And the demolition begins! #ThisIsTexas Already excited for the new facility! pic.twitter.com/lYeYECkOHA — Matt Smidebush (@MattSmiddy) May 20, 2019

Texas held a groundbreaking ceremony for the long-awaited South End Zone project to begin at Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on May 4. Athletic director Chris Del Conte said construction was about 10 days away from beginning in earnest, but the overhaul that will close off the stadium and turn the Moncrief Complex into perhaps the nation’s top football facility is in full swing.

Texas Assistant Director of Football Operations Matt Smidebush posted a video to his Twitter account on Monday showing one of the first steps in the construction. The step is tearing down the bleacher seating underneath the scoreboard, which is where new premium seating will be added once the project is complete.

The project is the biggest step to bring Texas up to speed with the nation’s elite when it comes to facilities. Upon taking over the program in November of 2016, Tom Herman asked then-interim athletic director Mike Perrin for funds and to renovate the bottom floor of the Moncrief Complex, which included improvements to the locker room and weight room.

The Texas brass came through and Herman had updated a state-of-the-art facility for his players by the time the 2017 season started. Things got kicked into overdrive when Del Conte was hired the following December.

While overseeing the completion of a new tennis facility, constructing a new baseball indoor facility and getting the wheels in motion for a new basketball arena, Del Conte said (as of the groundbreaking ceremony) that he’s raised $125 million toward the $176 million fundraising goal the athletic department had for the South End Zone project.

“At the University of Texas, we expect greatness,” Del Conte said during the groundbreaking ceremony. “We expect our football program to be the very best. Yet, we ask ourselves when you walk through that had been built for a coach who last [coached] here in 1976 and last coached here [it was] renovated in 1995, you wonder where we were really committed. Were we really committed to the idea?”

One of the reasons why Del Conte has been so passionate about getting the football program near the front of the line in the college football facilities arms race is his belief in Herman, who’s coming off of the program’s first 10-win season and top-10 finish since 2009.

“We find ourselves in a position today where we have, I feel, the greatest young coach in the country leading our young men into things we never thought possible again, and that’s competing for national championships,” Del Conte said during the groundbreaking ceremony.

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According to Del Conte, the renovation project is expected to be complete by the start of the 2021 football season.