Brent Venables is reaching into Alabama’s staff to pluck Nick Saban’s cornerbacks coach, according to a report from Matt Zenitz of On3 Sports.

Oklahoma is targeting Alabama’s Jay Valai for its cornerbacks coach opening, and the expectation is that he will be hired. Valai was added to Alabama’s coaching staff in February of 2021, and the Texas native is a former All-Big Ten defensive back at Wisconsin who boasts both collegiate and NFL coaching experience.

Valai served as cornerbacks coach at Rutgers in 2019 after spending the 2018 season with the Kansas City Chiefs, where he worked as defensive quality control and assistant defensive backs coach. He spent the 2016 and 2017 seasons at Georgia as defensive quality control coach.

Following his playing career, Valai opened a sports-performance training facility and for 6 years (2011-16), he worked with professional athletes from the NBA and NFL, as well as high school athletes, according to his Alabama bio.