Zac Alley reportedly got quite the pay raise to leave Oklahoma for West Virginia.
Alley left his position as the Sooners' co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach for West Virginia, where he was announced as the program's assistant head coach, defensive coordinator and linebackers coach on Dec. 29.
According to Tulsa World's Eric Bailey on Thursday, Alley's contract with West Virginia is a three-year deal worth $4.5 million. Alley will reported have a yearly salary of $1.5 million.
For comparison, Alley's salary during his only season with OU was $850,000. He was expected to eventually get $50,000 raises the next two years, but that still would not have equalled what the Mountaineers are paying him now.
That wasn't the only incentive West Virginia offered Alley, though, according to Bailey. The Mountaineers also gave Alley $100,000 for moving expenses and up to $15,000 for temporary housing.
Many scratched their heads when Alley made the move from Oklahoma to West Virginia for a similar position, but reasons are now starting to add up.
Obviously West Virginia nearly doubled Alley's salary, but he was also given more power and a better title. Even outside of Alley's new position of assistant head coach at West Virginia, he was also only co-defensive coordinator with the Sooners. Although calling defensive plays, Alley still shared that co-defensive coordinator title with two other coaches at OU.
OU coach Brent Venables, a former defensive coordinator, was also known to be highly involved with the defense and what system the Sooners run.
Alley made the move from the SEC to the Big 12 simply for more money and power, as most of us would in our careers. He also re-joined Rich Rodriguez, who is West Virginia's new head coach and was Alley's boss at Jacksonville State and Louisiana-Monroe.
Nearly two weeks later, Venables has yet to replace Alley with a new defensive coordinator, but the Sooners are reportedly after a "big name." If that's true, then OU would have to pay a "big name" a lot more than it was paying Alley, who took the job as a 30-year-old up-and-coming coach.
Read more about OU's defensive coordinator search
- 5 dream 'big name' defensive coordinator candidates for Oklahoma
- Who could be Oklahoma's next defensive coordinator?
- Oklahoma has in-house options for next defensive coordinator