Behind the scenes with Notre Dame's equipment manager

The job title of Notre Dame equipment manager doesn't hold a lot of power behind it when you first hear it, but they are vital to the football program.

There's no easy week for Equipment Manager Ryan Grooms or his staff.

"Even our home games are away games, you know if we're two blocks away or 2000 miles away, we're still taking the same amount of equipment," Grooms said.

Cleats, jerseys, helmets, pads, coaches gear - Grooms and his staff are responsible for it.

Getting a team across the country is a lot easier than you might think.

"The traveling part isn't actually the most challenging part, we've got it down to a routine," said Grooms.

The most difficult part is the equipment.

"Making sure we have proper equipment so we can keep the safest stuff on the guys," said Grooms.

Which includes uniforms.

Fortunately for Notre Dame, it's pretty basic.

"There's no surprises in what we're going to wear, we're going to wear white this week, we're going to wear blue next week against  Stanford, there's no surprises," Grooms said.

This job is more than unloading equipment, washing uniforms, making the locker room look good, grooms says it's about making the players and coaches comfortable and focused on the main goal.

But that's not to say the perks aren't great.

"I get paid to go to Notre Dame Football practice. There's no way around it, it's a pretty cool job. My wife asks me all the time when I'm going to grow up and I say when I stop hanging out with 18-22 year olds, then I'll grow up," Grooms said.

It takes Grooms and his staff about two hours to get everything set in the locker room on game day.