Zac Alley, who spent the last two seasons on Bryan Harsin’s coaching staff at Boise State after launching his career as a graduate assistant coach for four years under Dabo Swinney at Clemson, is in his first season as defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at ULM.
At the age of 28, Alley is the youngest defensive coordinator in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision. In August, he was identified as one of college football’s rising coaching stars by being named to 247Sports.com’s “30Under30” list heading into the 2021 season.
In 2020, he served as co-special teams coordinator and outside linebackers coach at Boise State. In his two seasons, the Broncos posted a 17-4 record, including an impressive streak of 13 consecutive regular-season wins in Mountain West Conference games.
In his first season as co-special teams coordinator, Avery Williams earned first-team All-America honors from the Football Writers Association of America (kick returner), American Football Coaches Association (all-purpose player), USA TODAY (kick returner) and Sporting News (return specialist). Williams, who ranked among the NCAA FBS leaders in both punt returns (third with 15.3-yard average) and kickoff returns (12th with 28.1 avg.), led the nation in combined kick return yards (762) and special teams touchdowns (4 total: scoring on a pair of kickoff returns and two punt returns).
Under Alley’s guidance, true freshman placekicker Jonah Dalmas led the Broncos in scoring with 51 points, hitting 7-of-8 field-goal attempts and 30-of-31 extra-point attempts. Dalmas, who was selected All-Mountain West honorable mention, ranked second in the league and No. 12 in the NCAA FBS in field-goal percentage (.875).
For his efforts in 2020, Alley was named one of FootballScoop.com’s Special Teams Coordinators of the Year.
In addition, he tutored All-Mountain West Second-Team linebacker Riley Whimpey, who led the Broncos in tackles (61) and tackles for loss (7.5 for 17 yards).
Boise State finished 5-2 in 2020, including a 5-0 mark in league play and advanced to the Mountain West Conference Championship Game against San Jose State in Las Vegas, Nevada.
In 2019, Alley coached the inside linebackers as Boise State produced a 12-2 record overall and finished ranked No. 23 in The Associated Press and No. 22 in the Coaches’ Polls, respectively. The Broncos won the conference’s Mountain Division title with a perfect 8-0 record, defeated Hawaii, 31-10, in the Mountain West Conference Championship Game and earned a trip to 2019 Las Vegas Bowl against Washington. Boise State ranked No. 15 in the NCAA FBS in rushing defense, allowing just 112.7 yards per game.
He previously worked for four years (2015-18) as a graduate assistant at Clemson, his alma mater. Alley spent his entire postgraduate career on the defensive side of the football, where he worked primarily with the defensive tackles and linebackers. In 2018, the Tigers ranked among the NCAA FBS leaders in scoring defense (first at 13.1 points pg.), rushing defense (fourth at 96.3 ypg.) and total defense (fifth at 285.9 ypg.). During his tenure, Clemson won two National Championships, four Atlantic Coast Conference titles and compiled a combined record of 55-4 (.932).
Alley also had a defensive coaching internship with the National Football League’s Carolina Panthers.
He started working as a student assistant in the Clemson Football Office as a freshman in 2011 and spent four years in that capacity while earning his bachelor’s degree in business management in December 2014. Alley completed his master’s in human resource development from Clemson in August 2017.
Alley graduated from Charlotte (N.C.) Country Day School, where he played linebacker and offensive line.
