Is the Grass Greener When it’s Fake?

By: Evan Glynos

Original publish date: 03/05/2024

Updated publish date: 12/2/2025

The University of New England located in Biddeford, Maine is a small NCAA division lll college.

The football team’s home stadium is Blue storm stadium located on the Biddeford campus. Blue storm stadium is one of the two turf athletic fields at the university.  

Many programs across the country, through all levels of play from the NFL to collegiate stadiums have all considered making the costly switch from artificial turf to natural grass. In an ideal world programs should make the switch. In a recent survey, 92% of respondents from the NFL Players Association reported that they preferred a natural grass playing surface. While the University of New England is not an NFL organization, this sentiment bears relevance, as it has been established that a well maintained grass playing surface correlates with fewer non-contact injuries.

“It has the visual appeal to recruits, it’s just something about the blue turf that stands out from anyone else in the country that makes UNE unique” Former offensive line coach and recruiting coordinator Eric Ruest stated.

Although the blue turf is visually appealing, there are many steps the university had to go through to be able to obtain it. UNE is one of only four schools in the country that has blue turf in this shade. The other schools and universities are the University of New Haven, Barrow High School (AK), and Boise State University; whom UNE actually had to obtain permission from, prior to installing this turf. Boise State granted permission, as they did not perceive UNE to be a major recruiting rival.

In an ideal world programs should make the switch to grass fields. However the reality of this is very costly. It has been established that a well maintained grass playing surface correlates with fewer non-contact injuries. Artificial turf fields are also hotter to the touch than a natural grass field during the summer months. The major selling points for artificial turf are aesthetic appeal, the ease and reduced cost of maintenance, and the high volume of hours that the field can annually withstand.

In the 2023 season UNE football saw the most number of non-contact injuries in program history. During this season there were seven ACL tears as well as more injuries that did not result in tears. On top of the knee injuries there were also well over 20 ankle injuries.

“Unlike grass, artificial turf has no give to it, if you step the wrong way on turf you can get caught, which grass you would just slip away on it”, Chris Wilkins head football athletic trainer stated.

Wilkins now in his fourth season with the team has worked collaboratively with the strength and conditioning coaches to come up with a solution. These solutions are not easy to come up with as there is a lot of studies behind all the madness. 

“We started implementing more contact preparation in the off season, this was able to allow the athletes bodies and muscles to strengthen longer” Stated Corrine Mcpadden a strength coach with the football team.

UNE being able to implement this tactic is very beneficial to the athletes themself, as well as the trainers who help with rehab and recovery. 

“With injury prevention it can be complicated, trying to implement multiple exercises such as box falls where athletes are strengthening their knees and ankles, to even just ankle and knee mobility” Stated Mcpadden. “Athletes sometimes question why we do it until they land weirdly on the field and instead of having a knee injury or ankle injury it becomes natural because they have been prepared for it” Mcpadden added on.

In this past season (2025) there was only one non contact knee injury. This injury was sustained in their game vs Husson University. Originally the knee injury was diagnosed as a patella sprain, later MRI would show a torn ACL.

“Thinking the whole time I had a sprain in my knee I still played on it, when I got the MRI results they were not good and it was based on a non-contact injury which made me feel worse about it”, stated Isaiah Mojica a senior on the football team.

Contact injuries are sometimes not preventable in football due to the amount of force being put onto the body. A lot of injuries sustained by contact are from the linemen where they have such small space to work with, and are constantly having the possibility of getting rolled up on. 

“Linemen usually get rolled up on at an average of one in five plays, and it’s a test of strength to them all when this does happen” stated Wilkins.

To help prevent more injuries the Nor’easters have decided to try out a new way to play the game. Using a tempo offense forces both teams to work fast. This helps with players getting rolled up on. With using a fast paced offence it tires opposing teams out faster. With this there come risks especially when UNE is averaging close to 100 plays of offense per game. 

“The risk we had to take running a fast pace offense was a tough transition, it started in the weight room with the team moving faster than they were before, and included more running then we had before”, stated head football coach Mike Lichten.

Lichten in his 10th season as the head coach has never implemented anything like this. In the 2024 season the Nor’easters had a losing record of 4-6. Implementing tempo into everything the team did allowed them to have an 8-2 season and program best. This was crucial to UNE as they proved to have one of the most explosive offences in the country through all divisions.

“Decideing to do a tempo offense took a lot of research, working with athletic training, as well as strength and conditioning, and even a few exercise science professors”, Stated Lichten. “We would not be smart to use our resources at this school to create new studies. Looking back at this I could not be happier with the decision made to go at a faster pace,” Lichten added.

The Nor’easters proving they are able to operate at a fast pace has been nothing but beneficial. The team facing far less non contact injuries has helped as athletes were healthier for the whole season. The staff involved in this process proved that the playing surface should not matter. Although grass is still proven to be a safer alternative for football players there are ways to create a safe playing surface on artificial turf.