Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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UNDER THE DOME Field(Turf) Of Dreams PHOTO COURTESY OF NOTRE DAME MEDIA RELATIONS Getting To Know … NOTRE DAME FIFTH-YEAR Beat, Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly claimed that FieldTurf in Notre Dame Stadium is no longer hypothetical but inevitable. It's too late this season, but it might be part of the landscape in 2013. "FieldTurf is coming," Kelly told the broadcast crew. "It's something that's eventually going to be in the stadium." This winter there was construction work done along the floor of Notre Dame Stadium to aid drainage, and artificial turf was added along the concrete sur- face beyond both the north and south end zones, plus along the back end of the sidelines, for safety purposes. "We've had so many incidents of guys going out of bounds and stepping on the concrete and slipping," noted Kelly in the interview. On the indoor Meyo Field, the Irish practice on FieldTurf. The two fields During an Aug. 2 guest appearance on South Bend's WSBT Weekday Sports- [Prof.] Bill Krier." Favorite Off-Campus Spot: "McAlister's SENIOR OG MIKE GOLIC JR. Nickname: "Golic." Major: "Film, television and theatre." Dorm: "Siegfried Hall." Favorite Class: "American Short Stories with [Deli]." Dream Vacation: "Go to Atlantis [Resort] in the Bahamas." Best Movie You've Seen Lately: "Gotta go with 'The Dark Knight Rises.' " TV Show You Hate To Miss: "I'm going to have to go with 'How I Met Your Mother.' I'm a big fan." Song You're Listening To Most Right Now: in the outdoor LaBar Practice Complex also have FieldTurf. Less than a mile from Notre Dame, the newly built St. Joseph High School and its new football stadium also have installed FieldTurf … so it would seem logical the next in- stallation will be inside Notre Dame Stadium. However, one day later in his first meeting with the media prior to the start of practice on Aug. 4, Kelly pulled a bit of an audible when asked again about the new field. "I want to go back on that one a little bit and add one word," Kelly began. "I said FieldTurf is coming. I want to say I 'hope' FieldTurf is coming." THAT'S EVENTUALLY GOING TO BE IN THE STADIUM." BRIAN KELLY "FIELDTURF IS COMING. IT'S SOMETHING Any future conversation on the topic will be deferred to Irish athletics direc- tor Jack Swarbrick. "I'm not the one who is rolling out the turf," Kelly said. "… I do not want to "The Killers … old stuff." Role Model: "My dad and my mom. My dad, obviously, for showing me what it takes to be a football player. He and my mom both taught me how to treat people the right way and to be a responsible young adult." Favorite Pro Athlete: "That's a toss-up be- do Jack's job. I've got enough to do with my own. I think I've made it clear to all of you that I hope that's where we go, but that is clearly not my decision." Swarbrick said the discussion about replacing grass with FieldTurf or a hy- tween every single one of my friends playing pro football right now. I just watched Trevor Robinson play his first game with the Bengals, Kyle [Rudolph] played again, [Michael] Floyd just played again … it's a tie among all those guys." Best Player You've Gone Up Against: "I don't remember names, but any one of those defen- sive tackles from Florida State [in the Champs Sports Bowl]." Dream Job If Football Didn't Exist: "My brid product will come after the 2012 season. He said the benefit of making a change — other than a happy head football coach — is to give the surface the stability it needs to hold more than six events each year. A synthetic surface would suffer less from graduation ceremonies, alumni events or team practices in the stadium. More than any physical change to the House that Rockne Built, Swarbrick is determined to upgrade its atmosphere. "We're going to continue to look for ways to make the stadium a tougher place to play," Swarbrick said. "It's not tough enough for our opponent to play, and we have to get better at it." The tricky part for Notre Dame is walking the line between a rowdy, in- timidating venue and its aspirations to be, as Swarbrick said, "the Augusta of college football." "We want to still be a place where when other schools come they say, 'That dream job if football didn't exist would prob- ably be a movie director. I think that would be pretty awesome. Obviously, I want to go into sports media and everything like that. I think that would be a lot of fun. I've always said before I die I want to be part of a major motion picture." You Have One Last Meal, What Is It? "I'd was a marvelous experience for us.' But I don't want athletic directors tell- ing me, 'We love playing here,' which is what they say to me with some fre- quency," he said. The peanut butter to the FieldTurf jelly is adding a JumboTron, which might be more down the road. Notre Dame's Shamrock Series has provided the school and its fans the probably go with our Friday pregame meal — prime rib, mashed potatoes and gravy, a big, big helping of cornbread and probably a big, tall Diet Coke." 14 PRESEASON 2012 chance to imagine home games in a different environment. The school has used its trips to Yankee Stadium in 2010 and FedEx Field last season as laboratories for testing modern day touches like recorded music and large video screens. "It gives us an ability to test it and evaluate the impact and think about it," Swarbrick said. "It doesn't, again, reflect a commitment to do it, but it's been helpful. I've had a lot of people come up to me, including people in leadership positions in the university, and say, 'Hey, I've changed my mind.' " BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED