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We’re Going Artificial

Posted by Scipio Tex on January 29th, 2009 under Football


Fast playing surface

It looks increasingly likely that Texas is going to consider going to some form of FieldTurf. It’s used pretty heavily in the NFL and is growing increasingly popular in college football (Nebraska, Oregon), FIFA, MLB, and the front yards of Barking Carnival’s readers once they realize that you don’t have to water or cut it and that you can hose labrador poop directly into your neighbor’s yard. Your wife will be able to clean up the backyard with a swiffer. The Longhorns curently practice on it in the bubble so it’s not unknown to us.

Field turf (and all of its derivations) differs from classic artificial turf (which many of us endured at some point in our high school careers) in that it’s still a fast track, but it’s soft and yielding, mimicking the feel of grass. No Insta-ACL tears either.

I’m eager to see what Greg Smith and Britt Mitchell can do on a fast track.

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45 Responses

  1. CrazyJoeDavola said:

    January 29th, 2009 at 5:49 pm

    I like the move. It’s certainly preferable to the number of times we’ve seen the field in crappy shape, as with the A&M game.

    As long as they’re going to use the stadium for high school as well as college games in the fall, we might as well do something about it to mitigate the effects of wear and tear.

  2. srr50 said:

    January 29th, 2009 at 5:51 pm

    Field Turf uses cryogenic rubber at its base — that’s recycled rubber frozen and shattered. It looks pretty weird the first season because it pops up and looks like dirt clots all over the field.

    It eventually is worn down and doesn’t spray up as much.

  3. Justaguy said:

    January 29th, 2009 at 5:57 pm

    “It eventually is worn down and doesn’t spray up as much.”

    srr50, are you talking about the field or something else related to a picture above?

  4. Texas_Dawg said:

    January 29th, 2009 at 6:22 pm

    How Big 12.

  5. Facebook User said:

    January 29th, 2009 at 6:48 pm

    The spread offense is often described as ‘basketball on cryogenic rubber’.

  6. uttotop said:

    January 29th, 2009 at 7:10 pm

    Count me as one who supports this move, especially after the joke the field was in for the Aggie game…that was the worse I have seen, save my Fr season on grass for the Aggie game…that one was so pitiful that you could not recognize the players numbers(on the field) on either side of the ball and essentially was a mudhole…

  7. Horn Brain said:

    January 29th, 2009 at 7:33 pm

    Grass is a staple of the Longhorn lifestyle. Just ask Ricky Williams.

    We will never give up the grass, bitchez!

  8. srr50 said:

    January 29th, 2009 at 8:47 pm

    srr50, are you talking about the field or something else related to a picture above?

    I’m talking about the recycled rubber. Several HS stadiums around Austin switched to it, and the first year you had little pieces of the recyled rubber popping up as players hit the ground. After a few games, they stopped popping up as much.

  9. Matt McConnahy said:

    January 29th, 2009 at 8:47 pm

    It’d be a lot cooler if we kept the grass.

  10. CrazyJoeDavola said:

    January 29th, 2009 at 9:40 pm

    “After a few games, they stopped popping up as much.”

    srr50, are you talking about the field or something else related to a picture above?

  11. glenn said:

    January 29th, 2009 at 9:54 pm

    yes, srr, you are being obtuse.

  12. Crumdinger said:

    January 29th, 2009 at 10:35 pm

    Everything in the athletics program is now directed towards paying off those north end zone bonds. How can me maximize revenue and minimize costs. Maximization of revenue is direcly related to the record of the football team, which is why overpaying a DC is considered a good investment. Minimization of costs is where to file this field turf abomination. The North End Zone to UT Athletics is kind of like Howard Stern to Sirius. It’s awesome to have, but you know eventually you gotta pay the piper.

  13. Parlin Hall said:

    January 29th, 2009 at 11:08 pm

    The phrase “turf toe” hasn’t appeared on BC yet, but is about to become familiar.

    People who play with it say it’s one of the most painful injuries in sports.

  14. 71grad said:

    January 30th, 2009 at 2:07 am

    Greg Smith was an O-lineman shifted to TE because of the injury situation. He has moved back to the O-line and I am sure he would do as well as the others at C/G.

    I would think that it will be a least a year before any change will be made. Probably better to ask for more attention from the grounds crew.

  15. beowulf said:

    January 30th, 2009 at 4:09 am

    Sarcasm, 71grad. Scipio can’t take his next breath without it.

  16. Nordberg said:

    January 30th, 2009 at 6:55 am

    So what becomes of that million dollar drainage system we had installed a few years ago.

  17. The General said:

    January 30th, 2009 at 7:05 am

    It’s Joe Jamail’s. We’re fedexing it to him tomorrow.

  18. cw said:

    January 30th, 2009 at 7:20 am

    field turf’s rubber soil base + north endzone expansion’s limiting stadium air flow + typical austin september weather = 200% increase in gameday heatstroke.

  19. JUICE said:

    January 30th, 2009 at 7:23 am

    It’s a not place for people to watch games in person. It’s a television studio.

  20. Mysterious Package said:

    January 30th, 2009 at 7:40 am

    Wind in the fall generally blows from the southwest, and since the stadium is not enlcosed yet I do not think it will be any hotter than normal(which is pretty hot already).
    I’ve heard it mentioned here before but are our grounds keepers any good? We installed that drainage system, ect, and our field does not look lush, its closer to brown during the season.

  21. MilkmanDan said:

    January 30th, 2009 at 8:41 am

    I’m sure we’ve hired the best turf engineers A&M has to offer.

  22. Nature Lover said:

    January 30th, 2009 at 8:41 am

    I don’t like it – would rather have grass as almighty God intended. Or something.

