gama confusion?

the gamagrass seems to be slow or confused...one of the two...as i was poking around the limited activity in the campus garden today i noticed that while the east facing side of the gamagrass is completely brown and seemingly dead ( at least until it "greens up" in the spring ) the side facing the interior of the garden still has some chlorophyll going on...just slow in retracting it or is the grass ( which is a native species ) confused about being relegated to hardiness zone 6? whichever it is there is still some green in there and i will be looking in on it as the autumn turns to winter...if, indeed, winter makes its scheduled arrival.