How Zac Alley compliments 'father figure' Brent Venables, brings 'fountain of youth and knowledge' OU's defense needs

A young Zac Alley sat in front of a split-screen TV with a game of Madden on one side and his favorite show playing on the other.

His father, Kendall, sat and watched as Zac would accurately predict what play his opponent would run, counter it in the best possible way, and ultimately build up a laughable 84-7 lead. He’d often been able to guess what play his opponents were going to run, which is why he won multiple Madden tournaments as a kid, and ultimately why he’s become one of the young rising minds in college football.

Years later, Kendall and Zac sat at lunch together ahead of Boise State’s matchup with Colorado State in 2020. Hours before Zac’s fourth ever game as a co-special teams coordinator, Kendall asked him what he should look for from the stands.

“The first time they punt, their center snaps it and spins it a yard and a half to the right,” Zac told his dad. “I’m going to walk the two linebackers up on the right and we’re going to block the punt.”

Sure enough, less than a minute into the game, Alley’s vision came to life. Boise State blocked its first of three kicks that game — each run back for a touchdown — accounting for 21 of its 51 points.

BLOCKED PUNT ➡️ TOUCHDOWNWhat a start for @BroncoSportsFB 🔥 pic.twitter.com/Ao5W5L8HvT

— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) November 13, 2020

“He studied special teams just like he studies offenses and defenses,” Kendall said. “That’s the kind of stuff he’s always had a knack for. He’s good at anticipating what you’re thinking. He’s pretty good at just down and distance, ‘I’ve done my homework, I think they’re gonna do this,’ and he’ll defend it pretty well.”

Zac, alongside his co-coordinator Winston Venable, was ultimately named Special Teams Coordinator of the Year by FootballScoop in 2020.

He stepped into that role with minimal experience coaching special teams. He’ll step into the OU defensive coordinator role with plenty of knowledge of defense. So what exactly is Zac Alley capable of in leading OU’s defense in 2024?

Zac is reuniting with head coach Brent Venables after working for him for seven years as a student and graduate assistant at Clemson from 2012-18, and will step in as the co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach for Oklahoma. The two will lead a talented Sooners’ defense, and the hopes of a successful SEC defensive debut will rest on the shoulders of the 30-year olds understanding of the game.

“Wherever he's been he's molded his units into better versions,” Venables said in a statement after Zac’s hire, “and he'll do the same here.”

Hail Marys, interceptions and chaos fill a typical 12-year-old’s game of Madden, but Zac was more concerned with schemes, formations and alignments.

Zac has always enjoyed thinking strategically, often trying to answer the "whys" of things. Madden is where he had an opportunity to first utilize that thought process, and it also laid the foundation that established his understanding of football.

From there, it kept growing.

“It wasn’t hard to figure out early that he had a knack for it,” Kendall, a member of Clemson’s 1981 national championship team, said. “He could see things that even I didn’t see after having played football. I tell people I’m a kindergartener compared to his level of football knowledge. He really understands it at the deepest level of anyone I’ve ever been around. ...

“We can watch games together and he’ll tell you what play they’re going to run (as soon as) they break the huddle.”

Bob Witman, Zac’s high school coach at Charlotte Country Day, typically didn’t allow players to call blocking schemes until he met Zac. Witman called the plays, and if an adjustment was needed to be made, Zac, who played center, would be able to notice and change it.

When Zac was serving as a student assistant at Clemson, one of his father’s friends, a high school football coach, came to their house and discussed a unique play he picked up at a college football camp. About half an hour after he left, Kendall noticed his son drawing in his notepad and asked what he was doing.

“Trying to defend that play he talked about,” Zac responded.

His internal desire to break down the game led to outward success, and his already extensive knowledge of the game would lead him to an internship with the Carolina Panthers.

Before then-Panthers head coach Ron Rivera went to scout DeAndre Hopkins ahead of the 2013 NFL Draft, he called his friend Kendall to ask if Zac would tell him about the Tigers’ star receiver. Zac, only a sophomore at Clemson at the time, told Rivera in an hour-long phone call everything he needed to know about Hopkins.

After attending the workout with Hopkins, Rivera possessed an accurate, in-depth profile of the receiver, and also saw a potential new scout.

“Your kid knew everything there was to know about this guy,” Rivera told Kendall. “He hit it dead on. Anytime he wants to scout for us, he can.”

‘He’s like a father figure to me’

Shortly after his hire in 2012, Brent Venables spent some of his first days as Clemson’s defensive coordinator locked in the film room with Zac for up to nine hours a day.

Here, Zac picked Venables’ mind and grew fond of his defensive scheme, while the new defensive coordinator gained trust for Zac’s ability to break down the game.

