Sports Nightly Co-host Jessica Coody relates to Nebraska fans passion

Jessica Coody doesn’t remember her first time in the gym.

She was roughly four weeks old when she visited her father while he coached high school basketball practice in Oklahoma. Perks of being born in October to a coach whose season begins in November — basketball becomes a part of your DNA.

Jack Coody has since stopped coaching and moved on to school administration when it was too hard to be away from his daughter. But, he never gave up his passion and became a high school basketball official and will soon add his name into the Oklahoma Officials Association Hall of Fame in July.

After Coody graduated from Chatanooga (OK) High School with a class of 18 students, she also didn’t give up her passion for sports. She graduated from the University of Central Oklahoma with a degree in Broadcast Journalism and faced the sports world head-on.

This past Thursday, she was announced as the new co-host of Sports Nightly with Greg Sharpe on the Huskers Radio Network and is more excited than ever to entertain, inform and tell stories for a fan base that is just as passionate about sports as she is.

She was a sideline/digital reporter, television/radio host, play-by-play announcer and feature producer during her nine years with the University of Oklahoma Athletic Department.

“Coming from Oklahoma, I’ve seen those facilities and traveling around the Big 12,” she said. “I mean, those are some of the nicest facilities, if not the nicest facilities I’ve ever been in.”

Nebraska fan’s dedication to filling stadiums along with the University and boosters financial dedication to providing top-of-the-line facilities impressed Coody and solidified her belief in the passion of the Huskers fan base.

“I was blown away by everything at Nebraska, and even just in the last couple of days, the support and how friendly Nebraska fans have been,” Coody said. “It’s exciting to me how passionate the fan base is and I am excited to maybe bring something that they haven’t had.”

Coody, who graduated from the University of Central Oklahoma, is thrilled to bring another aspect of sports media to Nebraska that there isn’t much of currently.

At OU, she told the stories of the teams and individual players, including one on Heisman winner Baker Mayfield’s love of video games.

While Coody’s official role is co-host of Sports Nightly, she is excited for all of the opportunities that could come her way at Nebraska including the potential of play-by-play and sideline reporting.

Brandon Meier, the Senior Associate AD for Marketing and Multimedia for Nebraska Athletics, hired Coody to join the country’s first in-house broadcasting team in the Power Five. Meier previously hired Coody at OU when he was the Associate Athletics Director for Broadcast Operations.

“Jessica reminds me a lot of Tom Rinaldi,” Meier said in an email. “First and foremost, she is an amazing storyteller. She connects with coaches and student-athletes and they quickly trust her to tell their stories.

Bringing Coody to embark on the adventure of an in-house broadcast, that is subject to many adjustments as it is the first of its kind, was the right fit.

“She is versatile!” Meier said in an email. “She can host radio/TV shows, produce digital features/podcasts, do play by play/sideline, emcee an event and do them all at a high level.”

Coody prides herself in her versatility, knowledge of many sports and ability to adjust and learn quickly.

“I’ve always tried to do is be able to wear a lot of different hats,” she said. “That’s what’s fun about it you don’t get locked into one thing and I felt like you can throw me into something and I’ll figure it out.”

Meier spearheaded the first University-produced TV partnership with FOX Sports at OU and Coody said because he pioneered this partnership, she trusts Meier will be equally as successful with the Husker Radio Network.

“I believe in his vision, and I’ve seen him be successful,” Coody said. “I’ve seen him do big things not just at OU, he’s done things with the Houston Rockets.”

While Coody wanted an opportunity to use her voice more, she won’t be giving up telling the stories of athletes. She believes there is a great opportunity for her to share athlete’s experiences at Nebraska that hasn’t existed previously.

“I’ve always been a feature storyteller, and I love that I’m still gonna get to do that,” she said. “And I think that’s what’s exciting too is that there hasn’t been a lot of that as far as at Nebraska, within the athletics department, of storytelling.”

Along with feature videos, Coody was a sideline reporter at OU for football, men’s and women’s basketball. She was the first woman to call play-by-play for the Sooner men’s basketball team.

When she saw a need to consistently share the stories of women’s sports and women in sports, she created a podcast dedicated particularly to this group.

“That is my goal is to give another platform and an opportunity, an avenue, to get women’s voices out there and to promote themselves and anything that I can do to continue to help promote and push women’s sports,” Coody said.

As the co-host of Sports Nightly, one of Nebraska’s most-listened-to sports talk shows, Coody is prepared and eager to provide Husker Nation with a new voice that sounds different from the typical voice they hear covering athletics.

“From day to day, I think that I can add a new perspective and a new voice that people haven’t heard maybe as much or are going to get to hear a little bit more of,” Coody said. “I’m excited about it.”

As an employee of the OU athletic department, Coody became a part of the team at Oklahoma and was able to tell better stories because the student-athletes and coaches trusted her.

She is aiming for the same thing at Nebraska.

Not only will this type of access fulfill Coody’s desire to tell stories, but it will also help the student-athletes as Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) rights are on the horizon.

“That’s important, especially we’re getting into all the new legislation passed about the branding and all of that,” Coody said, “and I’ve felt like I can jump in on that and help student-athletes do that as well.”

While Coody is hoping to tell stories in the future, she is focusing on her new role as co-host of Sports Nightly and said she feels no pressure at all entertaining such a passionate fan base that knows their facts.

Husker Nation will see Coody’s A-game on full display during the week leading up to when Nebraska travels to Oklahoma to revive one of the greatest rivalries in sports. She will be able to draw on the Sooner football insider knowledge she’s been collecting for nearly 10 years.

Coody realizes the incredible opportunity in front of her to be a part of a groundbreaking broadcasting adventure and knows her skills and experiences will provide Husker fans with something unique and valuable.

As some of the most passionate fans in all of sports, Nebraska fans deserve just that.

“I keep going back to that, but that’s what is so exciting to me is the passion and the dedication to the athletics up there and again, it’s beyond just football, and it’s literally every sport,” Coody said.

“That’s so fun and exciting to me that people care so much. Because I care, I care a lot and almost too much sometimes people have told me.”