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.
One of the potential adjustments that Schlossnagle mentioned last year will help address an issue that regularly worries the Longhorns head coach — reducing the difference between the speed of the surface at the Disch and the speed of the natural grass Texas plays on during some road trips.
“What I would like to do is is that where the grass is supposed to be, have that play a little slower like grass would, and where the dirt’s supposed to be, have that play a little faster, so that when we go to a natural surface field, we’re not at a disadvantage, or at least we’re at less of a disadvantage,” Schlossnagle said last year.
Schlossnagle also wants to fix the warning track issue at the stadium — while the color changes from green to brown on the current FieldTurf, that’s not enough to actually provide a warning to outfielders, decreasing their ability to make successfully plays on the ball and increasing the odds that they get hurt crashing into the wall.
That’s a factor that contributed to freshman catcher Presley Courville injuring his shoulder in March, causing him to miss a month.
“When we re-do the field, we’re going to have a real warning track, at least a different feel to the warning track,” Schlossnagle said after last year’s series against LSU. “Even just in practice, I’m really concerned. Their center fielder jumped into the wall, didn’t know where he was on the field, and that’s because our warning track needs some help.”
Now the entire surface is getting some much-needed help across multiple aspects of the game as Schlossnagle builds it to reduce the advantage for pitchers, play as neutral as possible, and ensure that outfielders don’t get injured as often, especially in practice.
And the timetable?
“It’ll be next winter, after fall practice,” Schlossnagle said. “We’ll take a couple months, basically over Christmas break. As long as we’re not having big weather issues, it’ll be ready for preseason practices.”
