Landry Jones

Matthew Landry Jones (born April 4, 1989) is a former American football quarterback.

Jones had a great night and carried his team over Connecticut by a lopsided score of 48–20 to break the BCS bowl losing streak and to win Oklahoma's first BCS bowl since 2002.

Jones had his best passing performance of the year with 418 yards and 3 touchdown passes to Ryan Broyles, giving the Sooners their first bowl win since 2005 and propelling the team towards an optimistic 2010 in which Landry would have a full spring and fall camp to prepare as the starting quarterback.

As a senior in 2007, Jones threw for 3,433 yards and 45 touchdowns on zero interceptions.

Artesia won its second consecutive Class 4A championship, against Goddard High School, in which Jones threw for 325 yards and seven touchdowns, a school record.

Jones was later named New Mexico's Class 4A Player of the Year and was a finalist for the Joe Montana Quarterback of the Year Award.

Jones was a highly regarded recruit and was among the highest rated quarterbacks for the Class of 2008 by several ratings publishers, including a four-star rating by both Scout.com (sixth-rated quarterback) and Rivals.com (sixth-rated pro-style quarterback), and a five-star rating from 247 Sports; according to all three sources, Landry is the highest-ranked recruit to ever come out of New Mexico.

He was recruited by many schools, including Alabama, Arizona, Michigan, Notre Dame, Oregon, Stanford, Texas, USC, UCLA, and Wisconsin.

He later committed to the University of Oklahoma, calling it "the QB college."

While attending the University of Oklahoma, Jones played for the Oklahoma Sooners football team from 2008 to 2012.

In 2008, third-string quarterback Keith Nichol transferred to Michigan State, leaving senior Joey Halzle and Jones, who was redshirted his freshman year, as backup quarterbacks to Sam Bradford.

In 2009, in the season opener against Brigham Young, Jones took over as the starting quarterback for the Sooners after Bradford suffered a shoulder injury; the Sooners went on to lose the game by a score of 14–13.

However, in the next game, his first as the starter, Jones completed 18-of-32 passes for 286 yards, with three touchdowns and an interception in the Sooners 64–0 win against Idaho State.

In his second start, Jones threw a Sooner-record six touchdown passes with two interceptions in a 45–0 win against Tulsa.

Later that week, Jones was named AT&T All- America Player of the Week.

Jones started the next game against the Miami Hurricanes due to Sam Bradford not being fully recovered from his shoulder injury.

The Sooners lost the game, 21–20.

Jones threw for one touchdown, but also had a fumble deep in Sooner territory that resulted in a Miami score on the next play.

The next week against Baylor, Sam Bradford was able to return and Landry was relegated to the backup quarterback spot once again.

The Oklahoma offense was sluggish and inconsistent at times, but was easily able to beat the Bears and was looking forward to the Red River Rivalry with Texas.

On the second offensive series of the game, Bradford went down again with the same shoulder injury and Landry was thrust back into action against a very stout Texas defense.

Marred by turnovers and mistakes by an inexperienced offense, the Sooners lost a close battle with the Longhorns, 16–13.

Jones managed a touchdown pass to wide receiver Ryan Broyles to tie the game in the third quarter.

Jones would become the starter for the rest of the season as Sam Bradford announced he would have season ending surgery on his shoulder and would then be leaving early for the NFL draft.

With big shoes to fill, Jones slowly progressed throughout the season in wins against Kansas, Kansas State, and Texas A&M as well as some poor performances in losses to Nebraska (5 interceptions) and Texas Tech.

With a dominant victory over BCS-hopeful Oklahoma State, the Sooners received a bid to play in the 2009 Sun Bowl against Stanford.

In 2010, Jones continued his starting job as Oklahoma's quarterback and guided the team through its first four out-of-conference victories.

He would continue his dominant performance heading into the Red River Shootout, and defeated Texas by a score of 28–20.

After the strong start, Jones would suffer his first setback against Missouri by losing the game, 36–27.

He would lead Oklahoma on a rebound with a few top-notch performances before suffering the second and final setback of the season against Texas A&M.

After the defeat, Jones would lead the team on another rebound by winning the rest of the way, including a highly anticipated matchup against the Oklahoma State Cowboys in the annual Bedlam Series.

The match was settled in the last minute, but Jones's incredible passing performance led Oklahoma past its in-state rival by a score of 47–41.

By rule of a tie-breaker, Oklahoma went into the Big 12 Championship Game facing its storied rival Nebraska.

After trailing by 17 points, Jones led the Sooners to a comeback 23–20 victory.

After the win, Oklahoma went into the Fiesta Bowl as the champion of the Big 12 Conference, facing Connecticut as the champion of the Big East Conference.

Oklahoma entered the game looking to break its recent streak of BCS bowl losses, while Connecticut was playing its first BCS bowl ever.

He played college football at Oklahoma, and was selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the fourth round (115th overall) of the 2013 NFL Draft.

He also played for the Jacksonville Jaguars, Oakland Raiders, and Dallas Renegades.

Jones was born in Artesia, New Mexico.

He attended Artesia High School, where he originally lettered as a running back, but later became the starting quarterback and led the high school football team to two consecutive Class 4A state championships, throwing for a combined 7,013 yards and 89 touchdowns.