Matt Saracen is the shy, stuttering quarterback of the Dillon Panthers and the boyfriend of Julie Taylor. Saracen's father is in Iraq and he lives with his grandmother, who is suffering from Dementia.

Stepping into the starting job after Jason Street went down with a life-altering injury, Matt endured some rough outings and eventually grew into the role of team leader and strong presence under center.

Matt lives alone with his grandmother, who suffers from senility and is ill-equipped to do the cooking, the cleaning, and food shopping. Matt is forced to do all of this, and also works at the Alamo Freeze restaurant to help pay the rent of his house and his Grandma's medical bills.

Matt has a poor relationship with his father, Henry, a career military man serving in Iraq. On leave, his dad caused many conflicts with Matt. After his grandmother had an accident, Matt's father tells him that he will be moving to Oklahoma and that Grandma will be going into a nursing home.

Matt has finally had enough and snaps at his father after a football game in front of everyone, telling him that he was only making things worse and that he should go back to Iraq. It is suggested that his father's time in Iraq has caused him to become a person that Matt cannot get along with.

Henry decides to stay at home and take care of his family, much to Matt's approval. But when Matt realizes that his father does not want to be home, where he belongs is in Iraq. Henry agrees and returns to duty.

Matt's relationship with his mother is unknown, although he has said that she lives in Oklahoma. It has never been mentioned why she lives there, or how long she has been out of Matt's life.

Matt's relationship with Julie has not always been perfect. After they made the playoffs, everyone wanted a piece of Matt. Saracen's struggle to deal with newfound fame - and balance football with being a good boyfriend and person goes - is a central theme of the show.

After a playoff game, Matt gave Julie a necklace and officially asked her to be his girlfriend. Julie didn't hesitate to say yes. Julie soon decided that it was time for both of them to have sex for the first time, though they both changed their minds after it felt forced.

Back on the field, Matt overcame his physical shortcomings and used his confidence and skills to quarterback Dillon to the state championship, under the tutelage of Jason Street.