Bianca Webb woke up with the sun on July 27 and then drove across town, arriving at the home of Hugh Freeze by 6:30 a.m.

There, she got to work before Auburn’s head football coach had even rolled out of bed.

“Obviously, Big Cat Weekend, you got Big Cat-type of players. So we had a breakfast at his home and I needed to be there to meet the caterers and get all that stuff set up before Freeze wakes up,” said Webb in a recent one-on-one interview with AL.com.

Webb, who serves as Auburn’s director of football recruiting operations, and her staff spend months working towards Big Cat Weekend, which has been Auburn football’s annual premier recruiting event since 2009. And her early-morning drive to Freeze’s house meant the big day had finally arrived.

But Webb hadn’t a clue just how big the day was about to be.

The goal of Auburn’s Big Cat Weekend is to get as many targets on campus before the August dead period, which prohibits coaches from contacting recruits during the entire month of August.

If the Tigers can pick up a commitment or two while they’re at it, it makes for a successful weekend.

During last year’s Big Cat Weekend, four-star wide receiver Malcolm Simmons committed to Auburn and five-star wide receiver Perry Thompson flipped his commitment from Alabama to Auburn.

Those two commitments alone made headlines last summer.

This time around, Auburn saw unprecedented success during Big Cat Weekend as it picked up four commitments and flipped four-star defensive lineman Antonio Coleman away from rival Alabama.

Class of 2026 four-star defensive lineman Hezekiah Harris was the first to announce his commitment at 9:30 a.m.

“I knew that was going to happen,” Webb admits, saying she had talked to Harris prior to the event. “The other ones? No, I didn’t know. But it makes you kind of pat yourself on the back.”

And rightfully so.

Freeze said it himself: There’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes when it comes to Auburn’s recruiting efforts.

“Obviously I get really excited when I see all of the positive things that are said about recruiting and typically my name gets attached to it somehow,” Freeze said on Aug. 1. “But truthfully there’s so many others that play bigger roles than I do.”

Freeze went on to mention the work of Auburn’s general manager of player personnel Will Redmond and his team, as well as the graduate assistants, analysts and position coaches that help chauffeur around recruits during their visits.

And, of course, Webb and her team.

“Bianca and her staff are a huge role in that,” Freeze said.

Alongside Webb are four other women: Haylee Brown, Katelyn Lambert, Xaria Wiggins and Reilly Wooten.

Together, they’ve silently been stoking the fire on a recruiting trail that’s been set ablaze by Auburn.

The art of talking to teenage boys and rushing front-porch conversations

Webb and her team don’t try to be something they’re not.

“We don’t go in and watch film and tell them, ‘Hey, this person should do this.’ Because honestly, I don’t know,” Webb joked.

The evaluation aspect of recruiting is left up to the personnel staff and the coaches. But once a prospect is added to Auburn’s recruiting board, it’s time for Webb and her team to step in – and to step in fast.

“In this day and age, you gotta get them to campus as soon as possible and as many times as possible,” Webb said.

And that takes a group effort with both coaches and members of the recruiting staff communicating with the recruit to try to get them to campus.

When asked about the art of communicating with high school football players, 31-year-old Webb couldn’t help but laugh.

“It’s so funny,” Webb says. “I always say when it’s time to go onto the next life and have kids and stuff like that, I’m going to have the most patience. I’m just going to excel in that world very well because it’s just so many kids.”

To be sure all the bases are covered, Webb splits her team of five among the different position groups on the field, though it’s not at random.

Understanding that everyone has different personalities, Webb makes an effort to pair her staff members with a position coach with a compatible personality.

For example, Webb works with quarterbacks and defensive linemen, meaning she works with quarterback coach Kent Austin and defensive line coach Vontrell King-Williams.

Meanwhile, Reilly Wooten works with tight ends and tight end coach Ben Aigamaua.

“Everything that works for me and Vontrell and Kent is not going to work for me and Ben,” Webb explains. “[With] Reilly’s relationship, she knows what Ben wants from a visit without me having to overstep. I give them complete freedom on that.”

Once a visit is scheduled, a final itinerary is presented to Webb, who will add any relevant notes and then add the visit to Freeze’s calendar if a meeting with the head coach is in order.

And on occasion, Webb has a role in those one-on-one meetings, too.

Freeze prides himself on being a “front porch-” or “living room-” recruiter.

“There’s no question that’s my comfort zone because that’s the way I was raised – me building genuine, authentic relationships is important,” Freeze said during SEC Media Days in mid-July. “I don’t know how to do that without those front-porch conversations or them sitting on my back porch at our home in Auburn.”

And as wholesome as that is, Webb will tell you it comes with a bit of a drawback – especially during big recruiting events.

“Coach Freeze can sit and talk with you all day long, which is great – you do want that,” Webb said. “But sometimes, like it’s Big Cat ‘Weekend,’ but it’s really just that day and you got 20 people you have to meet with. You can’t talk for 20 minutes.”

During packed days like Big Cat Weekend, when Freeze’s first few meetings become more like front-porch conversations, Webb has no choice but to step in, then sit down and then stand up.

It’s a system, you see: When Freeze sees Webb walk into his office, he knows he’s got about seven minutes left of his allotted meeting time with that recruit.

When she sits down, he knows he’s only got two minutes left.

And when Freeze sees Webb stand back up, well, it’s time to zip it.

“There’s a lot of trust,” Webb said of her and Freeze’s relationship. “That’s taken time… but I think we have a good system. We understand, we trust, we respect and that’s super helpful.”

It’s in the details (and the chocolate-chip pancakes)

Just because Webb and her team all work with prospective Auburn football players, it doesn’t mean they’re all working with guys who want the same things out of their college experience, so they do their best to tailor each recruit’s visit to him, his interests and aspirations.

