Brad “Spider” Caldwell began his career with Penn State football as a student equipment manager in 1983. Nearly 30 years later, he's still just as passionate about figuring out how to prepare 120 uniforms, and making sure each players' equipment is suitable for practices and games.

He's done everything from cleaning cleats and wiping the dings off helmets to last week's task of putting injured linebacker Michael Mauti's number on the left side of each helmet. Making and placing the decal on each helmet was a challenge he faced when seniors Mike Zordich and Jordan Hill came to him the Tuesday before the Wisconsin game and said coach Bill O'Brien accepted their idea. Like he's done throughout his career at Penn State, Caldwell found a way to make it work.

We caught up with Caldwell to see what he does behind the scenes and why this year was an extra difficult one to be Penn State's equipment manager.

Q: How did the players approach you last Tuesday about putting Mauti's number on all the helmets?

A: Spider Caldwell: They said, 'Can we do it like the old-school look like back in the 70's and the Cappelletti days with a number on the side? We don't want to do a little number on the back because that's like memorializing somebody.' I said, 'Well, let me see what I can do and I'll get back to you guys tomorrow.' It was too quick for a sticker company to turn it over so I actually got a hold of The Sign Shop. … They paint Penn State stuff and do stickers but they have the computer to do the decals. I didn't tell them what it was for but said, 'Can you make 120 number 42 stickers?' I knew the size of the Cappelletti era was like three-inch numbers and what not. They got them done the very next day."

Q: Did Bill O'Brien want to see the finished product before Saturday?

A: Caldwell: "Oh yeah. I was able to talk to Mike and Jordan and they said, 'Coach wants to see it.' I got one in and put it on a sample helmet Wednesday afternoon and took it up to him. I said, 'Coach what do you think?' He goes, 'Oh wow, I guess I was thinking it was more of a sticker on the back kind of thing.' I told him the guys wanted it like the old school Cappelletti days. He said, 'Yeah, it looks great. Hey, let's do it. I just want it to be a surprise.' "

Q: Did your student equipment managers help you with putting the decals on the helmets?

A: Caldwell: "I didn't have that many to play with because I put them on myself and they were really hard to put on and they wanted to bubble with the curved helmet and they were real sticky. I made a couple mistakes on the early ones so I was afraid to have my student managers try to put them on. We moved everything over to the stadium on Friday and we kind of get landlocked over there. I figured I'd do them myself so they'd all look the same. I released my guys once we got everything set up at the stadium not thinking it would take me until 9 o'clock that night. It took me about five hours. Usually we have the helmets hanging up behind the jerseys in the lockers but this time I set them down on the benches so they could see them and they were just impressed. It was pretty neat."

Q: Your wife Karen played a huge role in getting the names on the jerseys this year. How did she land that duty?

A: Caldwell: "She's always done the jersey repairs with little tears and stuff like that every week. ... I told my wife it'd be too big of a project for her to take on because you're talking 240 jerseys because of the home and away jerseys. She wanted to try it so I brought some of the jerseys home and she said, 'Yeah, I can do this.' The names were rectangular-shaped panels and we had taken them downtown to get them heat pressed on. They did the blue ones okay, we sewed them on so the first game, everything was fine. Then the white ones, a different person had done them and there was a different heat setting, so at Virginia they started peeling off. I was embarrassed and luckily I could say, 'Hey, I'm a rookie at this. Forgive me.' My wife actually said, 'Bring those home. We've got to sew them on. At least for the starters and second teamers so that doesn't happen again.' She individually sewed every single letter on."

Q: How long did that take her?

A: Caldwell: "When she did (safety Stephen) Obeng-Agyapong's name she timed herself out of curiosity to see how long it'd take for each individual letter. Just for his one name it took her 16 minutes. Between that one, (center Matt) Stankiewitch, (punter Alex) Butterworth and another long one it took her an hour to do four jerseys."

Q: It's not a given that Penn State will keep the names on the jerseys next season. What's the process if coach O'Brien decides to go remove the names?

A: Caldwell: "She individually sewed every single letter. That makes it a pain for the future if coach decides to take the names off. We're still not sure if we'll wear them or not again, but those jerseys are going to be a pain because otherwise we could've torn the panel off much easier. We do get new jerseys every year, at least one complete set. If we do names next year, the current jersey will become the backup jersey."

Q: Do any of the players ever get to keep their jerseys?

A: Caldwell: "If we go to a bowl game it becomes one of their bowl gifts and they get to keep the jersey with the patch on it. You're allowed to log so much toward the bowl gift and that's something we do. This year we're actually giving the jerseys just to the seniors because since we didn't go to a bowl game we can't give them to the underclassmen. … At their senior banquet they'll get a framed jersey that will have their name on it. It'll be the actual jersey they wore. We're framing Jordan Hill's and he told me, 'I don't want it washed. Please, don't wash it.' His jersey is going to be all green and with red marks on it from Wisconsin's facemasks."

Q: There was so much discussion about how this group of players was unique and how extremely close they were. You're around them everyday. What made them so special?

A: Caldwell: "This year turned out to be really satisfying and very gratifying because of what these kids had to go through and the commitment they had to make. It's been so rewarding to see them with big smiles on their faces and just an ecstatic locker room after that Wisconsin win. … This was such a fun bunch of players to be around and that's really what made it neat."