Wednesday, September 13, 2006

A FieldTurf Primer

If you've walked on the FieldTurf at Memorial Field and wondered about the mostly black, mostly rubber "infill," check out the company website's overview here. A couple of excerpts:
(L)ike its natural grass cousin, FieldTurf’s grass fibers are surrounded and stabilized by a special blend of “synthetic earth” - FieldTurf’s patented mixture of smooth, rounded silica sand, rubber granules, and NIKE GRIND made of re-ground athletic shoe material.
Tire rubber is cryogenically frozen, shattered into smooth, clean, rounded particles, sized and shaped to stay “in suspension” with the sand, which is of a similar size, shape and weight.
I know you are getting a little tired of all the talk about New Hampshire football, but this is too delicious to pass up. The fellow who does the computer rankings for Scripps Howard News Service has UNH No. 6 in the nation. No, not in Division I-AA. In all of college football. Here's the top 10:
1. Notre Dame
2. L.S.U.
3. Southern Cal
4. Ohio State
5. Georgia
6. New Hampshire
7. Florida
8. Auburn
9. Pittsburgh
10. Tennessee

Just in case you want to consult the poll before filling out your newspaper's weekly pick 'em contest, check it out here.

No question, Dartmouth's late start of classes allows players to concentrate on football and just football during most of the preseason. That's an advantage. But in this opening-week story Cornell coach Jim Knowles points out one of the disadvantages of starting classes late. Said Knowles:
“I remember being at some places and you’d have a big game coming up (and) maybe it’s the third game of the year but you haven’t even started class — and that’s the week your players start classes so their heads are spinning.”
In his weekly picks, a Harvard Crimson writer sees the Big Green's opener this way: Colgate 21, Dartmouth 9. ... The Columbia Spectator preview series takes a look at Brown. ... Dartmouth defensive back Corey Goff gets a quick mention in his local paper. ... The Daily Pennsylvanian asks five questions about the Quaker defense and special teams. ... The Yale Daily News looks into text messaging by coaches and the Ivy proposal to ban it.

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