The cleanest trend in college football is not happening on the field. It is happening after the final whistle, after the players head to the buses, after the coaches finish their postgame speeches and after the stadium begins to empty.
They Cleaned Up After the Game. College Football Should Notice.
More visiting teams are leaving locker rooms spotless before departing road games. Trash is removed. Chairs are returned. Tape is picked up. Towels are collected. Equipment is packed. The locker room is left in better condition than most people would expect after a physical, emotional football game.
That may sound like a small detail. It is not. The viral photos of clean visiting locker rooms are often credited to an entire football program, and they should be. The standard comes from the top. But the people doing much of the physical work are usually the ones who receive the least attention: equipment managers, student managers, operations assistants and support staff. Those are the people who deserve more national recognition.
The Programs Doing It Right
Vanderbilt has emerged as one of the highest-profile examples. After the Commodores’ road win over Virginia Tech, the Virginia Tech custodial crew praised Vanderbilt for leaving the visiting locker room clean. The room was orderly, the trash had been removed and the group had not treated the facility like someone else’s problem.
That type of behavior reflects the culture Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea has tried to establish. The phrase is simple: leave things better than you found them. It is easy for a team to celebrate after a big road win. It is harder to remember the people working in the stadium after the celebration ends. Vanderbilt’s players and staff did.
The Army has set a similar example for years. After the Black Knights’ overtime loss at Oklahoma in 2018, the visiting locker room was left spotless. Army had just played one of the most physically demanding games of its season and lost in heartbreaking fashion. Yet the locker room was clean when the team departed.
That is the power of an established standard. It does not disappear after a loss. Southeastern Louisiana also earned national attention after playing LSU. Following a difficult loss in Tiger Stadium, the Lions left their locker room organized and clean. Their equipment staff, led by head equipment manager Cade Genovese, made sure the room was left in order before the team headed home. Genovese has made it clear that this was not a one-game stunt for social media. It is a routine part of how his staff operates. That is what makes the trend meaningful.
The People Behind the Photos
When fans see a spotless locker room online, they often imagine an entire roster staying behind with trash bags. That is not usually how it works. The equipment staff is at the center of the operation. They are responsible for collecting jerseys, pants, helmets, shoulder pads, gloves, medical supplies, footballs, sideline equipment and everything else a team needs on a road trip.
Student managers and graduate assistants often help with the work. They organize equipment. They sort laundry. They load trunks and racks. They check the room before departure to make sure nothing important has been left behind.
At Southeastern Louisiana, Genovese’s operation has included football managers Charles Escher, Ayden Cormier and Divante Williams, along with graduate assistants and the rest of the travel support group.
The players still have a role. A player can throw away his own bottle. He can pick up tape. He can return his chair. He can avoid leaving his equipment and trash scattered across a room for someone else to clean.
The coach has a role, too. A head coach establishes whether this is merely an equipment-staff task or a team-wide expectation. The best programs make it clear that no player, coach or staff member is above the details.
Why This Matters
College football celebrates the biggest moments. Touchdowns go viral. Recruiting commitments dominate social media. Coaches make headlines. Rivalries drive conversations. Fans debate rankings, playoff spots and transfer portal moves. But the smaller moments often reveal more about a program than the loudest ones.
A clean visiting locker room does not guarantee wins. It will not show up in the box score. It will not improve a team’s recruiting ranking. But it can reveal whether a program practices the values it promotes. Discipline is not just showing up to meetings on time. Accountability is not only admitting to a missed assignment. Leadership is not just delivering a speech after a tough loss.
Sometimes it is picking up a piece of tape. It is placing a chair back in the correct spot. Sometimes it is refusing to leave extra work behind for a stadium employee who was never part of the competition.
Equipment managers and student managers are often the first people to arrive and the last people to leave. They work behind the scenes while everyone else receives the attention. When a visiting locker room is left spotless, those workers should be celebrated alongside the players and coaches. College football should make this the expectation, not the exception. The scoreboard shows who won the game. The locker room shows who understood the assignment.
