Matt Jones is a recent Arkansas Sports Hall of Honor inductee, talk show host and a Razorback legend. He owned the dual-threat quarterback space before it was fashionable to do so and was a certified Auburn trash talker.
Jones and Taylen Green are both known for their calm composure when the play breaks down, but there are more uncanny comparisons between the former quarterback and the Hogs’ current signal-caller. Both are potent run-pass threats whose career completion percentage and yards gained per carry nearly mirror one another.
Similarities For Arkansas Quarterbacks
Let’s lay out just how uncanny the similarities are: Taylen Green’s career completion percentage stands at 58.9 percent, Matt Jones’ final two seasons at Arkansas was 57.3 percent.
Both averaged more than six yards a carry when they decided to use their legs. Both are also listed at 6-foot-6 with similar builds — Green at 230 pounds and Jones at 237. The comparison has even made it to Green himself.
“I’m definitely grateful for the comparisons,” Green said during a press conference in March. “I’m just trying to get like him.”
Nearly 25 years after Jones burst onto the scene in the SEC against Auburn in 2001, Green now gets the same opportunity against the same opponent. With Green getting ready to make his conference debut, it’s a good of a time as any to open the vault and revisit when Jones announced himself to the conference in 2001 in the Razorbacks’ second SEC game of the year at home.
After teasing fans with an Hors d’oeuvre against Weber State two weeks earlier with 81 yards on just three rushing attempts with a 59-yard touchdown, Jones picked up 99 yards on 10 carries in a 42-17 win over No. 17 Auburn. He also had a trash-talking moment that he remembers fondly.
“We were playing Auburn at home and I’d actually had a pretty decent game that game,” Jones said earlier this summer on the Razorback Daily podcast. “I got tackled and this one brother gets up and he’s like, ‘Oh, it ain’t going to be today, nine or rookie or whatever’ because I was a freshman. So I just blew him a kiss. He was like, ‘Oh, I ain’t messing with this dude anymore.’ He didn’t say another word to me the rest of the game.”
To cast the entire Auburn side into a similar silence, Green will want to do the same kind of damage Jones did with his legs come Saturday. It wasn’t just 2001, either. The Fort Smith native made Auburn pay throughout his career, accumulating 278 rushing yards across four games against the Tigers with at least 50 yards each time out.
However, Green will probably want to improve on Jones’ completion percentage if he wants to quell fears about his ability to throw the ball accurately as a quarterback. As Green did against UAB, where he went 11-for-26 through the air, Jones never had a game where he completed more than 60% of his passes against the Tigers, with his best percentage coming in 2002, in which he was just 7-for-13 through the air.
Although Green’s opportunity against the Tigers will come on the road, Arkansas football coach Sam Pittman is confident that Green can do that, but needs a collective effort from the entire offense around Green to help the quarterback out.
“We can also throw it,” Pittman said. “We just weren’t quite as accurate. Didn’t run as good of routes as we could have and we dropped five balls.”
Potential for Full-Circle Moment
Kissing and waving at the opponent is hardly anything new. Running back Ja’Quinden Jackson flirtatiously waved to a UAPB cheerleader in Arkansas’ 70-0 rout over the Golden Lions earlier this year.
Even social media star and Taylor Swift’s boyfriend Travis Kelce employed the blowing kisses tactic after a 27-24 Chiefs win in the 2024 Divisional Round over the Buffalo Bills. The “Bills Mafia” were on the receiving end of Kelce’s kiss, with Taylor watching, of course.
Green will have his own opportunity to blow kisses to the Auburn crowd and repeat history if he completes a few more passes and electrifies the crowd and fans. It would complete a full-circle moment if Green could replicate his comparison’s performance against the same jersey when the former dual-threat Arkansas quarterback picked apart the Tigers nearly a quarter-century earlier.
Matt Jones in Arkansas vs Auburn Games
| Year | Completions | Attempts | Passing Yards | Completion % | Carries | Rushing Yards |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 1 | 3 | 21 | 33.3 | 10 | 99 |
| 2002 | 7 | 13 | 66 | 53.8 | 6 | 66 |
| 2003 | 13 | 28 | 168 | 46.4 | 12 | 59 |
| 2004 | 12 | 27 | 189 | 44.4 | 4 | 54 |
Watch highlights from the 2001 Arkansas vs Auburn game:
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