Zac Alley sounds like Brent Venables, but OU's defensive coordinator is a new voice at the right time
Alley's understanding of and perspective on Venables' defense may unlock a new level.
NORMAN — Close your eyes, and listen to the voice.
It's intense. It's energetic. It's raspy, like the speaker swallowed some sandpaper.
Brent Venables?
Sure could be. But after Friday's blowout of Temple, Sooners everywhere got to hear with their own ears for the first time just how much Zac Alley sounds like his OU boss.
"I know everybody says I sound like him," the Sooner defensive coordinator acknowledged during his first press conference since he arrived in Norman. "I don’t know if I agree with that."
That makes one of us.
Alley is a tonal twin of Venables, which is trippy. But there’s something much more important for the Sooners: Alley is a disciple who preaches the Venables gospel of defense but does it in his own way. Alley sounds like Venables but is a new voice for the Sooner defense. That is hugely important as OU continues to build and prepares to enter the SEC.
Nothing against Ted Roof. I suspect he did a decent job as defensive coordinator the past couple of years.
But Alley knows Venables and his defense as well as anyone.
When Venables went from OU to Clemson in 2012, Alley was already a student coach for the Tigers. Venables arrived on campus a few days after the spring semester started in January, and Alley remembers meeting Venables, shaking his hand and making sure the new defensive coordinator didn't think he was a player.
"Hey, I'm a student assistant," Alley remembers saying. "I'm just volunteering. I'll move chairs for you. Whatever you need."
But it wasn't long before Venables tasked Alley with more than moving chairs. In those early days at Clemson, Venables holed up watching video of the Tigers.
Alley was by his side for as many as nine hours a day.
For three years, he was a student assistant working with Venables. Then for four more years, he became a Clemson graduate assistant working with defensive tackles and linebackers, the position group Venables oversaw.
The bond between Venables and Alley went beyond football.
"He's like my second dad," Alley said.
"I love him to death and I'm so appreciative of him. He just makes everybody around him better. He’s just one of those guys who you love because how he holds you to a standard and then loves you the same way."
Alley became so close with Venables that when he got the head coaching job at OU in late 2021, Alley thought he might get a call about coming to Norman. He had spent a couple of years as an assistant at Boise State, then was the defensive coordinator at Louisiana-Monroe.
But Venables hired Roof and Alley went to Jacksonville State.
"I believe everything happens in God’s timing," Alley said. "It does. I think me being here now is exactly what my path was supposed to be. God had a plan that’s always better than my own, and I’m just thankful for it now."
Truth is, Alley may have come at the perfect time for the Sooners, too.
The defense made great strides over the past two years. The talent and the depth have improved. Ditto for the understanding and execution of Venables' defense
Having Alley on board may be the thing that takes the Sooners to the next level. He has an acute understanding of the defense — though he's likely bringing his own twists and variations — but he can offer a different take on what Venables has been drilling into the Sooners
Alley says veterans like Danny Stutsman, Billy Bowman and Ethan Downs were standouts before he arrived. But everyone can improve, and Alley may be unlocking that next level.
In the opener, after all, the Sooners held the Owls to 197 yards, the fewest by an FBS opponent since Kansas managed only 155 yards in 2017. OU also forced six turnovers, five by the defense and one by special teams, and had nine tackles for loss, including six sacks.
And before anyone pooh-poohs any of that because Temple is so lowly, remember that OU has played other bad teams in recent years.
To borrow a golf analogy, perhaps Alley is taking the Sooners from having a three or four handicap to being scratch golfers.
"I just try to help them every day, help them understand it better and hopefully communicate maybe in a way that’s different, help them see it some way that helps them feel more confident and remember it or execute better," Alley said. "Always try to find little things like that to be right."
No doubt his long association with Venables helps with that, but so might Alley's age.
Hired when he was only 30, he's not that much older than his players. And with super seniors and COVID years and all that, the gap has closed even closer.
"I grew up in the social media era. I had online classes, so similar to how they experience things throughout their college career," Alley said. "I’ve been a part of that more recently than a lot of guys have.
"So, it just creates a natural bond and understanding of what they’re going through and what it looks like."
Perhaps that bond was on display after Friday's game. When Venables gave Alley the game ball for the defense's dominating performance — Venables said after the game that Alley called the entire game — the players didn't just cheer. They lifted Alley off his feet and held him over their heads.
They crowd surfed him.
They tossed him.
"I thought I was going to flip on my head about halfway through," Alley said. "They were trying to lower me down. I was vertical backwards for a minute, but I think Bauer Sharp caught me, lowered me back to the ground."
(Another catch by the Sooner tight end on Friday night.)
Alley talked about how proud he was of the defense. About how the players listened and learned. About how they took the toughness and effort and coaching into the game.
"Just to get to see that on display (Friday night), more than anything, I feel like we played a game where, man, no matter who it was that got in had the opportunity and they played hard," Alley said.
Again, close your eyes, and listen to the voice, and you might not know if it was Alley or Venables.
Same tone.
Same message.
But different delivery. And we might just be seeing how hearing Alley's voice is taking the Sooners to the next level.