Photo Courtesy of Zac Alley’s X Account
New WVU Football head coach Rich Rodriguez has hired his first key piece to his coaching staff, hiring Oklahoma’s Zac Alley as the Mountaineers’ new defensive coordinator.
Alley spent two seasons being the defensive coordinator underneath Rodriguez at Jacksonville State in the 2022 and 2023 seasons. Prior to that, Alley got his first DC position at UL Monroe in 2021.
As the Co-DC at Oklahoma this past season, Alley called one of the premier defenses in all of the SEC, which beat Alabama without allowing a touchdown. All season long, OU allowed just 21.6 points per game.
In 2023, Alley coached alongside Rodriguez at Jacksonville State and put together a 33rd ranked team in scoring defense. The Gamecocks also had an NCAA best 13 different players record an intersection that season.
Alley, 30, also became the youngest defensive coordinator in the FBS level back in 2021 when he took the UL Monroe position at 27 years old.
Prior to his time as a defensive coordinator, Alley spent a lot of time coaching linebackers and spent several seasons doing so at Clemson during the Tigers’ peak era. During his time coaching the Tigers’ linebackers, Alley won four ACC titles and two National Championships in 2016 and 2018 while having some of the best LBs in the country.
The challenge will be there for Alley as he replaces Jordan Lesley and Jeff Koonz at WVU which had one of the bottom ranked defenses in the nation this season.
Alley will officially be reunited with Rodriguez as the two will attempt to build back the Mountaineers to their glory days. No contract details have been released at this time.
