Voting Station

Bill Jennings

Please vote to see the next celebrity.

Football Coach

The Resume

    (March 13, 1918-June 8, 2002)
    Born in Norman, Oklahoma
    Former football head coach, Nebraska Cornhuskers (1957-1961)
    Coached for Bud Wilkinson at Oklahoma, 1947-1954
    15-34-1 record at Nebraska
    Assistant coach at Kansas 1962-65
    Athletic Director, Washburn University

Why he might be annoying:

    When he left Oklahoma to assist Pete Elliott at Nebraska, he turned in the Sooners’ head coach Bud Wilkinson for recruiting violations.
    He had one year of high school head coaching experience when Nebraska hired him to succeed Elliott when Elliott left after one losing season.
    In a remarkable bit of irony, Omaha football star Gale Sayers rejected Nebraska for the University of Kansas after Jennings’ staff clumsily tried to bribe him to become a Cornhusker.
    At a 1961 fundraiser, he told Cornhusker fans, “We can’t feed the ego of the state of Nebraska with the football team. I don’t think this state will be good at anything.” He was fired after that season.
    He was mostly forgotten until Scott Frost's massive failure as Cornhusker coach drew comparisons to his tenure.
    'With Bill, you always had some ups and downs,' said Warren Powers, who played at Nebraska from 1960 to 1962. 'You would knock off the impossible and get beat by the impossible.'

Why he might not be annoying:

    During his five years at Nebraska, Jennings' teams upset Texas, Ohio State, Penn State and Pittsburgh.
    His 1959 Cornhusker team ended Wilkinson’s 77-game conference win streak, and his 1960 defeat of the Sooners was the first back-to-back win over Oklahoma since 1940.
    He was one of the nation’s best recruiters, and the talent he gathered at Nebraska set the foundation for the Cornhusker football success under Bob Devaney and Tom Osborne.
    He created unusual formations, including the Tandem T, which featured two quarterbacks under center. The formation was soon declared illegal.
    When he was fired, reporters and friends were actually relieved because they believed the pressure of coaching at Nebraska was killing him.
    Oddly, he became Sayers’ running back coach at Kansas after his firing.

Credit: BrotherGrem


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 5 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 4 Votes: 25.00% Annoying