Big changes coming to the surface at UFCU Disch-Falk Field
It won’t be Jim Schlossnagle’s Field of Dreams, but it will be a major improvement.
No, the Texas Longhorns are not going to put down a grass surface at UFCU Disch-Falk Field, as much as athletics director Chris Del Conte and head coach Jim Schlossnagle would like to have natural turf — for one, the clamshell makes it too difficult to grow grass without heat lamps, a prohibitive expense. But there will be a new playing surface at the Disch next year as part of a larger project to address issues with the field, including a crown originally installed to help the facility drain properly that leaves the pitching mound seven inches higher than it should be. As Schlossnagle point out on occasion, that forces hitters to literally hit uphill when they hit ground balls in addition to So the first step when Texas replaces the full synthetic FieldTurf installed in 2017 is to literally level the playing field for batters by removing the crown on the field, the latest step to make the stadium more friendly to hitters after the outfield gaps were shortened and the fence lowered in left field during the David Pierce era.
The next step, currently in process, is to determine how fast the field will play. “I want it to be faster than what we currently have because our turf is tilted to the pitcher, slower, a bit uphill, because there’s still a crown on the field from Coach Gus days,” Schlossnagle said during a Thursday media availability. “I just want our field to play as neutral as it can and I wanted to mirror grass and dirt as best as possible, so we’ve had a lot of conversations with the company that was chosen by the university to do the project.
We’re going to get to kind of design it to that as best it possibly can be. ” The design process included a Wednesday meeting between Schlossnagle and the company building and installing the new artificial turf before Schlossnagle and the Longhorns preview what the surface may look like when they travel to Knoxville to face Tennessee at Lindsey Nelson Stadium this weekend. “Their turf is faster than I remember.
Ours is slower. However, I did meet with the turf company yesterday, so the new turf that we’re going to get next year is going to be somewhat similar to what’s going to be at Tennessee. We get a chance to test it out and see what we like and don’t like and see if there’s any adjustments we want to make,” Schlossnagle said.