- Nebraska Head Coach, 1907-10
- Nebraska Record: 25-8-3
William C. "King" Cole took over the reins after playing football under College Football Hall of Fame Coach Fielding Yost at Michigan. Yost was also the coach at Nebraska in 1898.
On Nov. 23, 1907, Cole coached Nebraska to an 85-0 win over Doane in the last game on the field that preceded the Nebraska Athletic Field. His last game as coach was a 119-0 win over Haskell, which still ranks as the most points a Cornhusker team has ever scored.
In his first season at Nebraska in 1907, Cole's club posted five shutouts and rolled to an 8-2 record and a share of the Missouri Valley Conference title.
In 1908, the Cornhuskers added a 7-2-1 mark, including a 20-0 victory over Peru State in the first-ever game at the Nebraska Athletic Field. In 1909, Cole's Huskers slipped to 3-3-2 on the season, before rebounding for a 7-1-0 record that included a 2-0 Missouri Valley mark for Nebraska's first-ever unshared MVC crown. NU's 1910 unit posted six shutouts with its only loss coming at Minnesota on Oct. 15.
In his last five games as Nebraska's coach, Cole led the Huskers to a 5-0 mark while outscoring the opposition, 182-0.
Cole graduated from Marietta in 1902. He came to Nebraska after spending the 1905 and 1906 seasons as the head coach at the University of Virginia, where he posted a 12-6-2 record.
Cole also served as an assistant coach at Michigan following his playing career. As an assistant coach under Yost in 1904, Cole helped the Wolverines to a 10-0 season and a mythical national title. Future Nebraska head football and track coach Henry Schulte was an All-Big Ten left guard/center for that Michigan club.