<div>Just over 400 miles apart lie two of the most unique and famous football fields in the nation: Eastern Washington's red turf at Roos Field and Boise State's blue turf, also known as the "Smurf Turf," at Albertsons Stadium.The two fields are a topic of discussion this week as the Washington State Cougars gear up to travel to Boise to take on the No. 25-ranked Broncos this Saturday for the first time since 2016.While no one on the current Cougar roster has played at Boise State, head coach Jake Dickert has, when he was the defensive coordinator at Wyoming before coming to WSU.When Dickert was asked about his first impressions of the blue turf, his answer went in an interesting direction."It's way better than the red turf, no offense to our friends up at Eastern Washington, but that hurts your eyes when you watch it for a whole week," Dickert said with a grin. "This [the blue turf] is very docile on the eyes, it's good. I was in the box in 2017 and they were wearing blue on blue, which should be illegal. I couldn't see the numbers. It was bad, it was bad."Perhaps a little tongue-in-cheek shot at Eastern Washington, and EWU head coach Aaron Best had his own response, defending his home turf."The green is not hard on the eyes for me, and we practice on red every day," Best said. "To each its own—opinions are beautiful; they're meant to start discussions. I would throw that question to Calin Criner, Nick Edwards, or Jeff Schmedding, and ask them, because they're in the office every day and they've done some time—along with Allen Brown—on the red turf. They'd probably have a better staff meeting discussion about that topic than I would."All of the names Coach Best mentioned are currently on Jake Dickert's staff at WSU and have coached, played, or done both at Eastern Washington at some point in their careers.Criner has actually spent time on all three fields, as he was a two-time team captain for Eastern Washington and played on the red turf from 2016 to 2021. He then became a graduate assistant at BSU, coaching there in 2022 and 2023, and is currently an assistant secondary coach for the Cougs.Edwards played for the Eagles from 2009 to 2012 and became a coach in 2014 before moving on to the NFL. He is currently the wide receivers coach for WSU.Schmedding, a Spokane native, graduated from EWU and took over as Eastern’s defensive coordinator in 2015. He spent 15 total seasons as a coach at EWU. After his time at Eastern, Schmedding spent two seasons coaching the Broncos before being named the Cougars’ defensive coordinator and linebackers coach in January 2023.Finally, Brown was a safety for EWU from 2009 to 2013 and coached at his alma mater from 2019 to 2021 as the cornerbacks coach and defensive pass game coordinator. He is currently a cornerbacks coach for the Cougars.At the end of the day, Dickert and Best were just exchanging friendly banter, showing why college football is so fun and not so serious all the time.And as Washington State prepares for its clash with Boise State, the Cougars are focused one task: securing a win on the blue turf, regardless of its hue.Boise State and Washington State kickoff at 7 p.m. PT on Saturday, and SWX will be there to deliver highlights and post-game reaction on SWXLocalSports.com.</div>

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Turf Wars: WSU’s Jake Dickert playfully jabs EWU’s red turf, Aaron Best responds ahead of WSU vs Boise St.

Just over 400 miles apart lie two of the most unique and famous football fields in the nation: Eastern Washington's red turf at Roos Field and Boise State's blue turf, also known as the \"Smurf Turf,\" at Albertsons Stadium. The two fields are a topic of discussion this week as...

Just over 400 miles apart lie two of the most unique and famous football fields in the nation: Eastern Washington's red turf at Roos Field and Boise State's blue turf, also known as the "Smurf Turf," at Albertsons Stadium. The two fields are a topic of discussion this week as...