“That’s when Zac would listen and pick up on what (Venables) was thinking,” Kendall said. “He really loves BV’s strategy. I wouldn’t say Zac has copied everything BV has done, but there’s no question that BV’s system is the basis of how he wants to run his defense.”

Zac’s time at Clemson started with him shuffling chairs, making copies and assisting the graduate assistants. As Venables’ recognized potential in Zac, he piled on more responsibilities. The young defensive savant’s ability to process the game quickly was evident early and as a result, he was given a headset, a rarity for a student assistant to have.

Zac was tasked with drawing what happened on every play, and he was able to hand the play sheets to Venables at halftime, allowing the defensive coordinator to make adjustments.

Zac’s keen and efficient analysis of the game not only helped Venables and Clemson make second half adjustments, but it also carried over to his time as defensive coordinator at Jacksonville State. JSU allowed just 119 second half points compared to 156 first half points in 2023. Zac’s immediate adjustments led the Gamecocks to surrender 54 third quarter points, less than 20% of the 275 points they allowed in total.

During his time with the Tigers, he was also responsible for breaking down film on recruits, deciding if the rest of Clemson’s staff should consider the young talent. He didn’t say a lot in film rooms with the rest of the Tigers’ coaches, except on Sundays, when he entered the building as the most prepared person in the room.

“He had already watched a lot more tape than we had on Sunday, when we came in and started getting ready for the next (game),” Dan Brooks, Clemson’s defensive tackles coach from 2009-16, said.

It has been six years since Zac last sat in a film room with Venables, but with added experience and knowledge that will only aid him in the Sooners’ defensive coordinator role, Zac can lighten the load for OU’s current head coach even more than he did at Clemson.

Venables’ familiarity and faith in Zac has already allowed the head coach to seemingly roam around OU’s spring practices more, rather than staying in place working with the linebackers.

#Sooners head coach Brent Venables and safeties coach Brandon Hall surveying tackling drills: pic.twitter.com/xOiMrc4HWX

— Colton Sulley (@colton_sulley) March 27, 2024

“My biggest reservation for Brent being a head coach is being able to put things down and go be the head coach,” Brooks said. “He’s got a comfort level with (the linebacker) room. He needs to have trust (in who’s coaching that room), and I know he does with Zac because they’ve been around each other enough, he knows it’s going to be done right. ...

“(At Clemson, Zac) could go run a drill with the Mike linebacker while Brent’s doing something with the outside linebackers. It was like (Brent) had an assistant linebacker coach because he had been around him enough.”

As a defensive coordinator with Jacksonville State, Zac used his knowledge from Venables as the basis for his defense while also expanding that arsenal.

On Jacksonville State’s first defensive play of overtime against Kennesaw State in 2022, Zac drew up a unique blitz that led to a sack and game-sealing fumble recovery. When Kendall asked where his inspiration for the blitz came from, Zac referenced a random 2015 game when Clemson ran it.

Venables’ defense has always been the basis of how Zac runs his, but OU’s coach is more than just a mentor on the field. In a 2021 interview, after he had been hired as the youngest coordinator in the Football Bowl Subdivision by Louisiana-Monroe, Zac was asked what he learned from his time with Venables.

“Everything,” Zac said. “He’s like a father figure to me. … I try to imitate him in all the things I do because he’s been successful.”

Less than a month after his hire, Zac stood in front of the OU defense to deliver a passionate message in winter workouts.

“We’re gonna have details in what we do,” Zac said. “How we start, how we finish, everything that revolves around this defense; the discipline, the toughness, the things that we hang our hat on. It starts right here.”

Sound familiar? It should.

Though many of Zac’s tendencies look awfully similar to that of OU’s head coach, his demeanor in practice is where he stands out. Zac has plenty of passion evident through his coaching style, but it comes across in the form of explaining things in a calmer manner than that of Venables’ fiery persona.

“There’s nothing we did on the field or off the field that he couldn’t tell us why (we did it) and why it will work,” one former player said.

And Zac’s "why" could be the perfect compliment to Venables’ "how.”

“When Coach V is yelling at you, chewing you out and not really giving you an explanation, you can go to Coach Alley and he’ll really break it down,” OU linebacker Danny Stutsman said. “He’s always behind the ‘why’ and not so much the ‘how.’”

‘He really understands and relates to us’

Quae Drake would often peek through the window of the Jacksonville State weight room upon entering the facility at 6 a.m. to see Zac at the tail end of his morning workout.

It’s a routine he started when he was in ninth grade, after receiving a workout regimen to help him recover from a leg injury. By the time Kendall woke up each morning, Zac had already left for his workout.

