Field Conditions

#26
#26
WallyBalls said:
Two games in 6 days with not ideal growing conditions.

It'll look fine for Florida.
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This is an excellent point. 6 days is asking quite a bit in terms of recovery from extreme traffic. That said, the new artificial field turf is excellent stuff and wouldn't suffer from the same issues.
 
#31
#31
Voluble2 said:
It has been a mild summer with lots of rain so there is no excuse for it to look bad.
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The mild summer is the opposite of what bermuda needs to thrive. It needs heat and sun. The cold winter last year with the mild summer is not ideal. It's not fescue or bluegrass.
 
#33
#33
Poor conditions are a direct result of all those dang college kids breaking in and having a snowball fight this past winter. At least the grounds crew says so....
 
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#34
#34
jbuchanan said:
I noticed the same thing....it prompted me to say, "What the heck happened to our field?"

I think the power T and checkerboards would look pretty snazzy on turf.
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I have a piece of the old turf they sold when they took it up. It is not as glamorous as u would think. Keep the real grass
 
#36
#36
A rough winter last year coupled with a mild and wet last couple of weeks are not optimal conditions for the Tifway(419) Bermuda. I am a golf course superintendent and have over 150 acres of this stuff to maintain in middle georgia and my turf would look like that if it had been mid 80s as highs and dropping to the low 60s plus a few days getting into the 50s for the lows which odd as it may seem those low temps would still slow the Bermuda even if it was getting into the high 90s Also too much water is just as damaging as not having enough. It promotes diease and slows down the production of chlorophyll Which gives the turf it's color because oxygen levels decrease as water holding capacity gets filled. I know it sounds like I'm being a know it all but I've said that to say this. With the advances of the products available to turf managers that will make the the plants healthier and stronger and the new age turf pigment colorants I don't see how the grounds keeper doesn't put out a nearly perfect playing surface week in and week out just having to maintain one field that will be seen by 102,455 people! I guess I'm just jelious and want the guys job lol
 
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#37
#37
Yeah, it looked absolutely horrible on TV, and why in the H(*&^ll does the power T have the 50 yard line stripe visible going down the middle, it's washed out and looks like garbage? This could easily be remedied with the field turf. Looks and plays better than grass, whoever said it caused more injuries is flat out wrong (that's the old astroturf from the 70's & 80's) plus the daily maintenance fees and time would be reduced dramatically. This is a no-brainer decision.
 
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#38
#38
adidasorange said:
the summer might have been fine, but you've forgotten about the winter

do a survey of golf courses and HS football fields and you'll see several had major grass killoffs
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This is brand new turf that was put in after the spring game. With UT having a masters degree in turf management, the field has been a poor testiment to their program. I know turf is difficult in transition zones, but other SEC field have been putting UT to shame.
 
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#39
#39
BentGrowinVol said:
A rough winter last year coupled with a mild and wet last couple of weeks are not optimal conditions for the Tifway(419) Bermuda. I am a golf course superintendent and have over 150 acres of this stuff to maintain in middle georgia and my turf would look like that if it had been mid 80s as highs and dropping to the low 60s plus a few days getting into the 50s for the lows which odd as it may seem those low temps would still slow the Bermuda even if it was getting into the high 90s Also too much water is just as damaging as not having enough. It promotes diease and slows down the production of chlorophyll Which gives the turf it's color because oxygen levels decrease as water holding capacity gets filled. I know it sounds like I'm being a know it all but I've said that to say this. With the advances of the products available to turf managers that will make the the plants healthier and stronger and the new age turf pigment colorants I don't see how the grounds keeper doesn't put out a nearly perfect playing surface week in and week out just having to maintain one field that will be seen by 102,455 people! I guess I'm just jelious and want the guys job lol
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You are hired - start Monday morning at 7 am
 
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#41
#41
GoalDancer said:
Yeah, it looked absolutely horrible on TV, and why in the H(*&^ll does the power T have the 50 yard line stripe visible going down the middle, it's washed out and looks like garbage? This could easily be remedied with the field turf. Looks and plays better than grass, whoever said it caused more injuries is flat out wrong (that's the old astroturf from the 70's & 80's) plus the daily maintenance fees and time would be reduced dramatically. This is a no-brainer decision.
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I think its been said on here before, the makeup of the paint they use on the field has changed in the last few years, due to regulations I believe. Literally not as good as it used to be.




As for the field...again...it's been beat on by a couple hundred D1 athletes averaging 225-250lbs with essentially 5 days to recover. That's 2 pregame full roster warm-ups (one of which was in a downpour), 8 quarters of football, two marching band pre-games, and two halftime shows all in the middle of crap conditions.

