Posted by: Pete Roussel on April 30, 2012

Early Monday morning, Ron Zook told Bill King of SiriusXM's College Sports Today, "Four out of the top forty-eight, that's pretty good."

Zook was referring to the four former Illinois players in which he recruited and coached that were drafted over the weekend.

The players drafted were Mercilus Whitney (1st round - Houston Texans), A.J. Jenkins (1st round - San Francisco 49ers), Jeff Allen (2nd round - Kansas City Chiefs), and Tavon Wilson (2nd round - New England Patriots).

Zook said, "You get a chance to talk to them and it really makes you proud that they're appreciative. Like I told all four of them this weekend, this is only the beginning.  You got to really turn it up, now."

It's the second consecutive year that Zook watched four Illinois players drafted.  Corey Liuget (1st round), Mikel Leshoure (2nd round), Martez Wilson (3rd round), and Nate Bussey (7th round) were drafted.

Although Zook isn't coaching, he's staying around the game.  In fact, Zook has been spending time with Jon Gruden during his ESPN QB Camp sessions.

Zook said, "Jon Gruden does a great, great, great job with them.  If people knew the amount of time he put into each one, they wouldn't believe it.  It's about a five hour session and then the film part."

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