Gridiron Glory 25: Where Are They Now? Season 23 Host – Jacob Motta

While Jacob Motta is pursuing his master’s degree in sports administration at Ohio University, he still watches Gridiron Glory every Friday night.

“I’ve been watching every episode of season 25 because I’m still close with a lot of the seniors on the show now,” said Motta. “And I still enjoy watching very much. I want to support the show in any way I can.”

Motta was the host of Gridiron during season 23. He grew up in nearby Sugar Grove, Ohio and knew he wanted to be involved with Gridiron when he came to school at Ohio University.

“Sports was always the thing,” said Motta. “I used to sit in front of the TV doing pretend play by play for Ohio State football. I played football, baseball, and basketball in high school, and I didn’t want to leave sports behind. So, I decided to pursue sports journalism.”

During his second day on campus as a freshman, Motta attended the Student Involvement Fair. He signed up to attend the introductory meeting for Gridiron Glory and The Bobcat Sports Showcase at WOUB. Motta started working on Gridiron the very next Friday.

“I went to games and kept stats. I did photography sometimes and edited video recaps,” said Motta. “By the second semester of my freshman year, I got involved with WOUB’s high school basketball show, Hardwood Heroes. It was really great.”

But Motta’s plans for moving up to on-air reporter during his second season of Gridiron were put on hold by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We weren’t able to do Gridiron that year,” said Motta. “So, the students developed an online only show called the 740 Zone, and I worked on that.”

When Gridiron came back during Motta’s junior year, he became a beat reporter for the TVC Hocking conference. He covered teams like Trimble, Waterford and Eastern. Going into his senior year, Motta put his name in to be considered for Gridiron host. 

“Watching Joe Hennessy host during my freshman year, he was amazing. I thought it would be really cool to host the show one day. I knew I was going to put my name in from my freshman year on. I’m amazed that I got the host position with the talent that was around me that year.”

Even though Motta already understood how important the show was to the students who worked on it, he truly learned as host how important it was to the community.

“Gridiron means everything to the community,” said Motta. “Since I grew up nearby, I understand how teams barely get media coverage. We were able to put these kids that deserve coverage on TV and give them something to look forward to after the game. Football is the backbone of what holds these communities together. In many cases, they don’t have a lot but they do have ability to come together for high school football, and the support we saw for those teams and Gridiron Glory was amazing.”

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