Ellis Rainsberger

Head coach, Kansas State, 1975 to 1977

College career5-28

Program liftNo. 870tied · 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.

0-3 against his rivals. Winless in 3 tries against Al Onofrio.

Rivalry record

0-3

0.0% · 1 rival

One-score games

3-7

30.0% · margin ≤8

Against Blue Bloods or better

0-6

0.0%

Rivalry ledger

Kansas0-30%

The toughest matchup

vs. Al Onofrio0-3

3 meetings, 1975–1977

’75 L’76 L’77 L

0% win rate across a real, 3-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

0-2 0.0%

Blue Blood

0-4 0.0%

Power Program

0-9 0.0%

National Program

2-12 14.3%

Regional Program

1-1 50.0%

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 (1975-1977) 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 1975, 1976, 1977 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
1978	R3.02	Gary Spani	Linebacker	Kansas City Chiefs	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.