Those associated with the Iowa State football team have expressed unbridled enthusiasm for the changes that have taken place at Jack Trice Field in the past several months.

The artificial surface at the stadium was recently replaced with a sand-based grass surface and the new $8 million Jacobsen Building, located just a few yards north of the playing surface, is in the final stages of construction.

“I know my players and coaches are extremely excited about the chance of playing on a grass field,” ISU head football coach Dan McCarney said. “We have had a number of our players who have been down on the surface already and everyone of them absolutely loved it.”

ISU associate athletic director Elve Everage said the change from an artificial surface to grass was long overdue.

“The conversion came about because the artificial turf was well past its life expectancy,” he said. “It was starting to have slick spots and starting to get very hard … it was no longer a competitive playing surface for major college football.”

ISU hired Mike Andresen in April of 1995 for the newly-created position of athletic turf manager. Andresen had previously been the head groundskeeper for the Iowa Cubs baseball team in Des Moines.

Andresen said the new surface will be 95 percent sand and five percent peat moss.

It is similar to the surface the Kansas City Chiefs have played on at home the past two seasons.

“The new surface is much softer — you are not one inch away from an asphalt layer,” Andresen said. “It is firm but it is much softer to play on.”

Andresen had been part of a stadium remodeling process in Des Moines when the baseball team demolished the old stadium after the 1991 season and rebuilt a new stadium at the previous site.

“I’ve been through the construction process before, so I knew what to look for,” he said. “There are corners you do not want to get trapped into.”

Andresen said the cost of resurfacing was cut from $1.3 million to $800,000. This was due in large part to the help from businesses such as McAninch Corporation of Des Moines and Manatt’s, Inc. of Ames, to name a few.

“We will bring them in a week early to test it out,” Andresen said. “We don’t want any surprises to come September 7.”

McCarney offered an open invitation to ISU fans to check out the new stadium.