Former Wahoo Matteo's long UVa journey is nearing its end
Almost a decade after he first arrived at Virginia to play football, Jackson Matteo’s career as a student at the University is finally approaching the goal line.
Later this fall, Matteo will defend his doctoral dissertation that investigates the impact of redshirting on African-American football players at predominantly white institutions. He’s on pace to graduate from the Curry School with his Doctorate of Education next spring.
“It’s been a labor of love,” Matteo admitted during a recent phone interview. “This thing has been a long work in progress, and it’s great to see it finally coming to an end.”
Matteo has been enrolled at UVa since the summer of 2012, when he first joined the football program as a recruited walk-on offensive lineman. He first graduated with a bachelor’s degree in sociology in the spring of 2016 and that fal played his fifth and final season for the Cavaliers. He ended his career with a streak of 24-straight starts at center that dated back to the start of the 2015 season.
The following spring, Matteo finished work on a master’s degree in higher education with a focus on athletic administration. He also began a stint as a graduate assistant on Bronco Mendenhall’s coaching staff, where he remained in that role for three seasons. His final game on the sideline was the 2019 matchup against Florida in the Orange Bowl.
While he was coaching, Matteo was also laying the foundation for the doctoral dissertation he will defend this fall. It began by completing coursework at the Curry School, followed by week-long comprehensive exams—“If you don’t pass comps,” he said, “you do not pass Go and you do not collect $200”—and then turning to the writing and editing process.
“I’m saying this in like 30 seconds, but this is like a four-year process,” Matteo explained. “This has been my life for the last couple years.”
Advisors recommended that when trying to determine a focus for his dissertation, Matteo should write about a subject that he has experience with and is passionate about. His suggestions were eventually narrowed down to studying the challenges that face African-American football players who spend their first college season redshirting.
“I just think the phenomenon of redshirting is just so universally known as this thing where, ‘If you’re too slow, let’s redshirt you. You’ll get faster.’ But what happens during that first year? What’s happening? No one really pays attention to it,” said Matteo, who redshirted as a first-year in 2012. “And I think it’s a common practice in the NCAA that doesn’t really get looked at as something that we can study and find out if it’s working. Find out if there’s better ways to do it, and see who it’s benefitting and who it’s not benefitting.”
Matteo defended his proposal—the first three chapters of his dissertation—this past spring. That proposal was accepted, meaning he is granted permission to finish the final two chapters of the dissertation.
He’s done three rounds of interviews with 10 unnamed subjects, with those 30 total interviews each about 45 minutes long. Matteo has completed those interviews and finished transcribing, and is now looking for highlights and themes that can be derived from those interviews.
The fourth chapter of his dissertation will consist of his findings while the final chapter will include recommendations for practice based on those findings.
The COVID-19 pandemic provided Matteo with some additional downtime to focus on that dissertation. He was teaching classes with fellow PhD student Molly Harry when the pandemic shut down the country last spring. Matteo moved from his apartment to a cottage on a farm outside of Charlottesville. His daily routine got simplified: Wake up, write in his journal, work out, and then turn his attention to his doctoral work.
“I tell you what, no better time to be a doctorate student than COVID,” he said with a chuckle. “You don’t have distractions.”
But even as he prepares to defend that dissertation and complete that doctoral work, Matteo is also planning to return to the football field this fall. Starting next month, he’ll be working as a mentor and counselor in the academic development center at Woodberry Forest School in Orange County. He’ll also be serving as the offensive line coach for the Tigers.
“It’s very cool to be back in coaching, especially to be around student development,” Matteo said. “If I didn’t have the mentors that I had in my life, then oh my gosh, you and I would not be on this phone call right now. I want to be that person for someone else, and I know that is my passion in life.”
Matteo says the opportunity at Woodberry has the potential “to be a really great chapter” in his career. He was reluctant about adding to his responsibilities at the expense of working on his dissertation, but Woodberry athletic director Matt Blundin—the former UVa quarterback—and dean of faculty Matt Boesen convinced Matteo that the school’s need matched up with his availability.
“Coaching is the best vehicle to develop young people and teach them about life, and the lessons and the habits that you need to be able to successfully matriculate through life,” Matteo said. “I want to be a coach. I think my future is in coaching, and this gives me that opportunity to fulfill that.
“So I can’t wait to get in there,” he added. “I’ve been talking to my guys, my O-line for the last few months, and I’m fired up to get my hands on them.”
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