USC football: Grass at Notre Dame Stadium still topical

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Four years later, Notre Dame Coach Charlie Weis still cannot escape the question.

Along with being asked about the epic 2005 game between USC and the Fighting Irish, Weis fielded a query today about the length of the grass at Notre Dame Stadium.

In 2005, on turf that was ankle deep, USC’s Desmond Reed suffered torn right knee ligaments and nerve damage while turning to field a ball on a kickoff return.

Reed later said he thought the grass was grown long intentionally to slow down the Trojans and that it caused his injury.

On Tuesday, a reporter asked Weis: ‘Not to be facetious, but do you think you are past the point of growing the grass out? So much was made of that in ’05.’

Said Weis: ‘Yeah, the grass was kind of long that day but some of the weather had to do with that too. Remember one of the problems we have here is that as the year goes on, when you get into October and November, the grass doesn’t grow back as much here.

‘When you have a lot of home games in a row -- we play USC, then we play Boston College, then we go away for a week and come back and play Navy. You know, if you cut it razor-thin at this time of year, you could end up ruining your field for the whole year. That’s really the whole thought process.

‘It was kind of long that day, but you know, both teams were playing on it. That wasn’t the -- the intent wasn’t to create an unfair advantage.’

-- Gary Klein