role. He explained that he has a deep desire to keep coaching and will look to do that at a different school.

“Ted is an incredibly knowledgeable coach and teacher, and his players love playing for him. Our program is thankful for his extreme dedication the last two seasons and for helping make us better.”

The sense after Venables decided to part ways with Roof was he wanted to focus less of a defensive coordinator and more on his head coach duties, On3 and Sooner Scoop’s George Stoia III reported. Venables ran the defense while Roof was in Norman, but by hiring Zac Alley, he can take more of a step back from the day-to-day of the defense.

Oklahoma is now replacing both coordinators after Jeff Lebby departed to take over as the next head coach at Mississippi State. The Sooners moved to make Seth Littrell the new offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, while Joe Jon Finley will take over as co-offensive coordinator and tight ends coach.