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Posted on Mon, Aug 10, 2009 : 5:14 p.m.

A view from inside the new Al Glick Field House at the University of Michigan

By Michael Rothstein

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It stands 85 feet high, in some symmetry with the Yost Field House nearby, and is virtually surrounded by one-inch thick glass that associate athletic director for football Scott Draper says can't break.

They tested it, too, throwing footballs and baseballs at it. So call this place, the state-of-the-art Al Glick Field House 'The Glass House.'

The unbreakable, barely penetrable, glass house.

To make the decision on the 104,000-square foot facility complete with a first floor weight room (approximately 12,000 square feet) and coaches' office overlooking the practice field on the second floor, Draper and Michigan visited Oregon and Nebraska along with scouting out BYU, Ohio State, Utah, LSU and Minnesota.

"We kind of looked at everybody," Draper said. "That's kind of how we came up with the idea of the height and the width."

Michigan did this to upgrade from its Oosterbaan Field House, which made life difficult to try and kick and punt. At the Glass Glick, that's not an issue.

It also has a new practice locker room, which has all players housed in the same spot - with fifth-year seniors and true seniors on a lower level than the rest of the team. Each player's locker is made of wood and has an illuminated plastic sign with their name on it.

Oh, and if Michigan wants to, it can make it as hot as 85 degrees in the facility.

SCOTT DRAPER TALKS ABOUT THE NEW FACILITY


Comments

Chris

Tue, Aug 11, 2009 : 10:10 a.m.

The new facility is amazing, and there are practice fields (3 at least right now) surrounding the indoor facility. The new weight room is sweet. They're still doing some finishing touches, but the field is awesome.

tater

Tue, Aug 11, 2009 : 5:05 a.m.

When UM needs to go outside and become acclimated to bad weather, they can go outside. I think they get more done in a controlled climate than they would in bad weather, though. I would get the installation of the week's specific changes done inside and then go outside to execute on Thursday if bad weather is predicted on gameday. At any rate, it's a beautiful facility and it's nice that they have the option. Also, it should help with recruiting. If RR can recruit close to a top-ten class coming off a 3-9 season, I can't wait to see what he can do coming off of a more typical UM record.

CougarTown

Tue, Aug 11, 2009 : 12:03 a.m.

A couple thoughts on this glass house. First of all, its nice to have considering once the season is about 3 weeks old, the weather turns horrible. However, practicing in a nice, climate controlled indoor facility like this doesn't get the boys ready to play on real turf and the cold, wind, and rain of Big 10 football in October & November. It makes them soft. But, I guess UM has money to burn, so why not....