New Grass Ordered for Kyle Field After Turf Failures During Rice Game

TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY - Those responsible for putting a field into Kyle Field thought they had the right grass for the 2014 season.

A first game, a significant rain storm and a second game later, and Texas A&M has called an audible.

A&M System officials said Thursday they had finalized a deal to bring new turf from North Carolina to replace the North Texas-grown grass that routinely was ripped and uprooted during the Rice game last Saturday.

In confirming the news originally reported by The Eagle, System spokesperson Steve Moore said there had been talks with top officials throughout the week which wrapped up Thursday with the deal to bring grass from the Carolina Green Sod company in Indian Trail, North Carolina, a company that is said to have thicker sod to settle in faster, and a company that has installed major sports fields in the middle of seasons on short notice before.

By the end of the month, the new grass will be trucked across the country and laid down in Kyle. A&M's next home game is October 11 against Ole Miss.

The previous field, grown by Tri-Tex in Tioga, Texas, had been down for just about 30 days before the home schedule began. Aggie Athletics field manager Leo Goertz told News 3 before the first home game against Lamar that the ideal time for a field to be able to properly set and grow together is 60 days, but that conditions had been good leading up to that game. Following the Lamar match-up, Goertz said the field had held up as good as he could have hoped.

Then, the day before the Rice game, 4.26" of rain wer recorded to have fallen at nearby Easterwood Airport, a record for any September 12 recorded. By the second half of Saturday's game, field crews were having to sprint as much as the players across the field to fill and repair holes where the turf kept coming up.

News 3 featured a story on the original grass during its Aggie Gameday pre-game show before the Rice game. Tri-Tex had also provided the turf for Kyle before the 2007 season.

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New Grass Ordered for Kyle Field After Turf Failures During Rice Game