Webb says official visits are easier since she and her staff have up to 48 hours to impress their visitors and can put together more personalized visits with details ranging from which academic buildings the recruit visits to the snacks in their hotel rooms and the meals they eat during their stay.

It starts with a survey that’s sent out to the athlete or his family with the goal of learning more about the recruit, Webb explains.

Through one of the surveys received this summer, Webb and her team learned that one of Auburn’s incoming visitors loved chocolate-chip pancakes. So Webb and her team found him some chocolate-chip pancakes.

“The menu, we tweaked it,” Webb said, adding that they visited a local Auburn eatery. “So he’s sitting down and he’s like, ‘Hey, how did you know that?’”

“I’m like, ‘You filled it out.’ But they don’t connect those things.”

Those kinds of details go a long way, Webb says. It’s human nature for someone to appreciate when another person remembers small details about them – and that’s especially the case in today’s age of flipping, flopping and transferring.

Freeze recently said he and his staff never feel out of the race for guys on their recruiting board.

“We’re never out of the fight on the guys we want,” Freeze said during SEC Media Days.

Auburn has recently proved that to be true as the Tigers successfully flipped a pair of Alabama commitments in four-star defensive lineman Antonio Coleman and four-star athlete Derick Smith.

And while that might say a lot about the relentless efforts of Freeze and his staff, it also speaks volumes about Webb and her staff’s commitment to maintaining relationships – even after a prospect goes on to pledge elsewhere.

“I think that’s probably the biggest part about recruiting; the ones who do it great understand this, the ones who don’t, don’t understand it: Just because they didn’t come to your school, that doesn’t mean we don’t care about them anymore,” Webb said. “Yeah, their son didn’t choose our school, but it could change. And they always remember, ‘Oh, so and so was very nice. Oh, so and so always showed me respect and showed me love.’”

Not to mention, no one forgets a proper meal consisting of chocolate-chip pancakes.

Becoming handymen, wakeup callers and listeners

Before Webb was brought on as Auburn’s director of football recruiting operations in February of 2022, she primarily worked in basketball — first as a graduate assistant with Auburn’s men’s basketball team, then as special assistant to the head coach of Auburn’s women’s basketball team, then the director of basketball operations for Auburn’s women’s team.

Webb briefly left Auburn for Missouri State, where she served as the director of women’s basketball, before making her return to The Plains.

And since starting her career on the recruiting side of things, Webb has learned how to wear many, many hats.

“In recruiting you have five million jobs,” joked Webb. “You become handymen, you become movers, you become everything.”

One time, in preparation for unofficial visitors at an Auburn football game, Webb and her team built a set of shelves at Jordan-Hare Stadium to hold offerings of popcorn for their visitors.

Unfortunately, proving that Webb and her team weren’t the best at building furniture, the shelves fell and an untimely rainfall led to the popcorn and its cardboard containers turning into a movie theater-smelling mush, which Webb had to help clean up.

Webb says she and her team have also helped players move into their dorms – including once helping a player move in at 2:30 a.m. while the dorm’s fire alarm was going off.

Other times, Webb has had to track down scheduled visitors and play the role of their personal alarm clock.

And not just once, either.

When Auburn was recruiting offensive lineman Dillon Wade, who was looking to transfer from Tulsa, Webb helped book his travel plans, right down to the driver who was set to take him from his hotel to the airport.

The only issue? Wade didn’t wake up.

“I called him like five million times,” Webb recalls, adding that her efforts were unsuccessful.

Webb resorted to calling the hotel front desk, which was nice enough to send someone to Wade’s room to wake him up.

Wade finally replied to Webb, telling her that he was heading downstairs, only for him to fall back asleep, forcing Webb to repeat the process and Wade to miss his flight.

When Wade finally made it to Auburn later that night, Webb went to introduce herself and went to shake Wade’s hand, only for him to wrap her in a big hug.

“I’m sorry,” Wade told her. “I was just tired.”

“I’m very glad you’re here,” Webb told him.

And that’s the truth. Despite the headache, Webb was glad Wade was at Auburn – a place that means so much to her as an Auburn alumna.

Webb, a Montgomery native, moved to Auburn in 2013 and has spent much of her life on The Plains since.

“I’m 31 years old now. I’ve been able to grow up and to become the woman that I am today – that’s thanks to the people and the experiences I’ve had at Auburn,” Webb said.

Now, while her No. 1 job might be getting football players to come to Auburn, she also uses her platform and her relationships to encourage personal growth in those who do end up suiting up for the Tigers.

“They’re kids who just want help and support,” Webb says. “And that’s the part of recruiting I really like, because I think from our realm, we’re not coaches so I’m not worried about what they can do on the field, I’m really caring about who they are, like for their heart, knowing stuff about their families and their little girlfriends that they date and all that stuff.

“You get to see a different side of them versus being on the field and that’s the fun part to me – because they’re actual people and they’re not just football players.”

Chasing the top five

Freeze has set clear goals when it comes to recruiting at Auburn.

Last year, he had his sights set on a recruiting class ranked inside the top-10 and finished accordingly with the 10th-ranked class, according to 247Sports.

This year, the goal was a class ranked inside the top-five.

So far, with Auburn’s 2025 recruiting class ranked as the fifth in the nation, it appears Freeze and the Tigers are on par for the course.

“It’s a philosophy that I think I have a whole building that’s bought into it now. Yes, I do get to set the philosophy and how we’re going to do it – and we’re fortunate to be doing very well right now,” Freeze said. “Hopefully we’ll get a little more good news in the coming weeks and try to finish out this class around that top-five area.”

So for Webb and her team, the pursuit continues.

“We’re all running in the same direction,” Webb said.

And that direction is full steam ahead towards the top of the nation’s team recruiting rankings.