Nebraska’s athletic director discusses grass at Memorial Stadium

Could Nebraska have a new surface at Memorial Stadium in the near future? Husker athletic director Troy Dannen met with the media at Big Ten Media Days , and during his impromptu press conference, he discussed a surface change for the Cornhuskers’ home stadium.

“That’s the plan for grass to happen. Matt’s highly motivated for grass. We’ve done some work on the practice field and re-topped them with grass. After this season we plan to dig those out and put some sort of heating in to keep those practice fields grass live. He’ll practice on grass. Unless there’s lightning or it’s impossible, we won’t go indoors because Matt’s intention is to play on grass. I think that’s maybe the NFL coach in him. There’s a lot of safety evidence that shows if you can play on grass then you play on grass.”

When asked when such a change could occur, the Husker AD said the target is 2026, but it is not guaranteed.

“But I’m not guaranteeing it will be ’26. There’s other stadium work that we are planning to do and it would be a part of that stadium work. So really, how the stadium work would be aligned with (that). I don’t want to put grass in and then have to go drive trucks over it and tear the grass up again. So it’s going to be a couple of years”

When Memorial Stadium opened in 1923, Nebraska played on natural grass through the 1969 season. In 1970, the Huskers installed AstroTurf and have played on an artificial surface at home ever since.

Since 1999, the team has played on FieldTurf, with the latest iteration of turf installed in 2013.

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