before the studio decided on We Are Marshall (not one of Matt’s):
I Am Marshall
All Right, All Right, All Right
(15 second bongo solo)
A Coach and His Horse
We Are Actors
The Best of Times (Except for That One Thing)
(the sound of Matthew McConaughey laughing really hard)
How Marshall Over Came the Death of their Entire Team in a Plane Crash with the Help of Matty Mac
Silver Lining
(a photo of straw next to a dip spit cup)
Keep on Livin’
DeathBall ’76
Lance Armstrong is Marshall
Whipped Cream and a God-damned Cherry on Top
(the hand signal for ‘hangloose’)
Stetson is not Marshall, Not Even Close
The Wedding Planner II: Weddings Off Girl, I Gotta Go Coach Marshall
Friday Night Plane Crashes
The TV Series ‘Coach’: The Movie starring Matthew McConaughey as Craig T. Nelson
We Are the University of Texas
How to Lose a Football Team in 10 Days
David Wooderson, All American
(the action of throwing a cowboy hat in the air and catching it on top of your head)
The Marshall Football Team and Aaliyah: The Biggest Disasters in American Aviation History (McConaughey was set to play Aaliyah as well)
EdTV 2: Touchdown Fever
A List of character names Matthew McConaughey proposed to the director of We Are Marshall, for his role as Marshall’s football coach, before the director decided to go with the coach’s actual name Jack Lengyel:
Rip Marshall
Jack Horse
Pigskin West Virginia
Whiskey Tailback
Cowboy Davis Jr.
Forklift Hayes
Dirk Pitt
Cleats McConaughey
Deputy Andrew Tyler
Knute Rockne Sr.
Rebel Murdoch
Ronald Reagan
“Hoss” Champion
Bud Hoagie
Abraham Lincoln Rodriguez
Colonel Tucker
Jack Marshall Texas
Smirk Bodean
Armstrong Coachstrong
Waco Stubblechin
“Pushups” Magazino
Tony Longhorns
Face Handelman
Jason DustBowl
Raymond PlaneCrash
The Gipper
Sahara Two-a-Days
Guy South
Marcus Beefeater
Buck Hog
Jon Bon Jovi
‘Stache Worthington
Harold Deathblow
‘Cigarettes’ Jones
Lt. Morgan Freeman
Hands Calibresio
President George Marshington
“Sandwich” Johnston
List of a few of the ideas Matthew McConaughey thought might “spice up” the We Are Marshall script:
-coach should never drive in a car, he should sprint everywhere
-it should rain really hard the entire movie
-have Jeremy Irons play one of the pilots of the downed plane, he’d be perfect
-play up the story of how the season after the plane crash, the football team had a horrible record and really let down the entire community
-coach should always have a pistol in a holster on his hip
-coach should conduct team meetings while doing pull-ups
-have a scene at the end where the new team goes to a psychic and talks to the dead team
-at some point the coach should save a little girl from a tornado
-every player should be wearing number 69
-coach should at all times have aviator sunglasses on, both over his eyes and another pair on top of his head
-coach walks into a bar in West Virginia and bumps into Hollywood actor Matthew McConaughey, they fight for fifteen minutes in the bar’s parking lot to a draw
-the movie should definitely end with the Marshall football team singing “We Are Family”
-every ten minutes there should be a snippet of footage of coach combing his hair in the locker room mirror
-just before the team takes off on its fateful flight, coach hollers at the team after a one point loss, saying “And the Lord shall take vengeance on all of your souls for the number of missed tackles you had this game.”
-the final games of the season are decided by coach and the other teams’ coaches arm wrestling best 2-out-of-3. Coach wins out the rest of the season and heads into the conference championship where he is smoked two-nil by McNeese State coach Jack Doland, played in the film by HBO boxing commentator Larry Merchant
-coach should give all half-time speeches on a horse, with no shirt on
-during one of the games, the QB goes down. Coach fills in for him. The film cuts to a seven minute montage of coach airing it out, with The Eagles’ “Take it Easy” playing in the background
-Will Ferrell should be the “nutty” third string quarterback Larry Debrowski (actually the studios idea)
-to not make it such a downer, have everyone survive the plane crash except one player who is paralyzed from the neck down. The rest of the season is dedicated to said player
