said he had played some high school football, "but I was no good". He recalled showing up to an early meeting with Berg after a friend's party where he "had too much to drink, smoked too many cigarettes" and was generally quite tired. Berg liked that look, since he wanted the coach to appear old and weary. "You need to drink a lot of scotch and smoke a lot of cigarettes," he advised. Scott Porter, playing the role of quarterback Jason Street, knew that his character would be paralyzed from the first episode on, and said that this was a big part of the reason why he took the role. Porter played high school football as a wide receiver. He also played on a highly successful team in high school, and described himself as huge fan of the Friday Night Lights movie. Meanwhile, Taylor Kitsch, the show's Tim Riggins, said in an interview that he was able to relate to his character based on his own personal experiences: "my father is out of my life, more or less", he revealed in an interview, "So I discover stuff that maybe I wasn't even dealing with as a person." Zach Gilford said about his character Matt Saracen that "there are different parts of it from people I know growing up or people I'm tight with now". He credited Peter Berg with coming up with the Saracen character, and said he was grateful to "have some of the most realistic and heartfelt storylines." When asked which of the actors would have been drafted highest by the NFL, he replied "Probably Taylor [Kitsch]. He's a good athlete, but Scott will kill me for saying that. Scott played football growing up and he has a good arm, but Taylor is faster and I think that would help his draft status." Gaius Charles, who plays "Smash" Williams, graduated from the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama in 2005, determined to find a job within a year, which he did with Friday Night Lights. He describes himself as "all right" at football, but says that he was taken aback by the intensity of the plays on the set. Mack Brown, the head coach of the University of Texas at Austin Longhorn football team, plays a cameo in the episodes. He appears in the pep rally scene, where he is a member of the local community questioning coach Taylor.