He spent most of his childhood in Van Buren, Arkansas, where his parents taught school and his father coached football and track.
In his freshman year, Jones helped Arkansas defeat an Eli Manning-led Ole Miss team in Oxford in an NCAA record-setting seven overtimes.
In his sophomore season, Jones led Arkansas to a share of the SEC West Division championship, with a last-second touchdown pass to receiver Decori Birmingham, in a game against LSU in Little Rock.
Jones also led Arkansas to a 2003 Independence Bowl victory over the Missouri Tigers, 27–14, and the Razorbacks finished the season with a 9–4 record.
By the time his playing days at Arkansas were over, Jones was the SEC's all-time leader in career rushing yards by a quarterback.
[4] This move surprised some draft experts who thought it was a risky selection as Jones had not been a full-time wide receiver at any prior point in his career.
After spending the 2009 NFL season out of football, Jones received contract offers from the Cincinnati Bengals and the Tennessee Titans.
The police found a plastic bag filled with six grams of a white substance that tested positive as cocaine and a jar with possible marijuana residue.
Jones' father, Steve Jones, disputed the allegations that his son was involved in any wrongdoing and released a statement which was posted on the web site of Fayetteville television station KNWA-TV: "We want to make it clear that Matt was not in possession of any drugs, but that there were drugs in the vehicle and were located in the closest proximity to Matt."
[16] On March 9, 2009, in Washington County, Jones was arrested again after failing a drug test which showed that he had alcohol in his system, which violated the condition of his probation.
[17] He was held in jail after he asked to be imprisoned rather than sent to a six-week residential treatment program that would have interfered with the beginning of training camp.