"Truckin' with the Tigers" is back this year. Senior writer Jeff Shearer will give fans a look behind the curtain this season as he tags along with Auburn football for road games.
This week, Auburn is headed to Oxford, Mississippi, where the Tigers will face No. 9 Ole Miss on Saturday at 11 a.m. CT. The game will be televised on ESPN.
Stay locked here for updates from Auburn's trip throughout the weekend.
SATURDAY: MEET BIANCA WEBBWhen prospective student-athletes arrive on Auburn's campus, one of the first people they see is Bianca Webb, director of recruiting operations and football events.
"Show recruits what Auburn is all about," said Webb, a two-time Auburn University graduate with a bachelor's in business administration and a master's in adult education. "It's a family atmosphere. Auburn's a great place. In my role, I'm able to show recruits and their families what makes Auburn the best.
"Auburn is a true family. I remember coming to Auburn in middle school and high school thinking, 'I cannot wait to go to college there.' To be here working full time is an amazing dream. I love Auburn. It's not fluff. Auburn is the real deal. Great people, great place."
Before working for football, Webb worked for Auburn men's and women's basketball, first as a graduate assistant early in Bruce Pearl's tenure, then as a special assistant to the head coach for women's basketball and director of basketball operations.
Watching Pearl and women's basketball head coach Johnnie Harris build their programs has given Webb a long-term perspective.
"I look back on my time here with Coach Pearl, and to see where he's taken our basketball program is unbelievable," she said. "The same thing can happen with football. We've had big moments. That's going to happen. We've just got to trust the process."
FRIDAY: AUBURN'S MOBILE OFFICETUPELO, Miss. – Keith Smith had plenty of time to sketch designs for Auburn football's mobile office while he was undergoing chemotherapy.
Smith, Auburn's assistant director of football technology and video operations, used his recovery time to carry out his boss' directive.
"We need to figure an efficient way that we can travel everything we need to provide the most seamless and high service copy center for our coaches on the road," said Matt Hard, Auburn's director of football technology and video innovation. "That's what led us to this."
Thus was born Auburn football's mobile office. A computer, a printer, 11 by 17 and 8.5 by 11 paper, laminator, markers, erasers, office supplies and a video projector, all fit neatly in portable drawers.
"It's nice, it's neat, it's organized," Smith said, "and it all will fit under a tour bus. You have everything you need right there. Anywhere in the country where we have power, you can still do your job. That's the biggest upgrade: making this thing mobile and more organized than it was."
Last year, printing 30 call sheets took two hours. On Auburn's first road trip this season, it took three minutes.
"It was night and day," Hard said. "You pull it out at the hotel and you're ready to go. It's like being at home."
Hard takes pride in Auburn's innovation, knowing the design for the mobile office can benefit programs with fewer resources.
"What can we do better?" he asked. "Not only do we have a privilege at a Power Five school to do more things, the onus is on us to innovate for these other schools that might not be able to try something new.
"The duty is on us to push our field forward and to improve things for everyone else. One of my favorite parts of our job is to be able to do new things to benefit the team."
The mobile office gives Auburn's coaches the ability to tweak their call sheets right up until 20 minutes before team boards the buses to head to the stadium on Saturday.
"They can do any changes they want on the fly," Smith said. "It allows them to flexible and we can make sure we get what they want."
Last season, Smith's doctor, former Auburn kicker Dr. Morgan Hull, diagnosed Smith with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma on his spine, requiring six rounds of chemo from January to May. He's now, to use the proper medical phrase, "watchfully waiting," – cancer-free but waiting five years for that official designation.
He's back on the road, truckin' with the Tigers, seeing his design help Auburn be at its best.
"You feel good about the fact that you can make things easier and better, not only for us, but for the team on the road," Smith said. "The end result has become something that's pretty awesome."
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jeff_shearer