LINCOLN — Kyle Crooks practiced the craft of radio play-by-play even when he wasn’t paid to call the games. Sometimes he wasn’t even calling the games.
That’d be the times Nebraska’s new play-by-play man — tasked with succeeding the late, great Greg Sharpe — would be watching a game on TV while an earbud, connected to a “Radio Shack radio” would be in his ear. Live action always happens a few beats before you see it on TV, so Crooks wanted to hear the live radio call prior to play happening.
“Even though it’d be on a seven second delay — I’m listening to the game on radio while watching it on television, because I don’t want to miss if somebody had a certain verb or a certain turn of phrase that I liked and wanted to incorporate,” Crooks told the World-Herald in a phone interview. “So it’s been 15 years of taking bits and pieces of what other people have done and their energy to punctuate a call.”
He’s had top-shelf mentors, Ian Eagle among them, mixed with the humble beginnings of calling Division III football games at his alma mater, William Paterson University, located in New Jersey. That’s where Crooks grew up listening to overnight sports talk, arguably his first love on radio.
Crooks memorized the names of every New Jersey Net while loving the New York Yankees and, in a twist, the Indianapolis Colts. His family took in a lot of Rutgers games over the years, too, watching the program peak in the mid-2000s under coach Greg Schiano.
Later, Crooks drove down the Jersey Shore to Lakewood so he could do mock demo calls on minor league BlueClaws baseball games “when they had an empty booth.” He’d call innings of Yankees spring training games into his phone before starting a job calling games for the Marlins’ minor league affiliate in Jacksonville. That gig, Crooks said, was a “big break.” In 2017, he started working for Florida and the SEC Network.
This summer, he starts at NU, which along with PlayFly Sports picked him among 300 applicants to call football games and host the “Sports Nightly” program five days a week. Crooks made it through three rounds of interviews, the last of which evolved into an impromptu chat with football coach Matt Rhule, who dropped by to say hello.
It was about then, Crooks thought, he might have a decent chance at landing the job.
He knows well the challenge of replacing Sharpe, the deep, thoughtful confident voice who saved big emotions for the biggest moments — Alex Henery’s field goal in 2008 vs. Colorado, the Hail Mary win over Northwestern in 2013, a Big Ten baseball title — while steadying the “Sports Nightly” ship over nearly two decades.
And while Crooks will be his own guy, his own voice, he wants to “follow in the mold of how Greg did the job” with professionalism and depth, getting to know coaches and players until Husker fans feel like they’re listening to someone who’s been here all his life.
“I want them to hear that the passion I put into the craft as well the level of description and the level of detail that I go into making sure I’m doing a good job for people who are driving trucks out on the highway, or people who are listening on their tractors on the farm,” Crooks said. “I want them to be proud of the product, that the standard Greg set is not leaving the booth.”
That level of description is evident Crooks’ demo reel call of a 42-0 Florida win over Vanderbilt in 2021. Here’s his call on a 25-yard touchdown pass from Emory Jones to Jacob Copeland:
“Snap to Jones, a play fake again, slings it near right, caught on the numbers at the 20, Copeland, cuts right at the 10, weaves his way to the 5, muscling into the end zone. Copeland, to the house, 25 yards! Snaking through the defense, a catch-and-run for six!”
Slings, cuts, weaves, muscles, snaking. Vibrant words over the course of 16 seconds. In other calls, Crooks identifies whether the shotgun snap is chest high or thigh high. There’s a difference, especially when you’re trying to hand off to a running back.
“Is it just a pass to the left side, or is an out route that’s caught at the 31, as he scampers out of bounds for a gain of six,” Crooks said. “It’s a constant process, is what I love about it.”
He also likes the team aspect of radio, and Nebraska has a deep roster of talent in men’s basketball (Kent Pavelka), volleyball (John Baylor), women’s basketball (Matt Coatney), baseball (Ben McLaughlin) and softball (Nate Rohr). And Crooks singled out Jessica Coody — Sports Nightly host, sideline reporter, general Swiss Army Knife broadcaster — as a key support in the process and an invaluable talent in the group.
