Monday, May 10, 2010

UGA Needs An Indoor Football Facility (UPDATED)

In case you were not aware, our beloved Dawgs come in as one of the most valuable football programs in the country. We already have some of the most state-of-the-art facilities of any program in the nation, but we are without an indoor practice facility.

As my pastor, Andy Stanley, would say; this is a "rich person problem". No doubt about it, but I can still dream, can't I? With UGA's program coming in as one of the 12 most valuable programs in the country, there doesn't seem to be any real reason this dream cannot be made into a reality in my mind. Maybe some of you readers can shed some light on the situation, and enlighten me if I am being unreasonable.

With the likes of schools like Central Florida, Baylor, and other small programs having their own indoor facilities, it's time the Dawgs step up. Surely there's some alumni out there that want to pony up!

Check out Oklahoma's facility here: Everest Indoor Facility

Am I missing something here? What happened to this? Is it coming?

10 comments:

  1. They're currently building it, Andy. The expansion to Butts-Mehre includes an indoor turf workout room. There's no full 100-yard field, but there is a field which will allow plenty of work so that the team doesn't have to travel to the Ramsey Center when it rains.

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  2. Yeah, I saw that it was going to have a "space" like that, but is it even something that can have a "real" practice? I can't wait to go tour that new facility!

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  3. What we are building does not compare with the OU facility. We do need one if we are going to compete for the top 2 or 3 people at most positions every year.

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  4. I didn't think Richt wanted one.

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  5. Richt was a chief proponent of one since traveling and changing plans during inclement weather took away from team time. Three years ago he eschewed building it right away in order to sacrifice for other sports needs. I think the time has come for the University and the alums to pony up and at least turn the first spadefull to begin on a lick and a promise. The price should be cheaper during this downturn in the economy. Less big profits can go into the facility and will help recruiting. The expansion to Butts-Mehre was intended to be a stopgap measure only as I understood it.

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  6. i don't think we have a real need for one. Our main rival for recruits and championships is UF and they do not have one.

    An indoor facility should only be used a couple times a year. When its extremely raining and lightning. Otherwise one of our best advantages is that we are conditioned for outside play.

    We don't play inside. We shouldn't practice inside.

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  7. Looking at the artwork for the expansion, I'd say it definitely fits the needs of OUR football program. You ask if a "real" practice could be held there, and that depends on your definition of a "real" practice. There's certainly not 4 football fields inside of the space, which is what UGA has had on the outdoor grounds for years. During our practices, we generally used three of the fields, the grass ones, unless we were facing a turf opponent, which was very rare (generally bowl prep or extremely HOT weeks). So, no, we can't replicated a "standard" practice inside.

    In my years on the team, we practiced at Ramsey Center when severe rain and lightning forced us to leave the practice field. It's hard to say we'd have "real" practices there either. The offensive and defensive lines would do their group work in racquetball courts, the team work would be done in the indoor soccer rooms. We did that maybe 5 times as I recall. Now, I could be off on the number, but I really don't remember very many instances of us going indoors.

    So, if the University were to spend the kind of money necessary to create an indoor facility that could fully replace the outdoor facility in case of bad weather, it'd be a tremendous waste of resources. The Dawgs simply aren't going to be practicing inside that often.

    Some people are worried that the indoor field is too small - 20yds x 53.33 yards (from what I can tell). But, you have to ask yourself what the purpose of that field is. During DRILL work, most groups aren't going to use more than 100 sq yards of turf (10x10).

    The receiver route-running will take up the most yardage, but simple route running doesn't need 40 yards.

    The main area of practice that would suffer by going indoors would be the actual "team" work, when practice shifts over into offense vs defense. There simply isn't space to have an offense vs defensive scouts and defense vs offensive scouts on the field at the same time.

    HOWEVER

    Since the practice facility is attached to the meetings facility, it's very possible that the offense could practice against the defensive scouts while the defense and offensive scouts are in meetings or watching film. It's not IDEAL, but it could be done.

    There's a thought that the team could shift to 1s vs 2s and not use the scouts in such a situation, but I doubt it. It's likely that indoor practices will be "thud" only, so that would decrease the likelihood of anyone getting hurt...but playing 1s vs 2s decreases the work each #1 unit gets against the OTHER TEAM'S O and D.

    Because of the lack of need, I think it's a pretty great solution.

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  8. @ Anon 3:39,
    We should practice for indoor play....it's called the Georgia Dome and it happens every year the first week in December. check it.

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  9. Besides loss of practice time during dangerous weather we would run the risk of more injuries during rainy weather. Yep, you sure do play outdoors, but the conversation has to do with scrimmaging practices during the season and keeping as healthy injury-wise as possible before having to play in the mess and get more injuries before the big games. I remember that Richt wanted one so that the ride to the Ramsey Center and other interruptions didn't cut in on playing time. In fact at the time , I inferred a promise that we would build one because Richt wanted it. I also remember that the AD was almost apologetic that it couldn't float higher on the immediate needs list beginning OVER 3 yrs ago. Didn't this conversation begin with that memory kicker?

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  10. The scary thing is that Auburn will have the largest indoor football practice field complete sometime next year (2011)and will be the only 120 yard facility in the SEC.

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