While the college football coaching carousel has slowed significantly, the NFL world is still working to fill any vacancies as the last head coaching gig was filled on Sunday. Whenever a new head coach is hired it becomes especially scary for college teams with a rising star on their staff as teams have more vacancies to fill.
Notre Dame dealt with the most losses as Marcus Freeman is tasked with hiring new defensive coaches at every position except for coordinator. The latest program to fall victim to the NFL carousel are the Oklahoma Sooners.
Oklahoma loses key coach Jay Valai to the Buffalo Bills
On Monday Morning, the Buffalo Bills hired Oklahoma assistant head coach and co-defensive coordinator Jay Valai as their next defensive backs coach.
More help in Buffalo:
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) February 2, 2026
🏈Giants inside LB coach John Egorugwu is returning to the Bills to do the same job for Buffalo, where he worked from 2018-2020.
🏈Bills also are hiring Oklahoma’s assistant head coach and co-defensive coordinator Jay Valai as their cornerbacks coach.
After his playing career at Wisconsin, Jay Valai has become a rising star in the coaching world. His first role was on Kirby Smart's first staff at Georgia where he served as a Defensive Quality control coach for two seasons. Valai then same the same role under Andy Reid in Kansas City for the 2019 season.
After his work with Georgia and the Chiefs, Jay Valai became a cornerbacks coach for the first time in 2019 on the Rutgers staff. Valai then spent a season with the Texas Longhorns in 2020 and in 2021 with Alabama as a cornerbacks coach.
Valai has spent the most time with the Oklahoma Sooners as Brent Venables hired him in 2022 as the team's co-defensive coordinator. During his time in Norman, the Sooners have had some of the best defenses in the Country thanks in part due to the strength of the secondary. This season, Oklahoma ranked 6th in total defense.
Brent Venables will now need to bring on an assistant to fill the role while he'll likely give a key staffer the co-defensive coordinator tag to keep another school or team from poaching another assistant.