McConaughey Commits to Football Film

Actor Matthew McConaughey hangs out on the sidelines during the Central Florida-Marshall college football game Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2006, at Joan C. Edwards Stadium in Huntington, W.Va. McConaughey was on hand to promote his movie "We Are Marshall" premiering in December which tells the story of a rebuilding year after a 1970 plane crash killed much of that year's Thundering Herd football team and several community members. (AP Photo/Jeff Gentner) (Jeff Gentner - AP)

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. -- Matthew McConaughey says he immediately committed to a role in the upcoming film "We Are Marshall" after reading the script.

McConaughey plays coach Jack Lengyel, who took over the Marshall University football team after a plane crash killed 75 players, coaches and community members in November 1970.

"There's two scripts I've read in my career _ I've made 37 films _ that as soon as I finished the last page, I said, 'I'm in, no matter what,'" McConaughey said Wednesday.

He named "We Are Marshall" and his first film, 1993's "Dazed and Confused."

"I finished the script and I couldn't get it off my mind," he said of "We Are Marshall." "I had emotions that I haven't had in a while. I didn't know this story."

The film tells the story of the football program's rebuilding.

Lengyel was hired in March 1971, four months after the team's chartered jet crashed into a hill short of Tri-State Airport in rain and fog.

Lengyel oversaw a patchwork quilt of players. There were three dozen walk-ons _ former servicemen, a soccer player, basketball players and transfer students.

They joined the few returning players who were not on the plane and a group of freshmen who were not allowed to play the previous fall due to NCAA restrictions.