Cecil Isbell

Head coach, Purdue, 1944 to 1946

College career14-14-1

Program liftNo. 720tied · 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 Bo McMillin.

Rivalry record

0-3

0.0% · 1 rival

One-score games

4-4-1

44.4% · margin ≤8

Against Blue Bloods or better

1-1

50.0%

Rivalry ledger

Indiana0-30%

The toughest matchup

vs. Bo McMillin0-3

3 meetings, 1944–1946

’44 L’45 L’46 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

Blue Blood

1-1 50.0%

Power Program

1-6 14.3%

National Program

4-4 50.0%

Regional Program

3-1 75.0%

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 (1944-1946) 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 least2Drafted

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 2 — his 1944, 1945, 1946 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 · 2 estimated

Most recent picks first

Year	Pick	Player	Pos	NFL team	Note
1946	R5.33				Estimated
1945	R6.41				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.