Pat Culpepper

Head coach, Northern Illinois, 1976 to 1979

College career14-29-1

Program liftNo. 1,117tied · 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.

1-7 against his rivals. Winless in 4 tries against Elliot Uzelac.

Rivalry record

1-7

12.5% · 2 rivals

One-score games

7-3-1

63.6% · margin ≤8

Rivalry ledger

Ball State0-40%

Toledo1-325%

The toughest matchup

vs. Elliot Uzelac0-4

4 meetings, 1976–1979

’76 L’77 L’78 L’79 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

National Program

1-10 9.1%

Regional Program

12-15 44.4%

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 (1976-1979) 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 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979 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
1977	R5.26	Ken Moore	Tight End	Minnesota Vikings	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.