Early years
Casey Matthews attended Oaks Christian High School in Westlake Village, California. During his junior year, he recorded 132 tackles and four quarterback sacks. As a senior, he recorded 158 tackles, ten sacks, and twointerceptions. The Oak Christian Lions posted a 15-0 record as the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Division III state champions and finished as the sixth-ranked team in the USA Today national rankings. That season he was named a Long Beach Press-Telegram "Best in the West" honorable mention player. As both a junior and senior, Matthews was named an all-Tri Valley League player, defensive player of the year, and all-county player. SuperPrep ranked him among the top-ten linebackers in the state of California and Scout.com ranked him in the top-25 in the nation.[1]
Matthews was rated a three-star prospect by Scout.com and Rivals.com. He received scholarship offers from Oregon, Arizona State, California, Clemson, Colorado,Georgia Tech, Tennessee,[2] San Diego State, Utah, and Mississippi.[3]
College career
Casey Matthews majored in Economics while enrolled at Oregon.
As a true freshman in 2007, Matthews saw action in the first 11 games including one start against Arizona. He recorded 18 tackles including 11 solo. After suffering a shoulder injury, he did not participate in the game against Oregon State or the 2007 Sun Bowl.[1]
In 2008, he saw action in all 13 games and recorded 67 tackles including 13 tackles for loss and two sacks.[4] Matthews compiled a career-high of nine tackles three times, against California, Stanford, and Oklahoma State. He finished as the team's sixth-leading tackler and third in terms of tackles for loss, with 13.0 for 44 yards.[1]College Football News included him among their "120 Players To Know" and wrote that he is "fundamentally sound, he diagnoses plays well and has a knack for filling the proper lane, a couple of keys to being a successful inside linebacker."[4] Matthews had a great final game against Auburn in a 22-19 loss, where he forced a fumble from behind Heisman winner Cam Newton, which led to a game-tying score late in the fourth quarter.
Personal
His father, Clay Matthews, Jr., played football as an All-American at USC and had a 19-year professional football career in the National Football League.[1] His grandfather,Clay, Sr., and uncle, Bruce, both played in the NFL as well, and his brother, Clay, was selected in the 2009 NFL Draft and put up great numbers in the 2011 Super Bowlbeing the runner up for the 2011 defensive player of the year award and won the superbowl.[4] His cousin, Kevin, is a center for the Tennessee Titans. His brother Kyle was also a walk-on at USC.
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