Usage / Role
88%
Featured defensive role
lowfeatured
Player Dossier
2021-2025Kansas State
Desmond Purnell
LB • 6'0" • 232 lbs • Topeka, KS, USA
Ball-hunting defenderSplash play profile
Desmond Purnell shows a ball-hunting defender profile with 43.3 disruption score.
Impact Production
100
Top-tier box-score impact for a linebacker
lowelite
Reliability
73
Reliable weekly contributor
lowhigh
Star Power
87
Elite ceiling indicators
limitedstar
Career Arc
Value trend by season
Best season by Season Value: 2025 Regular Season · Kansas State
21222323242425
Snapshot
- Career Teams
- 1
- Unique Seasons
- 5
- Program Path
- Kansas State
- Peak Game
- Peak game by takeover score: TCU
Player Story
Desmond Purnell built his college career from 2021 through 2025 as a linebacker from Topeka, KS wearing No. 32, spending time with Kansas State. The clearest part of Desmond Purnell's career was his defensive...
Read the story3★
- Committed To
- Kansas State
- Commit Date
- Jan 1, 2021
Desmond Purnell, LB. Best season Best season by Season Value: 2025 Regular Season · Kansas State. Desmond Purnell shows a ball-hunting defender profile with 43.3 disruption score.
Stat Footprint
Career production snapshot
- Tackles
- 186
- TFL
- 23.5
- Sacks
- 8
- QB hurries
- 18
- Passes defended
- 9
- Touchdowns
- 4
Quick Answers
Desmond Purnell quick answers
- Latest team and position
- Kansas State · LB
- Career Tackles
- 186
- Tracked sample
- 5 unique seasons · 7 entries · 47 games
- Best season
- 2025 Regular Season · Kansas State
- Top game
- TCU
- Recruit profile
- 3-star · Hayden · Kansas State
- High school pipeline
- Hayden · 2 FBS recruits · 0 drafted players
- Latest roster
- No. 32 · Senior
- 2025 Tackles rank
- 72 tackles · LB 154th (top 13%) · Big 12 30th (top 5%) · National 244th (top 4%)
Season Ledger
Crawlable season-by-season stats
| Season | Team | Games | Tackles | TFL | Sacks | QB Hur | PD | TD | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 Regular Season | Kansas State | 0 | 0 | - | 0 | - | - | 0 | - |
| 2022 Regular Season | Kansas State | 9 | 17 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 27.4 |
| 2023 Postseason | Kansas State | 13 | 4 | 1 | 0 | - | - | 0 | 53.7 |
| 2023 Regular Season | Kansas State | 13 | 47 | 3.5 | 0.5 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 53.7 |
| 2024 Postseason | Kansas State | 13 | 2 | 0.5 | 0.5 | - | - | 0 | 60.1 |
| 2024 Regular Season | Kansas State | 13 | 44 | 9 | 3.5 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 60.1 |
| 2025 Regular Season | Kansas State | 12 | 72 | 8.5 | 3.5 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 71.5 |
Related Context
Keep exploring Desmond Purnell
Desmond Purnell played LB for Kansas State. Across 5 tracked seasons, Desmond Purnell recorded 186 tackles and 4 touchdowns. His top tracked season came in 2025 with Kansas State.
Player insights
Lead takeaway
Best season by value score: 2025 Regular Season
Kansas State paired 24 primary output with 43.3 efficiency.
Supporting note
2025 Regular Season role shape
impact-led usage with 43.3 efficiency.
Supporting note
Career value is trending up
2025 Regular Season improved on the prior stop by season value score.
Supporting note
Peak game by takeover score: TCU
Win with 7 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet. It landed in the 100th percentile of the selected season.
Analysis workspace
Season Workbench
Filter the strongest season sample, inspect game-level shape, and then drop into the full log without losing the story of the year.
Season Explorer
Understand the selected season before dropping into the full game log.
2025 Regular Season · Kansas State
Games
12
Havoc Plays / G
2
Efficiency
43.3
Usage
12.7
Consistency
42.5
Best Game by takeover score
TCU
Hover a point or expand a game row to keep the active game context visible here.
Active game
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Game-by-Game Trend
Follow how the selected stat changes from one game to the next. Spikes mark standout outings, while dips show quieter weeks.
Chronological game order.
Game by game trend chart. North Dakota: 0. Iowa State: 2. Army: 1. Arizona: 0.5. UCF: 1. Baylor: 1. TCU: 7. Kansas: 4.5. Texas Tech: 2. Oklahoma State: 2. Utah: 0. Colorado: 3
Volume vs Efficiency
Each dot is a game. Farther right means the player carried more of the workload, and higher means they were more efficient with those chances.
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High volumeHigh quality
Low volumeLower quality
High volumeLower quality
Volume on the x-axis, quality on the y-axis.
Volume versus efficiency scatter chart. North Dakota: 6 by 25. Iowa State: 1 by 24.2. Army: 10 by 51.7. Arizona: 11 by 50.8. UCF: 1 by 14.2. Baylor: 3 by 22.5. TCU: 5 by 70.8. Kansas: 9 by 82.5. Texas Tech: 4 by 36.7. Oklahoma State: 8 by 53.3. Utah: 5 by 20.8. Colorado: 9 by 67.5
Split Comparison
Compare how this player performed across different situations. "Games" shows how many matchups are included in each split.
