If it's Alley after Roof, will Venables turn him loose, finally becoming a full-time head coach?
Following Thursday’s announcement Oklahoma and defensive coordinator Ted Roof were parting ways, all we know for certain is the Sooner football program’s lost its best dresser.
Say what you want about Roof, he has a great tailor.
We are, though, all but certain who’ll replace Roof and that’s Zac Alley, who, it’s been reported has already alerted Jacksonville State, where he’s spent the last two seasons, he’s on the way out.
Prior to the Gamecocks, Alley spent one season coordinating Louisiana-Monroe’s defense, at which he became the nation’s youngest defensive coordinator at 28.
For the purposes of the rest of this, let’s presume no vetting issues go awry and Brent Venables gets his man, a man with whom he already has a history, for Alley was a grad assistant focusing on defense at Clemson from 2015 to ’18.
We should also point out Alley has impressed in Jacksonville, where in their first season as an FBS program, the Gamecocks led Conference USA in several defensive categories: total defense (352.8 ypg), scoring defense (21.2 ppg) and rushing defense (111.5 ypg) to name three.
Though you have to wonder if a barely 30-something’s ready to run his own unit in the SEC following one season in Conference USA, you can’t dismiss Alley’s success.
In the context of his conference, in which 75 percent of the Gamecocks’ regular-season games were played, his defense was outstanding.
Thus, taking age out of it, it’s a defendable hire, perhaps a very good hire and, who knows, a potential all-time hire.
What it isn’t, however, is a hire telling us anything about how Venables will define his own job next season, a decision that may have everything to do with how Alley’s role’s defined, not to mention his ability to be successful at it.
Entering this past season, Venables made headlines when he explained he’d be diving into the Sooner defense in a way he hadn't his rookie season.
Assuming that’s what happened, it worked, at least reasonably well.
OU allowed 23.5 points per game after allowing 30. It allowed 389.4 yards per game after allowing 461.
It created more turnovers, tackled opponents for loss more often and was very good on third down.
What the Sooner defense was not was consistent, especially the second half of the season when it should have been improving rather than regressing, allowing 442 yards and 31 points to UCF, 440 yards and 33 points to Kansas, 480 yards and 27 points to Oklahoma State and 520 yards and 45 points to TCU in four of their OU’s last six conference games.
Did a power struggle emerge between Venables and Roof?
Were competing voices part of the reason the defense got worse, not better, over time?
Or maybe that wasn’t the problem at all.
Maybe Venables and Roof got along swimmingly, the latter under the dominion of the former, yet being a full-time head coach and a full-time defensive coordinator even wears out a man of Venables’ legendary energy and by the halfway point of the season, he produced diminishing returns in both roles.
I’ll take that one.
Following Venables’ rookie season, it appeared clear whatever role he was playing with the defense, it was detracting from his head coaching role.
But maybe that was wrong.
Maybe the truth was he had no real idea, come Saturday, what was required of him, because process, culture and relationships are great, but you’ve still got to make fourth down choices, still have to clock manage, still have to get in the way of your offensive coordinator’s foolishness when he’s being foolish and Venables simply wasn’t equipped.
This past season, he was clearly a better head coach and, at whatever level he meddled or actually ran the defense, it improved.
But it wasn’t optimum.
Optimum was Barry Switzer’s legendary run, beginning in 1973, when he became head coach and promptly quit being offensive coordinator. OU still ran the wishbone, yes, but Switzer quit directing the unit.
Optimum is what Bob Stoops did, leaving Florida and the defensive coordinator role he held there behind to become head coach here, hiring his brother and Venables to co-coordinate the defense.
Presuming Alley’s the guy, you have to wonder if he’s Venables’ choice because, the two having a history, Venables trusts him to run the unit.
Or if it’s the opposite:
The two having a history, and Alley so young, the rookie hire will happily allow Venables’ intrusion as he continues inhabiting dual roles.
Occasionally, I think, so committed to winning, Venables will master the art of letting go, adding value everywhere without diminishing his assistant coaches anywhere.
Just as frequently, I believe Venables constitutionally incapable of letting go of his past, of fully embracing his ascension and, despite being so good at so many things, he'll never reach optimum.
Alley may be a wonderful choice.
He may absolutely be the right guy for the job.
His being allowed to do it is a whole other question.