Zac Alley Leaving Oklahoma After 1 Season For New DC Role

*Courtesy of 247 Sports*

For the second consecutive offseason, Oklahoma will be replacing both coordinators on Brent Venables' staff.

Zac Alley, who was hired in January as Oklahoma's defensive coordinator and linebackers coach, is set to depart the program for the defensive coordinator position at West Virginia under new Mountaineers coach Rich Rodriguez, a source confirmed to Sooners Illustrated and 247Sports. ESPN was first to report the news.

Alley's decision to leave Oklahoma — where he reunited with his mentor Brent Venables, a man he described as his second father — comes a little more than 24 hours after he addressed his future during a postgame interview with the Sooners' in-house radio crew. During that interview, which followed Oklahoma's 21-20 loss to Navy in the Armed Forces Bowl, Alley expressed an eagerness to "get to work" on the Sooners' defense for 2025 but did not outright discrediting the West Virginia speculation.

"Every year, there's going to be something that comes up with jobs and whatnot, man, but I'm just excited about our team," Alley said when asked about his future at OU amid the West Virginia speculation. "I think coming back next season, we're going to have a great opportunity to be successful, be a top defense in the country, and hopefully we got some young guys who can come along to help us do that."

The Sooners finished the regular season ranked in the top-15 in run defense (105.8 yards allowed per game) while holding opponents to 2.91 yards per carry. Oklahoma allowed fewer passing yards this season than it did a year ago, despite giving up some untimely explosive plays through the air. The defense also allowed nearly 70 yards fewer per game and half a yard less per play than it did in 2023.

Under Alley, Oklahoma's defense also limited teams to 21.6 points per game during the regular season, which was 35thnationally. The Sooners also finished the regular season top-15 nationally in sacks while finishing 19th in defensive SP+ and seventh in defensive efficiency, according to ESPN. OU finished the 2023 season 38th in defensive SP+ and 11th in defensive efficiency.

Despite the progress, Oklahoma's defense ended the year on a down note in the bowl loss to Navy, allowing 21 unanswered points — including a 95-yard touchdown run that was the longest allowed by an OU defense since 1997 and a go-ahead touchdown in the final five minutes.

While Alley is leaving Venables, whom he came up under as a student assistant and graduate assistant at Clemson for several years, Alley will reunite with Rodriguez in Morgantown. The two previously worked together at ULM in 2021 and Jacksonville State from 2022-23. The two were coordinators on Terry Bowden's staff at ULM, and when Rodriguez accepted the head coaching job at Jacksonville State the following year, he brought Alley along with him as defensive coordinator.

Now Rodriguez is again bringing Alley with him, this time to the Big 12 while looking to rebuild West Virginia's program. Oklahoma, meanwhile, is left needing to hire a new defensive coordinator as a pivotal offseason for Venables just added another layer of complexity to it.

Sooners Illustrated insider Collin Kennedy contributed to this story.