--- title: Matthew McConaughey Gives Inspirational Speech at University of Texas description: It was almost exactly what you would have expected it to be canonical: https://time.com/3457598/matthew-mcconaughey-football-speech-university-of-texas/ author: Eric Dodds article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-02T20:44:49.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:13:33.801Z og:title: Matthew McConaughey Gives Inspirational Speech at University of Texas og:description: It was almost exactly what you would have expected it to be og:url: https://time.com/3457598/matthew-mcconaughey-football-speech-university-of-texas/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Matthew McConaughey Gives Inspirational Speech at University of Texas twitter:description: It was almost exactly what you would have expected it to be twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Watch Matthew McConaughey Give a Matthew McConaughey Speech to Texas Football Players by [Eric Dodds](https://time.com/author/eric-dodds/) ## Eric Dodds Oct 2, 2014 8:44 PM UTC by [Eric Dodds](https://time.com/author/eric-dodds/) ## Eric Dodds Oct 2, 2014 8:44 PM UTC Matthew McConaughey is a well-established master of speeches, both [on-screen](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEL8PYu4RR4) and [off](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wD2cVhC-63I), so when he shows up to address his alma mater’s football team, greatness is to be expected. The Oscar-winning actor visited the University of Texas last week and immediately attempted to downplay his speech-related intentions, then ended up delivering a five-minute opus anyway — complete with [that chest-bumping bit](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTHlXb0PXh4) made famous in _The Wolf of Wall Street_ that he does before scenes to rid himself of nervousness. McConaughey also revealed that his favorite movie that he’s ever worked on was _Mud_, which, though a little off the beaten path, makes sense because _Mud_ was awesome. Oh, and then Texas thumped Kansas 23-0\. McConaughey’s special powers must be real. Matthew McConaughey Gives Inspirational Speech at University of Texas ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3457598/matthew-mcconaughey-football-speech-university-of-texas/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3457598/matthew-mcconaughey-football-speech-university-of-texas/"},"headline":"Watch Matthew McConaughey Give a Matthew McConaughey Speech to Texas Football Players","datePublished":"2014-10-02T20:44:49.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:13:33.801Z","description":"It was almost exactly what you would have expected it to be","url":"https://time.com/3457598/matthew-mcconaughey-football-speech-university-of-texas/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Sports topic","Football","Matthew McConaughey","Speech"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eric Dodds","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/eric-dodds/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3457598/matthew-mcconaughey-football-speech-university-of-texas/","name":"Watch Matthew McConaughey Give a Matthew McConaughey Speech to Texas Football Players"}}]}] ```