Kyle Field getting new grass after poor field conditions during Rice game

A North Carolina-based company will replace Texas A&Ms football field with another natural surface at the cost of $300,000, sources told The Eagle on Thursday.

The move comes after torrential rains last Friday and Saturday when the Bryan-College Station area was inundated with 4.5 inches of rain in less than 24 hours, leading to sloppy conditions in Saturday nights game between Texas A&M and Rice. After the game, which A&M won 38-10, John Sharp, chancellor for the Texas A&M System, led the decision to make a change and bring in the grass from Carolina Green.

After the game, the chancellor asked the staff and the Kyle Field redevelopment committee to look at options, said Steve Moore, the A&M Systems vice chancellor of marketing and communications. He wanted to know how to provide the best competitive playing surface we could going forward and thats what led to this process and the decisions that have been made.

Carolina Greens sod, which is being shipped in on 24 refrigerated trucks, is grown on plastic and will ship with a much thicker sod base than the grass that was installed in early August, meaning it will take less time for it to take a firm hold at Kyle Field. The next home game is Oct. 11 when A&M plays Mississippi. Crews will begin installing the field the week of Sept. 29.

According to Moore, the installation will take about two days, which should give the Aggies ample opportunity to practice on the new surface before their Southeastern Conference home opener.

Aside from the thicker sod base, another reason Carolina Green was chosen is that the company has expertise in replacing fields in-season. Over the past five years, Carolina Green has done in-season replacements for the Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Redskins, University of Tennessee, University of Kentucky and University of South Carolina. Just last week, the Dallas Cowboys and Tennessee Titans played on surface that had been installed the week before by Carolina Green.

Moore said there were no discussions about switching to an artificial surface or moving games to other locations, and that university officials, as well as their Kyle Field redevelopment partners Populous and Manhattan-Vaughn Construction, did not originally anticipate any issues.

Populous and Manhattan-Vaughn have done a lot of stadiums and they had a lot of discussion about it, Moore said. There are a lot of different field experts out there. The prescription they used in terms of getting the turf, selecting the turf, putting the turf down and how it was put down was all well vetted. Had it not been for the rain, everyone is confident it would have worked very well.

He added, If you look around at our playing surfaces we have at A&M, whether its at Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park, Ellis Field for soccer or Kyle Field, traditionally weve had great, great turf. The feeling was that we made decisions that were consistent with that and that it was going to be a great surface for us for this year.

At halftime of last weeks game, Rice coach David Bailiff was seen on the sideline shouting with A&M Athletic Director Eric Hyman. However, after the game, Bailiff said he was satisfied the surface was safe enough to continue playing.

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Kyle Field getting new grass after poor field conditions during Rice game