Wins2.9 · Games = 6 · +1.8 vs Losses
Losses1.1 · Games = 6 · -1.8 vs Wins
Game Log
Dense stat lines with inline explanations and season-linked highlights.
12 games
Featured metric
Havoc Plays
Top game by takeover score
TCU
Best efficiency game
82.5 vs Kansas
| Result | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sat 11/29 | vs ColoradoSplash game | W 24-14 | 9 | 8 | — | 2 | 1 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 11/22 | @ Utah | L 47-51 | 5 | 2 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 11/15 | @ Oklahoma StateSplash game | W 14-6 | 8 | 6 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 11/1 | vs Texas TechSplash game | L 20-43 | 4 | 3 | — | 1.50 | 0.50 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 10/25 | @ KansasSplash game | W 42-17 | 9 | 5 | — | 1.50 | 1 | — | 1 | — | — |
| Sat 10/11 | vs TCUSplash game | W 41-28 | 5 | 4 | — | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | — | — |
| Sat 10/4 | @ Baylor | L 34-35 | 3 | 2 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 9/27 | vs UCF | W 34-20 | 1 | 1 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 9/13 | @ Arizona10+ tackles | L 17-23 | 11 | 5 | — | 0.50 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 9/6 | vs Army10+ tackles | L 21-24 | 10 | 10 | — | 1 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 8/30 | vs North Dakota | W 38-35 | 6 | 5 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | — | — |
| Sat 8/23 | vs Iowa StateSplash game | L 21-24 | 1 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | — | 1 | — | — |
Player Story
Desmond Purnell story
Desmond Purnell built his college career from 2021 through 2025 as a linebacker from Topeka, KS wearing No. 32, spending time with Kansas State. The clearest part of Desmond Purnell's career was his defensive production: 186 tackles, 23.5 tackles for loss, 8 sacks, and 3 interceptions across 47 career games in the available record. His largest box-score season came in 2025 with Kansas State. Those numbers show where he fit, how often the ball or action found him, and how his role developed over time.
Defensive careers can be hard to read from one number, but Desmond Purnell's production has multiple signals. His career also includes 17 return yards, giving the story more than a single-category snapshot. With 47 career games in the available record, his career has enough shape to show both opportunity and production across Kansas State.
The arc is straightforward: Desmond Purnell moved through the depth chart, found a larger role, and turned that opportunity into production that can be understood through standard football numbers.
Career Arc
Track team changes, role shifts, and season-to-season movement.
- 1
Kansas State
2021-2025
Opening stop
Season Value Progression
2021202220232023202420242025
| Season | Team | Primary | Efficiency | Usage | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 Regular Season | Kansas State | 0 | — | — | — |
| 2022 Regular Season | Kansas State | 5 | 13.4 | 3.2 | 5 |
| 2023 Postseason | Kansas State | 12 | 25.6 | 8.7 | 7 |
| 2023 Regular Season | Kansas State | 12 | 25.6 | 8.7 | 0 |
| 2024 Postseason | Kansas State | 20.5 | 30.5 | 9.2 | 8.5 |
| 2024 Regular Season | Kansas State | 20.5 | 30.5 | 9.2 | 0 |
| 2025 Regular Season | Kansas State | 24 | 43.3 | 12.7 | 3.5 |
Signature Performances
Top Games
#1 Featured game
vs No. 37 TCU
Week 7 · W 41-28 · Conference game
Win with 7 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.
7
Havoc Plays
90.3 takeover
7 disruption/tackle impact with 90.3 takeover score.
#2
vs Arizona State
Week 12 · L 14-24 · Conference game
3
Havoc Plays
86.4 takeover
Loss with 3 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.
3 disruption/tackle impact with 86.4 takeover score.
#3
vs Kansas
Week 9 · W 29-27 · Conference game
3
Havoc Plays
83.6 takeover
Win with 3 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.
3 disruption/tackle impact with 83.6 takeover score.
#4
@ No. 58 Kansas
Week 9 · W 42-17 · Conference game
4.5
Havoc Plays
82.3 takeover
Win with 4.5 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.
4.5 disruption/tackle impact with 82.3 takeover score.
#5
@ Texas
Week 10 · L 30-33 · Conference game
2
Havoc Plays
80.3 takeover
Loss with 2 impact plays across the defensive snap sheet.
2 disruption/tackle impact with 80.3 takeover score.
Top Seasons
#1 Season by Season Value
2025 Regular Season · Kansas State
24 primary output · 43.3 efficiency · 12.7 usage
71.5
#2
2024 Postseason · Kansas State
60.1
20.5 primary · 30.5 efficiency · 9.2 usage
#3
2024 Regular Season · Kansas State
60.1
20.5 primary · 30.5 efficiency · 9.2 usage
Milestones
12
Impact games
15
Splash games
2
10+ tackle games
Next best actions
Keep exploring Desmond Purnell
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