The Jimmye Laycock Football Center, which opened in February, was built at the northwest corner of Zable Stadium at a cost of $11 million. The 30,000-square foot building was funded exclusively through private gifts.

The Laycock Center provides a state-of-the-art facility for meeting rooms, coaches offices, team and coaches locker rooms, an athletic training room, equipment storage room and administrative support areas.

The main feature is a grand entrance -- with a spiral staircase leading to the second floor offices and meeting rooms -- that will eventually include memorabilia from the program's 100-plus years of football history.

This was the culmination of four years of improvements to the program. In 2005, a state-of-the-art lighting system was added to Zable Stadium for night games. FieldTurf Pro, an artificial playing surface used in more than 20 NFL stadiums, was installed at Cary Field in 2006. A new video scoreboard, with replay capabilities, was added for the 2007 season.

As part of the Laycock Center project, the Joseph Montgomery practice complex behind Zable Stadium was redone with a new, natural-grass Bermuda sod.

--John Packett