He carried this habit over to his time with the Gamecocks and was consistently the first person in the facility and often the last.

Soon enough, Zac had created a ripple effect.

“It made me want to go harder for him,” Drake said. “He motivated me to get up and come in early because I know he was out there early and (spending) late nights trying to have a great plan for us that week, doing all he could to help us be successful and showcase our skills. It makes you just want to play hard for him. … I wanted him to be successful, too.”

His youth and energy are two of the things that stood out to Drake early on. While some may view him being half the age of his OU predecessor Ted Roof as a disadvantage, Zac has proven his top-tier knowledge of the game time and time again, and his youth is what allows him to easily connect to his players.

Shortly after he was hired at Louisiana-Monroe, he joked in an interview with the News Star about his ability to connect with players through online classes, which many coaches can’t do.

“Most coaches have never seen an online class,” Zac, who was 27 years old at the time, said. “Just the ability to connect with them on that level is good, and it’s fun to get out there and compete with them in the drills.”

Now three years later, he is the youngest OU defensive coordinator since 29-year-old Venables took over in 1999.

“He really understands and relates to us,” Stustman said. “It’s good to go to him because he knows exactly what we’re thinking.”

During the week leading up to Jacksonville State’s bowl game, Zac took every senior on the Gamecocks defense out to eat. Just days ahead of what ended up being the program’s first-ever bowl win, football was not a topic of conversation.

Because for Zac, it is about more than the game.

They chatted about life and what it might look like after football, with the young coach giving advice on how to handle certain situations and genuinely caring about what each of his players had planned to do next.

Drake’s goal was and always has been to go to the NFL. While deciding where to transfer after the 2022 season, he knew to reach his goal he’d need more experience at Will linebacker, which many coaches didn’t want to offer him because of his lack of experience at the spot.

Zac not only gave Drake the opportunity to play a less familiar position and boost his draft stock, but also helped develop the redshirt senior into the Gamecocks’ leading tackler.

Drake only had one other requirement before transferring to Jacksonville State — he wanted to be the first person in his family to get a master’s degree. Zac promised him he could do that, and he is on track to fulfill his wish.

“He cares, man, and you can feel it,” Drake said. “You’re going to feel his passion and his love for each and every one of you. Everybody in the room is going to feel it.”

As co-special teams coordinator at Boise State, Zac put together presentations loaded with statistics and examples of NFL players whose careers began with special teams.

“It was an eye-opener for these young college kids to learn about the importance of special teams and the impact it can have on their future in going to the NFL,” Venable, who coached special teams alongside Zac, said. “When you do that with passion, excitement and detail like Zac did, it naturally creates a buy-in.

Zac and Venable crafted a scheme full of pre-snap movement, twists and deception — which he now uses to lead his defenses — while also giving players the freedom to be creative.

Special teams, an aspect of football that sees a touchback on nearly every kickoff, has been minimized by new rules at the professional level and is often looked down upon as a spot for backup receivers and defensive backs, ultimately became a hot commodity at Boise State under Zac and Venable.

“Guys were fired up to play special teams,” Venable said. “We made it a culture that guys wanted to be a part of. That was a strength that (Zac) had.”

Everywhere Zac has been, his knowledge has impressed those around him.

It’s led him to an unfamiliar role as Boise State’s co-special teams coordinator, a unit that ended up ranking 15th nationally in kick return yards, seventh in punt return yards and leading the country in special teams touchdowns.

It’s also led him to a bigger role as Louisiana-Monroe defensive coordinator. The Warhawks have had a bottom 10 scoring defense each of the past five seasons with the exception of 2021 — when Zac was at the helm of the unit.

It even brought him to his most recent stop with Jacksonville State. The Gamecocks had allowed 28.4 points per game the year prior to Zac’s arrival, compared to 21.2 points in 2023, which ranked 33rd nationally, despite defending more plays per game than any other team in the nation.

Zac has helped improve every unit he’s led. He’ll now take over the Sooners’ defense, one that has been mostly categorized by mediocrity since the day Venables left the defensive coordinator position.

This year, however, Zac will have plenty of talent to work with, highlighted by the veteran core of seniors Danny Stutsman, Billy Bowman Jr. and Ethan Downs and complimented by rising stars like former five-star recruits P.J. Adebawore, Peyton Bowen and David Stone.

The wit of a Madden expert turned defensive guru, combined with OU’s plethora of defensive talent, makes for an exciting upcoming season in Norman, and the potential to reinstate OU as a top level defense with Zac Alley at the helm.

“They’re (OU) getting a fountain of youth and knowledge,” Venable said. “I think they’re getting that next up-and-coming name in college football.”