If it looks rough after the next 28 days, then I'll worry.

Otherwise, go cut your own grass.
 
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#42
#42
orange_iv said:
Played a game on it just a week ago....not to mention it was played on just after a heavy rain. Tends to mess grass up.
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ok - and of course the band marching on it - 3 weeks to get it back in shape - I still like grass over the field turf
 
#43
#43
Either put in zosia which is far superior to bermuda in density and goes dormant later, or field turf.
 
#45
#45
Roustabout said:
Either put in zosia which is far superior to bermuda in density and goes dormant later, or field turf.
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Doubtful.

Zoysia grasses have a dense, thick, carpet-like coverage which makes this grass an ideal lawn, sports field cover (except football and soccer), and golf course fairway grass such as the Zenith Zoysia in the above picture. Baseball fields, bowling greens or any medium to light impact sport is adapted for the use of Zoysia grasses. Even some football fields use Zoysia, but its slow recovery time makes it not a high use grass in this sport.
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#46
#46
BentGrowinVol said:
A rough winter last year coupled with a mild and wet last couple of weeks are not optimal conditions for the Tifway(419) Bermuda. I am a golf course superintendent and have over 150 acres of this stuff to maintain in middle georgia and my turf would look like that if it had been mid 80s as highs and dropping to the low 60s plus a few days getting into the 50s for the lows which odd as it may seem those low temps would still slow the Bermuda even if it was getting into the high 90s Also too much water is just as damaging as not having enough. It promotes diease and slows down the production of chlorophyll Which gives the turf it's color because oxygen levels decrease as water holding capacity gets filled. I know it sounds like I'm being a know it all but I've said that to say this. With the advances of the products available to turf managers that will make the the plants healthier and stronger and the new age turf pigment colorants I don't see how the grounds keeper doesn't put out a nearly perfect playing surface week in and week out just having to maintain one field that will be seen by 102,455 people! I guess I'm just jelious and want the guys job lol
Click to expand...

I'm an assistant superintendent in Atlanta and I concur. We've had a few areas of winter kill on the golf course that we had to sod out in high traffic areas. Our club house lawn and driving range complex where we overseeded lost quite a bit of bermuda during transition this spring and into summer. I know from guys in the business that this past winter was tough for warm season grasses in TN so im not suprised to see the field in sub par shape. They'll start overseeding tomorrow with the team out of town over a three week span. Ryegrass will look great for the Florida game.
 
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#47
#47
Those of you calling for fake turf, from what I understand that stuff gets very hot, upwards of 120 degrees. They were talking about that today, GT was playing at Tulane who is on field turf in their new stadium. Also when it gets hot it gets slick.

I didn't think the field looked bad, those of you saying we ought to be able to grow better grass are forgetting that the field does not get direct sunlight from sunrise to sunset. The surrounding stadium limits the available sunlight and it gets worse as the days get shorter.

Also I have zoysia and it is great, but very slow to recover so I don't think it would do well for football.
 
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#48
#48
rocky top buzz said:
Those of you calling for fake turf, from what I understand that stuff gets very hot, upwards of 120 degrees. They were talking about that today, GT was playing at Tulane who is on field turf in their new stadium. Also when it gets hot it gets slick.

I didn't think the field looked bad, those of you saying we ought to be able to grow better grass are forgetting that the field does not get direct sunlight from sunrise to sunset. The surrounding stadium limits the available sunlight and it gets worse as the days get shorter.

Also I have zoysia and it is great, but very slow to recover so I don't think it would do well for football.
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It does get very hot on the sun. One way to fix that, is to water the field before play. Sounds strange, but it can actually lower the surface temp by 30 degrees. The new field turf holds up great in the rain so watering the field prior to the game shouldn't be an issue.
 
#49
#49
rocky top buzz said:
Those of you calling for fake turf, from what I understand that stuff gets very hot, upwards of 120 degrees. They were talking about that today, GT was playing at Tulane who is on field turf in their new stadium. Also when it gets hot it gets slick.

I didn't think the field looked bad, those of you saying we ought to be able to grow better grass are forgetting that the field does not get direct sunlight from sunrise to sunset. The surrounding stadium limits the available sunlight and it gets worse as the days get shorter.

Also I have zoysia and it is great, but very slow to recover so I don't think it would do well for football.
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Yes synthetic turf is significantly hotter. I can't remember how many degrees from classes in college but there is a big difference.

People need to remember that the first 2-3 games are played on bermudagrass which tends to have a dull, pale green color. Once the by week comes early in the year the field is overseeded with ryegrass which has a bright lime green color and stripes up better.
 
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