Al Conover

Head coach, Rice, 1972 to 1975

College career14-28-2

Program liftNo. 579tied · of 1,290 tenures since 1937

Now

Career arc

Stats

Big games

The big-game ledger

How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.

3-5 against his rivals. Winless in 4 tries against Charles McClendon.

Rivalry record

3-5

37.5% · 2 rivals

One-score games

6-10-2

33.3% · margin ≤8

Against Blue Bloods or better

0-6

0.0%

Rivalry ledger

Houston2-250%

SMU1-325%

The toughest matchup

vs. Charles McClendon0-3-1

4 meetings, 1972–1975

’72 L’73 L’74 T’75 L

0% win rate across a real, 4-meeting series — short of the bar this site uses before badging a series “Nemesis.” Shown here as the toughest matchup on record, not an algorithmic crown.

Performance by opponent class

Blue Blood

0-6 0.0%

Power Program

4-7 36.4%

National Program

4-9 30.8%

Regional Program

5-6 45.5%

Building the roster

Two numbers on how he actually stocks a roster, from signing day to draft day.

1Roster ownership
2The NFL pipeline

Roster ownership

This coach's entire tenure (1972-1975) predates 2021, when transfer-portal tracking begins in this database. Portal usage cannot be measured for this tenure at all -- this is not the same as '0% portal'.

“His own” means the player arrived while he was head coach; “inherited” means a predecessor brought him in.

The NFL pipeline

at least6Drafted

players drafted into the NFL off his teams here (a floor — see the note below). None can be traced to who brought them in — there’s no roster record for these players here.

At least 6 — his 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975 seasons predate the modern 7-round draft, so this table’s pre-1994 pick counts are a floor, not a full count, for those seasons.

0 roster-verified · 6 estimated

Most recent picks first

Year	Pick	Player	Pos	NFL team	Note
1976	R5.28	Rodney Norton	Linebacker	Pittsburgh Steelers	Estimated
1976	R7.24	Larry Brune	Defensive Back	Minnesota Vikings	Estimated
1975	R3.07	Cornelius Walker	Defensive Tackle	Kansas City Chiefs	Estimated
1974	R7.08	Carl Swierc	Wide Receiver	Miami Dolphins	Estimated
1973	R2.01	Gary Butler	Tight End	Kansas City Chiefs	Estimated
1973	R7.20	Rodrigo Barnes	Linebacker	Dallas Cowboys	Estimated

A pick counts toward his tenure when the player’s final college season was one he coached, a checkable rule rather than a claim about who developed the player. A blank note means the player is on a verified roster and arrived on his watch. “Estimated” means no roster record, so the final season is assumed to be the year before the draft.