West Virginia made a major commitment at defensive coordinator by adding Zac Alley.
Alley had been serving as the co-defensive coordinator and play caller for the Sooners and has ties to Rich Rodriguez after spending two years as his defensive coordinator at Jacksonville State in 2022-23 and then previously working with him at Louisiana Monroe in 2021.
“Zac is one of the top young defensive coordinators in the country and has proven his ability to lead and be an innovator at different stops during his career,” Rodriguez said. “I have worked with him several seasons, and he constantly impresses me with his ability to blend schemes with his personnel and develop winning results.”
At Oklahoma in 2024, Alley helped lead the Sooners’ defense to a No. 3 ranking in defensive touchdowns, No. 5 in fumbles recovered, No. 10 in team tackles for loss, No. 11 in first-down defense, No. 19 in total defense, No. 23 in rushing defense, No. 25 in sacks and No. 30 in scoring defense.
Alley coordinated a 2023 Jacksonville State defensive unit that ranked 33rd out of 133 teams in scoring defense (21.2 points per game) and 43rd in total defense (352.8 yards per game). The unit also ranked fourth in the country in 2023 in opponent yards per rush (2.8), eighth in tackles for loss yardage (414), ninth in turnovers gained (25), 10th in interceptions (16), 12th in opponent yards per play (4.8), 13th in sacks per game (2.9) and 15th in rushing defense (111.5 ypg).
The 2022 unit also was stingy as it played a key role in helping to lead Jacksonville State to 9-2.
Rodriguez made it clear that outside of a really good coordinator he wanted one that met some clear requirements in his introductory press conference.
“Other than that, I want us to be really, really aggressive and I want to force the issue on the other team,” Rodriguez said.
Alley certainly checks both those boxes.
Alley’s defenses have been known not to play it safe and he keeps offenses off balance with shifting formations while dialing up pressure from unexpected places per OUInsider.com, the Oklahoma Rivals site.
The unit was described as “all gas and no brakes.”
According to Pro Football Focus, Alley’s defense blitzed on 169 of 412 passing downs against the opponent’s starting quarterbacks which was 41-percent of the time.
His defensive units have been known for their adaptability to the personnel as well as plenty of pre-snap movement and creative pressures to force the action. At Jacksonville State, Alley used a lot of odd-stack configurations and mixed in some four-down looks while at Oklahoma used a four-man front and sometimes elected to go with three-down linemen for a different look.
Essentially the model that Alley has used has boiled down to being fast, physical and aggressive which is what Rodriguez sought to find when he began the search.
West Virginia wanted to invest in its future defense and securing Alley is a major start in that department for a lot of different reasons.
