Matthew McConaughey Gave His High School’s Football Team A Pep Talk Before It Won A State Championship

Matthew McConaughey is a well-documented fan of all the teams at his alma mater, the University of Texas. He’s a fixture on the sidelines at Longhorn football games, and earlier this week, we learned the Academy Award-winning actor is going to be the Minister of Culture for the basketball program’s new arena.

But before McConaughey attended Texas, he was just a kid from Longview, where he attended Longview High School. The school’s football program competed for a Class 6A, Division II state championship on Saturday night, but before that happened, it received a video pep talk from Longview’s most famous alumnus.

The video features McConaughey walking down a street in London and recording himself on a cell phone, tapping into the spirit of Jack Lengyel to motivate the kids before they took the field against Beaumont West Brook.

“After you get your mind right and your soul right, your feet are planted on the ground, then get ready to unleash,” McConaughey says at one point in the video. “Come gametime, that first kickoff, that first whistle, make ‘em wonder what the hell just hit ‘em, the whole game.”

McConaughey has done a few motivational speeches — or at least given speeches that make people want to run through walls — so it’s no surprise that this was pretty good. It also got the job done, as Longview was able to take home its first state title in 81 years.

Alright, alright, alright.