William Jennings

Head coach, Nebraska, 1957 to 1961

College career15-34-1

Program liftNo. 1,066tied · 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.

1-4 against his rivals. Winless in 4 tries against Dan Devine.

Rivalry record

1-4

20.0% · 1 rival

One-score games

11-8-1

55.0% · margin ≤8

Against Blue Bloods or better

2-4

33.3%

Rivalry ledger

Colorado1-420%

The toughest matchup

vs. Dan Devine0-4

4 meetings, 1958–1961

’58 L’59 L’60 L’61 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

Dynasty

0-1 0.0%

Blue Blood

2-3 40.0%

Power Program

3-6 33.3%

National Program

3-11 21.4%

Regional Program

6-13 31.6%

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 (1957-1961) 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 least1Drafted

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 1 — his 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961 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 · 1 estimated

Most recent picks first

Year	Pick	Player	Pos	NFL team	Note
1961	R4.48				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.