How fast does rye grass take to grow? Could they have seeded it Sunday and it grown enough by Saturday to effect the players?
Well, first the seeds have to germinate, and that depends on temperature............blah, blah........
No, it could not have grown that fast. If they did overseed, it would have been very short.
But you do have to keep the soil moist, so that the seeds will sprout, and the roots to have enough moisture. Depending on how much sand is mixed in with the soil, with very short roots, it would take a constant supply of water.
And that entails water holding capacity, of the soil, and the evapotranspiration numbers (ETo), based on sun, temp, wind, etc. Cool-season grasses have higher numbers, than warm-season, but most of that is because warm-season grasses are going dormant.
Don't have the data for Aubrens, but I can tell you all that for Texas.
EDIT: OK, using the (historical) numbers for Houston, they would need around 2.4"/month, or .6"/week.
With a loam soil, there is only 0.071" of water available, per inch of soil.
Doing the math.............(trust me).............new seed is going to be needed to watered at least daily, and probably more than daily. Overwatering does not help the new grass, but since they are an Ag school, why should we expect any of them to understand any of this? Would not put flooding the turf past them.
"Hey, Bub, doesn't your data come from The API of Texas?"
Yes, but they are not the real API.