Oregon LB Casey Matthews carrying on family traditionJanuary 6, 2011
By David Leon Moore, USA TODAY
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Don't think college football
national championships grow on trees?
Well, they do —family trees, anyway.
You should check out the tree of the Agoura Hills
(Calif.) Matthews clan.
There's Clay Matthews, a redshirt on the Southern
California 2004 national champions and now a
budding star in the NFL as a linebacker with the
Green Bay Packers.
There's his older brother Kyle Matthews, a safety on
the USC 2003 national champs.
There's their father, also named Clay Matthews, who
played on the 1974 USC national champs and was an
NFL linebacker for 19 seasons with the Cleveland
Browns and Atlanta Falcons.
Seems everybody in the family's got one except
Casey Matthews, but he'll have his chance Monday
night when the senior linebacker joins his Oregon
Ducks teammates in trying to defeat Cam Newton
and Auburn in the BCS national title game.
"I'm trying to carry on the tradition," says Matthews,
a 6-2, 235-pounder.
He is carrying on the tradition of the Matthews
family in other ways, too. He's a fierce competitor
who loves the game, like his father, his brothers and
also his uncle, NFL Hall of Fame offensive lineman
Bruce Matthews, and his grandfather, also Clay
Matthews, who played at Georgia Tech in the 1940s
and with the San Francisco 49ers in the 1950s.
And, like his father and his brother Clay, he plays
with long hair.
Then there's the obvious difference. His father, his
brothers and his uncle all played at USC.
That was Casey's dream, too, until Pete Carroll's
coaching staff decided to look elsewhere for
linebackers.
Casey had played well for a star-studded high
school team at Westlake Village (Calif.) Oaks
Christian, where the quarterback, Jimmy Clausen,
got a scholarship to Notre Dame, and the star
running back and defensive back, Marc Tyler and
Marshall Jones, were offered scholarships at USC.
"I wanted to play at USC, too," he says. "Everyone in
my family went to 'SC. That was definitely something
I thought was going to happen."
When USC decided not to make an offer to Matthews,
he headed north to Oregon, where his first lesson
was in geography.
"I actually thought Washington was north of
California, then Oregon," he says.
That was 2007, and in the last four seasons,
everybody following college football has learned
where Oregon is. It's in the Top 25, the Top 10 and
now in the final game of the season, thanks in part
to the middle linebacker Oregon defensive
coordinator Nick Aliotti says is the defensive unit's
rock.
Matthews led the Ducks with 73 tackles and was
named all-Pac-10 first team. He won second-team
All-America honors from Scout.com.
"I love Casey Matthews," Aliotti says. "He didn't come
here with a lot of blue-chip accolades or a lot of
hype. Sometimes players come with five stars or
three stars, but I think Casey has made himself into
a five-star player."
As Matthews ponders his career and what will be his
last college game, he isn't sorry USC decided to sign
somebody else four years ago.
The Trojans, tarnished by NCAA probation, are in
the first year of a two-year bowl ban, while the
Ducks are playing for a championship.
"If you look at it now," he says, "I definitely chose
the right school. I can't complain how things have
turned out."
Come Monday night, Matthews will be just one of
the Ducks trying to corral Newton, the Ducks'
immensely talented running quarterback.
It's a tall task, and so far, his best family advice has
come not from his father or his uncle or his
brothers but from his mother, Leslie.
"She told me I had to be slightly insane Monday
night," he says. "She usually doesn't say stuff like
that."
