Inside Zac Alley's 'Seamless' Transition to Oklahoma During Fall Camp

Oklahoma's new defensive coordinator has made himself at home in Norman throughout the offseason.

8-5 Zac Alley 2.jpg / John E. Hoover / Sooners on SI

NORMAN — There’s been a noticeable difference at Oklahoma practice during Brent Venables’ third fall camp back in Norman. 

The OU head coach has bounced all the way around the field throughout the two partial practices that were opened up for media viewing this preseason. 

Instead of gravitating to the linebackers, Venables has left the group to his new defensive coordinator, Zac Alley. 

Alley arrived over the winter in place of Ted Roof to help take Oklahoma’s defense to the next level. 

He got a first-hand education in exactly how Venables runs his defense at Clemson. Alley worked for the ACC power for four years before landing a job outside of South Carolina. 

After stops at Boise State, Louisiana-Monroe and most recently two seasons as the defensive coordinator at Jacksonville State, Alley reunited with Venables to help OU’s defense take the next step. 

Though Alley seems prepared to run Venables’ defense, he did pick up a few tricks on how to teach the scheme over the past few years — something that’s helping Oklahoma’s current defensive pieces further grasp the complicated playbook. 

“Being at Jacksonville State, he had to teach it all to someone else,” sophomore safety Peyton Bowen said. “And now he’s just kinda giving us the in-depth version.”

Bowen’s teammate at safety, Robert Spears-Jennings, said Alley has helped with how the defensive players categorize the various plays in an effort to cut down on mental miscues. 

“I think he’s a great communicator,” defensive end Adepoju Adebawore said. “I think he’s really good at explaining, and I think he’s really good at setting guys up for success.”

And Alley’s teaching style is similar, too. 

“We call him like the mini BV,” OU linebacker Kip Lewis said. “He's got tendencies of V. So he's amazing. He really brings out the best in us.”

The acclimation process from the spring to now has gone as well as Venables could have hoped, even factoring how familiar the two defensive coaches are with each other. 

“It's really seamless,” said Venables, “starting with Zac and I and the rest of the guys on defense and then again, he hasn't had to try to figure things out. 

"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.”

Throughout the spring and fall, the message from Oklahoma’s players has been largely the same — Alley and Venables are a dynamic duo on the practice field and the players can’t wait to see how that translates to Saturdays this fall. 

“The way he just sees the game, it’s so nice to have that second guy,” Bowen said. “So we can have Coach V down on one side, Coach Alley down on one side … giving out the same intel.”