“She does so much more than 99.9% of people that are in radio,” Crooks said. “She’s editing constantly, she’s doing social media, she’s hosting talk shows, she’s doing the sideline stuff. She’s constantly going and it’s built this engine that obviously Greg and others were such a huge part of building the foundation.”
On with the Rewind.
Key points of the House Settlement
The House Settlement goes into effect Tuesday, sweeping change into college athletics with revenue sharing and new, higher scholarship limits.
Those two items are connected, in a sense. All money spent on new scholarships — say, expanding the baseball scholarships from 11.7 to 34 — counts, at least in Year 1, as revenue sharing. North Carolina athletics, for example, announced it would add 194 new scholarships. Unless UNC is adding football scholarships, that money is coming out of football and men’s basketball allocations.
Next year, it won’t have to, because it won’t be “new.” But by next year, new scholarship money may not be tied to revenue sharing — power conference programs are trying to untangle those two things — which makes it more likely schools will dole out more scholarships.
Nebraska is likely to be judicious with new scholarships in Year 1. But so are a lot of schools.
SEC schools may fund the full 34 baseball scholarships, but it’ll take money away from football, and one questions whether it’s a particularly sound investment. Does a hitter want to bat fourth in a lineup on a partial scholarship or pinch hit twice a week on a full scholarship? Why pay full freight for a 14th pitcher?
The schools that figure out the financial and competitive sweet spot for spending will be the biggest winners. For now, athletic departments may be overly sensitive — and overly responsive — to coaches who want what the next coach has. This new model, over time, will shift priorities.
It’s going to lead to even more liar’s poker, too — and speculation that NIL, or even better under the table payments, explain why a high school recruit or transfer didn’t pick State U or West Tech.
Remember that in the House era NIL becomes the side money that athletes get for sponsorship deals, paid autograph sessions and the like. A clearinghouse examines all NIL deals above $600 for plausibility, which deals attached to publicly-traded companies getting an easier green light. NU quarterback Dylan Raiola reps Adidas, for example.
Fair market NIL can be a separator for teams — it is for Nebraska volleyball, as athletes get deals from banks or gas stations or, in the case of setter Bergen Reilly, Red Bull. It’s worked for softball star Jordy Bahl, too. Can NU football and basketball tap into that market more?
Nebraska basketball’s shooting supply
Fred Hoiberg’s NCAA tournaments make a lot of 3s at a high clip.
He’s had five — four at Iowa State, one at Nebraska — who made 37.3, 37.4, 35.8, 36.2 and 35.7% of their 3-pointers. Those five teams collectively averaged 8.8 3s per game.
Hoiberg’s team in 2024-25 made 33.5% and 7.5. If those Huskers had shot to average, they likely win two or three more games and make the NCAAs.
So it’s worth noting Hoiberg’s comments from an expansive, 30-minute midsummer interview session.
“The thing that I think we’ve really addressed with this team is our shooting,” Hoiberg said.
Nebraska signed Iowa’s Pryce Sandfort, who shot 40% from 3 last year, plus Jamarques Lawrence (39.1% at Rhode Island) and Kendall Blue (41.7% with St. Thomas). NU also gets back Rienk Mast, who shot 34.4% two seasons ago.
Defense matters. Big Ten toughness and frontcourt size matters, too. But, really, NU had a stingier defense back in 2022-23, and had more size in 2024-25. What it had in 2023-24 was shooting. If Hoiberg has that again, he’ll win more games.
Out of the recruiting basement
Nebraska football has moved out of the Big Ten basement in the recruiting rankings.
The Huskers ranked 16th out of 18 teams according to Rivals and 17th according to 247Sports after landing suburban Atlanta receiver Nalin Scott on Friday. Should the Huskers snag Chicago Mount Carmel offensive tackle Claude Mpouma Monday, they’ll hit 10 commits and creep upward a bit further.
It’s still a class that, should NU win big in 2025, moves to the league’s middle of the pack. Nebraska bet on blue chip targets. Even if they commit now elsewhere, they’ll warm to the Huskers later — if there’s a nine-win season to back it up.
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