A significant upgrade is coming to Folsom Field in 2024.
Colorado athletic director Rick George announced Wednesday that construction will soon begin on a new video board on the south end of Folsom Field. The project will cost about $15 million.
“Enhancing the atmosphere of Folsom Field on game day is always a top priority and we are always looking for ways to improve,” George said. “I’m confident this new video board will further enrich and elevate the game day experience for our fans next year in our first season in the Big 12 Conference.”
CU said the new video board will be “more than five times the surface area of the old board.” It will be 130 feet wide by 36 feet high. The width of the new board will be about the same as the current ribbon board underneath the south video board. The currently video board is 32 feet by 28 feet.
In addition, the ribbon board below will also be expanded to stretch from the north end of the club level on the east side, around the bowl to Bach Fieldhouse on the southwest side. The ribbon board will stretch from the top of section 203 to the top of 220.
Much of the cost of the project will be for the steel infrastructure to support the new video board, which will include four new columns running from the bottom of the video board to the ground around the south side of the stadium.
Funding is ongoing for the project and construction is set to begin in January.
CU opens its 2024 season on Aug. 31 against North Dakota State.
Vassett settled in
Punter Mark Vassett has put together a strong season in his first year as a Buffalo. The Louisville transfer is the busiest punter in the Pac-12, with a league-high 46 punts and he ranks fifth with a 44.3-yard average.
“Itap been a lot of fun,” he said. “I mean, first two years at Louisville, itap definitely a lot of differences being here. Every time you look at your phone itap all about Colorado, so itap pretty cool to see. Playing for this man over here (head coach Deion Sanders), itap pretty special. We always say he’s more than a football coach. He really cares about us and he’s more of a life coach. So he’s getting us prepared for life after football too.”
Vassett has been particularly good this year at pinning opponents deep, with 16 punts inside the 20-yard line and several inside the 10.
“It is a lot of fun, but I actually don’t practice those as much as you probably think,” he said. “I mean, playing Australian football all my life growing up, that end over end punt just comes natural to me. So I spend most of my week trying to perfect the spiral punting. Those are just easy for me, placing the ball where I want to.”
With three games to play, Vassett has been pleased with his overall consistency this season.
“Definitely I’ve improved as the season’s gone on,” he said.
Notable
Coach Sanders gave some credit to the scout team during his press conference this week. “They don’t receive the handclaps, don’t receive the fanfare, they are not recognized publicly. And they work their butts off and a majority of them are walk-ons. Some of them are scholarship players. But, they should be recognized as well.” … Linebacker LaVonta Bentley has been impressed with safety Trevor Woods making the transition to linebacker. “Itap been great,” he said. “He’s undersized, but he’s still flying around, taking on those guards.”
