The Golden Hurricane's Man Behind The Equipment

NewsOn6.com

TULSA, Oklahoma – The deep snapper on any football team has a tough job. If he gets it right, no one notices. If he gets it wrong, everyone notices.

But there might be one member in a football program that endures that reality even more so than the deep snapper.

That title goes to the head equipment manager.

Russ Hoffman handles uniforms and equipment for nearly 100 people in the Tulsa Golden Hurricane football program.

If you thought packing up your family for a road trip was tough, try being in charge of an entire football team's worth of packing.

One big difference is, you can't simply make a Walmart run for something you might have forgotten.

"You can't buy a Tulsa gold football helmet in El Paso, Texas," Hoffman said.

But there's more to Hoffman's workload than just helmets and jerseys. He and his crew are responsible for every little detail from shoelaces to eye black to wristbands.

The equipment crew loads up a semi truck for every single road game, starting on Monday and finally getting shipped out on Thursday.

Each week presents a difference challenge as far as timing and navigation, with the equipment truck making trips to New Orleans, Norman, Boise, Houston Orlando, and finally El Paso this season. For those wondering, the trip to Orlando comes out to about 1,200 miles.

This week's journey for the equipment isn't quite as bad, for the Golden Hurricane plays UTEP in El Paso – an 800 mile trip - on Saturday at 2 p.m. And assuming all their gear gets there successfully, they will have Hoffman to thank for it.

News On 6's Bobby Lewis caught up with Hoffman and the team in Tulsa to get the low down on the process that the equipment team goes through to make sure each game goes off without a hitch.