James Valek

Head coach, Illinois, 1967 to 1970

College career8-32

Program liftNo. 1,290of 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.

2-2 against his rivals. Winless in 4 tries against John Pont.

Rivalry record

2-2

50.0% · 1 rival

One-score games

5-8

38.5% · margin ≤8

Against Blue Bloods or better

0-5

0.0%

Rivalry ledger

Northwestern2-250%

The toughest matchup

vs. John Pont0-4

4 meetings, 1967–1970

’67 L’68 L’69 L’70 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

Blue Blood

0-5 0.0%

Power Program

3-12 20.0%

National Program

4-6 40.0%

Regional Program

1-9 10.0%

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 (1967-1970) 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 least5Drafted

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 5 — his 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970 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 · 5 estimated

Most recent picks first

Year	Pick	Player	Pos	NFL team	Note
1971	R6.12	Doug Dieken	Offensive Tackle	Cleveland Browns	Estimated
1969	R3.26	Rich Johnson	Running Back	Houston Oilers	Estimated
1969	R5.23	Tony Pleviak	Defensive End	Atlanta Falcons	Estimated
1968	R2.12	Cyril Pinder	Running Back	Philadelphia Eagles	Estimated
1968	R2.26	John Wright	Wide Receiver	Atlanta Falcons	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.