Jordan-Hare playing surface observation could play to AU's advantage....

RougeDawg

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Jul 12, 2010
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Not attempting to beat a dead horse, but I was talking with a coworker yesterday (LSU fan) about last weeks game. It was the usual conversation, and then he said, I really wish yall would have beaten the **** out of Auburn. Discussion continued until he mentioned that pick 6 we threw in the first quarter. He went on to tell me about all the times that LSU's had been picked off in Jordan-Hare, on similar flat passes where the ball was a little high and it went off of their receiver's hands and AU would intercept the tipped pass.

This brings me to the topic. Before the game started 2 weekends ago, I told my buddy next to me, to look at the hellacious crown on the field in JH. If you look at the bricks in the endzone and count the difference from the middle of the field to the sidelines, there is at least 4 fullbrick heights of drop to the sidelines, at roughly 3 inches a brick plus mortar, thats well over a foot of drop. I have never noticed such a crown on a college field and I've been to a good bit of them and walked on a lot also. Auburns is by far the largest drop and most noticeable that I've ever seen. That being said, it explains why a lot of visiting teams seem to throw a lot of int's on out pass patterns. Do coaching staffs even realize this aspect of games in JH? It's almost impossible to practice for but your play calling could be changed accordingly. Just a thought.

I seem to recall Brett Favre having this same problem against the Cowboys in Dallas at the old Cowboys Stadium. He wasn't accustomed to the larger crown and was intercepted a few times on out passes that were a little high to his WR's. Brett did throw a lot of picks, but it was obvious that Cowboy Stadium didn't positively effect this flaw.

I know we can't goback and change the AU game, but it is interesting that they are allowed to keep this ridiculous crown on their field. The modern drainagesystems and designs can keep flat surfaces almost free of standing water.Scott Fieldis as flat as you can have a football field and with it's new drainage system, it hardly ever hads standing water, outside of flash flood conditions.

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drt7891

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Dec 6, 2010
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There are many high school fields that have even worse crowns than JH. I know Scott Field is about as flat as you can get, but I highly doubt there are rules about whether or not your field can have a crown on it or not, especially since it is still really common, even in college and the NFL... unless it is just a ridiculous one, which I don't think JH's is even that noticable... much less breaking any rules. <div>
</div><div>But perhaps you are right about it playing into AU's advantage because I'm sure there are a lot of quarterbacks that have to make the adjustment if they are used to playing on a flat field.<div>
</div><div>However, in Relf's defense, the ball hit the defender on the back of the head, so I don't think the crown had anything to do with that particular pick 6. </div> </div>
 

karlchilders.sixpack

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Jun 5, 2008
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I somewhat more than expect that OUR outside practice fields have a similar crown.
LSU's also.
All that I have ever seen have a crown.

To me this is not really a big deal.
 

Dawgzilla

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This is back when it was Astro-turf...late '70s, early 80s. I went to the State game their in 1981, and I was sitting on the second row. I swear, when players were on the opposite sideline you could barely see below their waist. It was nuts. I think it was supposed to help the wishbone, since all of your runningbacks would all be running downhill.
 

Tds &amp; Beer

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Jan 26, 2010
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Nothing to see here. I can't believe you and another dude came up with that lame excuse. Just to be clear, you think that Chris Relf might have been intercepted because of the crown on the field? Not because he threw to a well covered man and hit the defender directly in the helmet with a line drive, seven yard pass?