  23. bateshorn said:

    January 30th, 2009 at 8:50 am

    Count me as the old man here, but I hate it. Football on grass is one of the true joys in life. I don’t care if the field is mud in november, that’s part of the game.

    Given our location, beyond cost, there is no reason we can’t have grass.

    And that turf toe comment is not without merit.

    As much as I bleed burnt orange, there isn’t a more $ obsessed program in the country.

  24. CloseToJumping said:

    January 30th, 2009 at 8:50 am

    I like the move.

    I don’t expect this to induce much in the way of turf toe, but we’ll see. I hope it doesn’t.

    Turf toe is essentially a broken big toe. If one can play on it and continues to do so, the injury can force related breaks along the philangeal connections for the smaller toes. It is the most painful, debilitating injury anyone can be honestly asked and expected (if the coaches are idiots or desperate or both) to play through. Take a lot of advils, 12-15, roughly, before games, mix in some ephedrin or some other dangerous item, and it can be done but the after effects can be long term and regrettable.

  25. Hippie Killer said:

    January 30th, 2009 at 9:13 am

    Can we still bury game balls in the new turf?

  26. Hippie Killer said:

    January 30th, 2009 at 9:14 am

    Maybe I’m crazy…but I’d drill that woman. Then I’d take a shot of pennicilin.

  27. Horn In Exile said:

    January 30th, 2009 at 10:19 am

    They might be fun to play with on the road, but you don’t want them in your house.

  28. Mysterious Package said:

    January 30th, 2009 at 10:46 am

    I’d hit it twice on Sundays.

  29. Newy25 said:

    January 30th, 2009 at 12:04 pm

    If we assume that we will have more talent (speed) than our guests then I am all for turning our field into a big, green track.

  30. Scipio Tex said:

    January 30th, 2009 at 3:29 pm

    DeSean Hales approves that message.

  31. R.C. said:

    January 30th, 2009 at 3:58 pm

    For those of you who have traveled to Floyd Casey, it has something similar.

  32. glenn said:

    January 30th, 2009 at 5:56 pm

    can we still water the field for a&m?

  33. coach Callahan said:

    February 2nd, 2009 at 10:59 am

    Nebraska was actually the first D1 school with field turf. As has been already stated once the base of sand and recycled rubber gets rolled in and settled it’s a pretty durable field. Players like it as a synthetic surface because it doesn’t give you friction burns like the old astro turf did. And it seems to be easier on knees than turf was. I have not however seen a study of one playing surface versus another to be able to accurately comment on that specific issue.

  34. Bob in Houston said:

    February 2nd, 2009 at 1:21 pm

    What about turf toe?

  35. Scipio Tex said:

    February 2nd, 2009 at 8:21 pm

    Bob:

    I don’t think it’s any more prevalent than grass from what I understand. You don’t get the severe impact stubbing that you can get on a hard turf.

  36. Ojnab Bob said:

    February 2nd, 2009 at 8:38 pm

    Count me as one who definitely doesn’t believe the hype that the newer artificial surfaces are much “easier on the knees” than the old turf. I tore my ACL on FieldTurf in November, and I can _guarantee_ you that my cleat does not catch like that on any grass or dirt surface.

    The only studies I’ve seen extolling the newer turf were funded by parties of interest, and other circumstantial evidence also indicates that grass should be the preferred surface. I’ve heard from several local HS coaches that their teams’ ankle and knee injuries in soccer and football have gone up, not down, since the installation of the Gen II turf surfaces.

  37. Scipio Tex said:

    February 2nd, 2009 at 8:52 pm

    I know it gets much hotter than grass. I may try to surf around and try to find some epidemiological studies comparing injury incidence and relative risk.

  38. Ojnab Bob said:

    February 3rd, 2009 at 1:48 pm

    Scip, I’d be interested in seeing those studies too, particularly ones not funded by the industry – I am quite bitter about my ACL injury. Here’s some more circumstantial evidence that Oregon is less than pleased with their new turf.. if Dixon doesn’t go down, he may have won the Heisman in 2007.

    http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindducksbeat/2008/08/autzen_effect.html

  39. Scipio Tex said:

    February 3rd, 2009 at 1:57 pm

    Agreed.

    Though the eternal problem with any study is that someone has to fund it. In this case, I don’t need a disinterested party so much as a robust data set – say, a publically available injury report warehouse compiled by the UIL to assess high school kid injuries.

    Even if it’s funded by industry, I’m comfortable drawing some conclusions if I don’t see anything funny in their methodology.

  40. Scipio Tex said:

    February 3rd, 2009 at 1:58 pm

    What do you make of this?

    Turf Field Research

  41. Ojnab Bob said:

    February 4th, 2009 at 8:26 am

    Certainly the data sets are large enough in magnitude that it is difficult to quibble with his conclusions… it’s just jarring to me to see the statistics so at odds with my personal and observed experiences.

  42. Bob in Houston said:

    February 4th, 2009 at 9:29 am

    “Here’s some more circumstantial evidence that Oregon is less than pleased with their new turf.. if Dixon doesn’t go down, he may have won the Heisman in 2007.”

    If I’d had a vote, I would have voted for him. Don’t care that he was hurt. He played enough.

  43. bateshorn said:

    February 4th, 2009 at 9:37 am

    If you can’t have a nice grass field in Austin, Texas, really, what’s the point in having a nice grass field, well, anywhere.

  44. DBH said:

    February 5th, 2009 at 11:42 am

    Steve Miller described it thusly…

    We’re living in a plastic land
    Somebody give me a hand

  45. DR. Big Toe said:

    March 5th, 2009 at 3:54 pm

    This is a product designed specifically for turf toe and it allows the player to play at full speed.

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