Rutgers Football: Photo gallery of new practice facility

It was a major announcement that Rutgers football was getting a revamping of its practice fields. No more erratic sprinklers. No more tilted telephone poles holding the lights. We were going state of the art.

The construction, made possible by a gift by Jeff and Amy Towers - and named for former Rutgers player and now-athletic fundraiser Marco Battaglia - is well underway adjacent to the stadium.

Back on May 22, the RU Operations folks tweeted what things looked like then.

A month later, and you can see the progress as the brick work continues.

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If Pat Hobbs does one thing during any construction, I beg him - be-e-e-e-e-eg him - to stop with the chainlink fencing and cheap appearances. This - brick! - is what makes you look first class.

The turf field is still in place, but the two grass fields have been torn out and new sprinkler and drainage systems installed, along with the “permanent” lighting and goal posts.

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No more chatter, just some pics to start off your summer.

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And just today, Rutgers and Jeff Towers sent out these updates:

August can’t come soon enough!

While we’re talking facilities and operations, the Big Ten holds a conference for just those folks. It gives an opportunity to share ideas and to see the latest that vendors have to offer. Iowa hosted this year’s event and the RU staff was there.

Personally, I’m waiting for this at HPSS.

And for the record - don’t ever say we don’t cover all the details - tennis got a makeover, adding a more familiar color to the tennis courts. Blue wasn’t really our color.

And the final result.

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We’ll keep you posted on further progress as the summer moves on.