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Corey Hetherman, Zac Alley, and More: Top Five Defensive Coordinator Hires

Top five Defensive Coordinator hires led by Miami landing Corey Heterman and Zac Alley going to West Virginia

Avatar photoMike Huesmann
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By Mike Huesmann

Today we move over to the defensive side of the ball after my recent offensive coordinator list. We have two heavyweight names in Jim Knowles and Tom Allen who were omitted simply because everyone knows them. This list looks different in one fact that maybe only I noticed, all of these five hires were hired away from a P4 school and all, except Hitschler, were coordinators last year. That tells me the coaches hiring them wanted proven experience and were less willing to take risks. Overall, I am much more impressed with the defensive hires as a whole compared to the offense. Here are the five defensive coordinator hires that I love.

Corey Hetherman

Miami

A neophyte to the FCS, he has only been at the top level of college football since 2022. Prior to that he had been DC at Maine and James Madison. A stint with Greg Schiano at Rutgers before moving to Minnesota in 2024; Hetherman only spent one year as P.J. Fleck’s coordinator before Mario Cristobal hired him away after the Canes struggled on D last year. Hetherman was instrumental last year in Koi Perich being one of the elite freshmen in the nation.

Tony White

Florida State

White is probably the most well-known of this group. He has been DC at Arizona State and comes to Tallahassee after two seasons as Matt Rhule’s deputy at Nebraska. He is a guy whose name has been mentioned for multiple head coaching vacancies at the FBS level and, with any success, will land one soon. The UCLA alumnus has coached many top-notch DB’s and is known for recruiting and preparing these guys for the next level. In a season where Mike Norvell must win, he got his coordinator hires right.

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Colin Hitschler

James Madison

Speaking of James Madison, they made a good hire here in getting Hitschler away from Alabama where he was safeties coach and co-defensive coordinator. Prior to that he had been a long-time lieutenant to Luke Fickell at both Cincinnati and Wisconsin. He has had the dual role of safeties coach and Co-DC at both of those schools. Not everything went right for him and the Tide this year, but he is still a younger coach with tremendous upside. For a G5 school, this is a big get.

Zac Alley

West Virginia

Alley is another coach who’s had a meteoric rise up the ladder. He became a D1 coordinator at only 27 years old at ULM where he was an assistant coach with Rich Rodriguez. He then followed Rich Rod to Jacksonville State and helped them transition to FBS football. Alley spent 2024 as the DC at Oklahoma in their maiden season in the SEC. The Sooner defense was top 20 nationally overall and was elite at forcing fumbles and defensive scores. It was a massive hire for Rodriguez to hire Alley away from Oklahoma on his return to West Virginia.

Scottie Hazelton

Wake Forest

Another coach from the North Dakota State tree of success, Hazelton left NDSU earlier than most for the USC Trojans to be Lane Kiffin’s assistant. He has since been DC at Nevada, Wyoming, Kansas State, and Michigan State with additional assistant stops with the Jacksonville Jaguars and Texas. When Jake Dickert left Washington State for Wake Forest, Hazelton was among his initial hires. His defenses will play hard nosed, fundamental, and smart football which should help the Demon Deacons improve quickly. 

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