Shane Hooks has two different personas.
With a helmet on, he’s Shane Hooks, the wide receiver. His height, 6 feet, 4 inches, helps him win jump balls and snatch passes over the heads of helpless defensive backs. His demeanor is calm, but his skills are unquestionable.
Without the helmet, though, Hooks is known as “Hollywood” and sports a hi-top fade haircut with a shade of green-dyed hair across the left side. The nickname was given to him by his high school coach from Orlando, Florida, his hometown, when he showed up to a practice donning a pair of sunglasses.
“When I’m on the field, I’m a different me,” Hooks said. “With the hair, I just like standing out.”
So far, it hasn’t mattered whether Hooks has the helmet on or not — the redshirt freshman has always stood out.
His first collegiate reception was a 30-yard catch he made over a defender near the sideline Week 1 against Rhode Island. When Hooks landed on the ground, he hung onto the ball with one hand despite absorbing a tackle from a Rams defender.
For his first collegiate touchdown Week 3 against Marshall, Hooks caught a 20-yard pass in traffic and hung on for the score after a jolting hit from a defensive back. He caught his second touchdown of the season a week later against Louisiana-Lafayette on a 21-yard pass, and that came a play after he made another — yes, you guessed it — leaping grab over a defender on a 49-yard pass.
If that’s not flashy enough, Hooks wore a pair of gold grills around his teeth for his smile in this season’s profile picture.
For Hooks, that attitude is a part of his hometown roots. Florida is a fun place to play high school football, but Hooks learned quickly that no one cared where he was from when he arrived with the Bobcats.
“In Florida, we always feel like we’re the big dogs,” Hooks said. “Coming in, I still felt like I was the big dog … but I was a little immature, and I had to get that out my game.”
Hooks was no stranger to mistimed routes and incorrect reads last season as a freshman. Those mistakes, paired with Ohio’s quality depth at receiver position last season, led to Hooks redshirting his first year.
That wasn’t a decision forced by the coaching staff, either. Hooks made that decision himself when he realized that he was outmatched when he appeared in the first four games of the season.
He wasn’t fast enough to make consistent plays at the college level, and he couldn’t quite grasp the playbook full of extensive plays built to make the most of the dual-threat skills of quarterback Nathan Rourke.
Hooks needed to give his “Hollywood” side a rest. There wasn’t room for him to run wild and make plays on his own at Ohio. If he wanted to keep that side of his personality, he needed to back it up under the offense that coordinator Tim Albin has run for 15 years.
And Hooks has done just that.
“I’m pleased with where he’s at,” Albin said. “He’s rangy, which is obviously comforting to the quarterbacks. For him to come out and perform and do some of the things that he's doing, he's doing that off sheer ability.”
Hooks only has seven receptions this season but has averaged 22 yards per reception, which leads all Ohio receivers. His two receiving touchdowns are also tied for the lead, and Albin knows he needs to give Hooks more opportunities to make plays.
Albin has always appreciated Hooks’ receiving ability, but he’s also noticed his willingness to block. That’s a task not always embraced by receivers. Hooks, however, loves it.
He learned how important the run game is to Ohio’s offense when he watched from the sidelines last season. It’s what makes Rourke so dangerous, and it’s why the Bobcats have been able to maintain their status as one of the top offensive teams in the Mid-American Conference.
Now, Hooks enjoys delivering forceful blocks just as much as making acrobatic catches.
“Last year, I knew we were a run-first team, and I was kind of frustrated with that,” Hooks said. “But now that I’ve been looking into it, we’ve got to have a run game to open up the pass game.
“With that, blocking comes into the big picture, and I love blocking solo.”
Albin loves it, too, and that’s why he wants to make Hooks a bigger part of his game plan.
After all that Hooks has done in four games this season, he doesn’t really have a choice.
“We’re going to play the guys that can make the plays, and he’s done that,” Albin said. “He’s showed up.”
If Hooks can make big plays on the field, his “Hollywood” nickname won’t just be a name he had from his hometown to describe his swagger off the field.
It’ll be the perfect nickname for the show he’s capable of displaying every week.
