Anyone who had the chance to walk into Jordan-Hare Stadium this past week should have prepared themselves for what they were about to see. Simply put, Pat Dye Field was a dirt pile. The beautiful green grass that is expected upon entering Jordan-Hare was no longer there.
The Auburn Turf Management staff went to work on putting new sod on the football field, a $300,000 project this week.
Eric Kleypas, athletic turf grass manager, said the process of replacing the sod is to make sure the field is draining correctly.
Kleypas said that while organic matter, which consists of decomposing grasses and roots, is good for home gardening, it is detrimental to the draining process of athletic fields.
"As time goes on, and that organic matter accumulates, your drainage rate slows down," Kleypas said.
In most cases, the new sod must be replaced every 8 to 10 years, Kleypas said. The last time the field was resodded was in 2003.
"Essentially, what we are doing is we take a shovel and see how deep the organic matter is," Kleypas said. "Well, this year we decided we needed to go five inches to get it all done to where we were at our clean sand root zone."
This change will cause the field to be four inches lower than last year, Kleypas said, but the difference in the sod will in no way affect the football team.
"Unless you tell them that it had been resodded, they wouldn't even know it." Kleypas said.
The organic matter continuously builds up, sometimes even half an inch in a year.
"The field won't be four inches lower than originally. It will just be four inches lower than last year," Kleypas said. "What we are actually doing is getting it to the same level that it was in 2003."
The process of placing new sod on the field is not an easy one.
Sports Turf Company of Whitesburg, Ga., removed the old sod and laid the dirt for the beginning of the project, Kleypas said.
"We'll take a tiller and till a layer and scrape it off, and we just do that a couple of times until we get down to that clean sand, and that's when we know to stop," he said.
The type of sod being put down will be new to Pat Dye Field. Tifway hybrid bermudagrass will replace Tifsport hybrid bermudagrass.
The grass, brought in from Bent Oaks Farms in Foley is the same used in Turner Field, the Atlanta Braves stadium.
"You could renovate with that sod and play a football game on up to next week verses conventional sod where you may need a month of great weather to grow it in," Kleypas said.
"We, of course, did an extensive study on a number of turf grass providers," said Jeff Steele, associate athletics director for facilites and operations.
Bent Oaks is world-renowned and they have an excellent facility, Steele said.
"We work very closely with them," Steele said. "They're up here frequently taking a look at our turf, checking on their product and making sure that it meets our standards and our needs."
Many of Auburn's turf crew are graduates of Auburn's turf management program.
"It kind of makes sense that if you've got such a great program, you need to taut that and especially tie that in your showcase facility like Jordan-Hare Stadium," Steele said.
"I think we have one of the best surfaces to play on in all the SEC," football assistant coach Chris Luper said.
Luper said the West Virginia game in 2009 when three inches of rain fell in a couple of hours, showed the field's strength.
"There was no way we could have played a competitive contest on that field, but we did and it was free of any incidents as far as the turf was concerned," Luper said.
Other stadium projects includes upgrading the concourse areas with new paint, bathroom fixtures, lighting and adding televesions said Steele.
Do you like this story? The Plainsman doesn't accept money from tuition or student fees, and we don't charge a subscription fee. But you can donate to support The Plainsman.
