U of Illinois head football coach Ron Zook is an absolutely dogged recruiter and coming off a top season for the program, complete with Rose Bowl appearance as the sacrificial lamb to USC and Pete Carroll.

So, what is he doing for a follow-up with this new-found attention on what used to be a floundering program? He and his football team will be part of a season of reality TV on the BIG TEN NETWORK.

The CHICAGO TRIBUNE’s Teddy Greenstein says “Illinois Football: The Journey” will be a 10-13 episode series airing on the conference’s cable channel, which has had some difficulty getting off the ground and into homes.

Minnesota hoops coach Tubby Smith and his program were the subject of the first season of the show, and Zook noted that Smith’s experience made him more agreeable to the idea:

“I talked with Tubby and he was impressed with their professionalism,” Zook said. “He had the same fears in the beginning as I do.”

Chief among those fears?

“This will be like having someone in your bedroom,” Zook said.

Zook will likely be more interesting than Kansas City Chiefs coach Herman Edwards was on the last season of HBO’s “Hard Knocks,” but I don’t think “The Journey” will be able to top the madness that will be this season’s “Hard Knocks” with the Dallas Cowboys. I cursed just ever so slightly when I read that Rich Rodriguez passed on allowing access to the Michigan rebuilding process.

Zook is not a horrible fallback choice, though — with a program that could thrive or flop after a breakout season and a need to recruit, he’ll probably be an entertaining character, especially if the producers can get him to explain why Rashard Mendenhall doesn’t seem to like him any more.

Zook said he also received the green light from his daughter, Jacquelyn, an actress who lives in Los Angeles.

“She was all for it,” her dad said.

Hmmm. Question for BTN producer Leon Schweir: can you find a way to work in a guest appearance?