1968 Illinois
1–9 (1–6 Big Ten), coached by James Valek. Share
Schedule and results
- Biggest winBeat Northwestern 14–0Nov 16
By 14 points, its widest win.
| Date | Opponent | Result | Elo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 21 | vs Kansas | L 7–47 | 55% |
| Sep 28 | vs Missouri | L 0–44 | 43% |
| Oct 5 | at Indiana | L 14–28 | 27% |
| Oct 12 | at Minnesota | L 10–17 | 22% |
| Oct 19 | at 6Notre Dame | L 8–58 | 12% |
| Oct 26 | vs 2Ohio State | L 24–31 | 24% |
| Nov 2 | at 6Purdue | L 17–35 | 11% |
| Nov 9 | at 7Michigan | L 0–36 | 14% |
| Nov 16 | vs Northwestern | W 14–0 | 58% |
| Nov 23 | vs Iowa | L 13–37 | 50% |
Elo: a pregame chance from scores alone.
How it ended: Lost to Iowa 37–13; unranked in the final AP poll; tied for 8th in the Big Ten.
In program history: The 126th-best season in program history by end-of-season Elo (of 135 on file).
Players on this team
Before 2004 our records hold honors and the draft; these are the players whose college years here, from their Wikipedia articles or their honors, include 1968.
- Record
- 1–9
- Conference
- 1–6 tied for 8th in Big Ten
- AP final
- Unranked
- Points
- 107–333
- Coach
- James Valek
- Elo
- 1332 −136 this season
- SP+ rating
- —
- SRS
- −4.9 No. 79 of 119 major-college teams
- Recruiting class
- —
- Offensive coordinator
- Ellis Rainsberger
- Captains
- Carson Brooks and Tony Pleviak
- Most valuable player
- Rich Johnson
Drafted in 1969
The 1969 draft| Rd 3 | Rich Johnson RB | Houston Oilers |
| Rd 5 | Tony Pleviak DE | Atlanta Falcons |
All-Big Ten
1 second teamSecond team
Rich JohnsonRBAP-2; UPI-2
From Wikipedia’s 1968 all-conference team article, with the selectors that named each player (AP-1: the Associated Press’s first team).
1968 Big Ten standings
Conference page| Team | Conf. | Overall | AP final |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ohio State | 7–0 | 10–0 | 1 |
| Michigan | 6–1 | 8–2 | 12 |
| Purdue | 5–2 | 8–2 | 10 |
| Minnesota | 5–2 | 6–4 | |
| Indiana | 4–3 | 6–4 | |
| Iowa | 4–3 | 5–5 | |
 Michigan State | 2–5 | 5–5 | |
| Northwestern | 1–6 | 1–9 | |
| Illinois | 1–6 | 1–9 | |
 Wisconsin | 0–7 | 0–10 |
Ordered by conference winning percentage, then conference wins. Division splits and tiebreakers aren’t applied.