Matthew McConaughey gives Texas Longhorns chest-thumping pep talk

"I knew it. I knew it, because I made that play."

(Longhorn Network)

Matthew McConaughey was back in his native Texas this week and decided to drop in on college football team the Longhorns. He's Matthew McConaughey, so of course it ended in a rousing speech.

With the team and coaches huddled around him, the actor gave a typically charismatic talk centred around why he gets out of bed to act in the morning and why they do the same to play footbawwwwll.

McConaughey, God love him, has almost reached self-parody lately, especially with that car advert in which he stares down a bull.

His encounter with the footballers concluded with him doing his favourite anecdote – how his chest-thumping ended up in The Wolf of Wall Street – before leading the team in a round of it.

Here's the full transcript of his speech:

"I just want to come, not come preach anything, not come tell you anything. Just wanted to kind of have a conversation with you, see how y'all doing, look some of you in the eye, you know? Las night I was thinking about what I do and I was thinking about what y'all do, and I ask myself this question all the time: 'Why do I do what I do? Why an I an actor? I was going to ask y'all, why do y'all play football. There's no right answer. Ask yourself when you look in the mirror tonight, 'Why do I play this game? Why am I doing this? Why do I come out to practice? Why am I out here busting my ass in the middle of the heat everyday?' It feels good coming out on Saturdays when it's the big show, right? Hell yeah it does. It feels a whole lot better after a 'W' than after an 'L'.

"But still no matter what, I'll tell you, when I've done my best work as an actor it was only when I pushed myself to be better than I even thought I could be. I've got a pretty high idea of how good I can be. I'm pretty self-confident with how good I can be. But I didn't do my best work -- and I still don't think I've done my best work -- until I pushed myself further than even I think I could be. It's amazing how the mind can go up and down, man. I guess what I'm saying is you've got to ask yourself, 'Why are you playing the game?' And in there you're going find the answer of why you play it, whether you win or whether you lose.

"Some of you may play because you love football. Some of you may play for your grandmother. Some of you may play for your older brother, your dad. Some of you may play for the coaches. Some of you may play for the university. At the end of the day every single one of you has really only got to be playing for one person. I'll tell you what it does get men. It gets a whole lot more fun. Because when you do well you feel it and you can look in the mirror and you go, 'That's right. I earned that. I did that.' When you lay your head down on your pillow at night and you busted your ass, you anticipated that pass where ever it was as a cornerback and you picked it, but you were that close to holding back, or whatever it is, that play where you were just a little bit quicker, you know at the end of your day when you lie your head on the pillow: I knew it. I knew it, because I made that play.

"If everybody is thinking that, if everyone has looked themselves in the mirror at the end of the night, if everyone's laid their head on the pillow at the end of the night, it's a lot easier to play for the guy next to you. It's a whole lot easier to play for the University of Texas Longhorns. It's a whole lot easier to put on that jersey, that helmet and be out here sweating your ass of playing for each other. And it's a whole lot more fun.

Anyway, I did start preaching, didn't I?"