Bri Wade promoted to Florida Gators director of football recruiting & external engagement

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Bri Wade, a key member of the Florida staff, has received a promotion and raise from UF coach Billy Napier, Gators Online has learned. Wade’s new job title is Director of Football Recruiting & External Engagement.

Wade will oversee all on-campus recruiting efforts — most notably being tasked to plan, coordinate, and execute official visits, unofficial visits, game day recruiting programming, junior days, and special events — and creative oversight for on-campus recruiting needs.

Wade will assist development efforts by planning, coordinating, and executing donor visits in conjunction with Gator Boosters and Florida Victorious. She will also cultivate, develop and maintain positive relationships with vendors and businesses.

“Something that I’ve actually set out as a goal for on-campus recruiting is creating different experiences for recruits when they’re on campus,” Wade said last spring. “So, we never want them to come and have the same visit. We always want the visit to be different, no matter how many times they come back because, of course, you want them to come back as much as they can. But every time they’re on campus, I think it’s so important for them to have a different experience.

“Here at Florida, we have so much to show and so much to offer. So, just definitely creating those special experiences. We even have a master database where we have every recruit that’s been on campus, and we have a checklist of everything they’ve done, so we can see what they haven’t done. So, ‘OK, this guy is coming back. This is what we’re going to show him. We haven’t shown him this. He’s interested in this; let’s get him over here.’ So, just creating those special experiences.”

Wade joined the Gators in 2022 as the director of on-campus recruiting and football events.

Wade worked previously with Napier for two seasons (2020-21) at Louisiana, where she played a vital role in landing the No. 1 recruiting class in the Sun Belt in back-to-back seasons.

Wade joined the Ragin’ Cajuns after spending 2019 as a football recruiting assistant at Mississippi State. She was also a student recruiting assistant for the Bulldogs from 2014-18.

A native of Byram, Miss., Wade graduated from Mississippi State University in 2018 with a bachelor’s degree in marketing and obtained a master’s degree in sport administration in 2019.  

“I fell into it actually,” Wade said when asked how she got into football recruiting. “I did not know that this was an opportunity, or this was something that I could do. I was a student at Mississippi State, and they had a student host group, and you know how people harass you with like fliers as you’re walking around campus, and, like, somebody stopped me and was like, ‘Hey! You know, would you like to help recruit for football?’ And I’m like, ‘Sure.’ So, I take the flier and go to the interest meeting. I hear what all it entails, and I’m like, ‘OK. This kind of sounds cool.’

“Go through the interview process, eventually make the student group, and I was able to be a student host. My first game was like after we became No. 1 in the country, so it was absolutely insane. There were so many recruits, and it was so much going on. And for some reason, I love the craziness. I was like, ‘There’s so much happening, but you know what? I want to do this for the rest of my life.’ I changed my major and everything. I was initially a biochemistry pre-med major and quickly switched out of that.”

Prior to joining the MSU staff as a full-time recruiting staffer that year, Wade served as the graduate assistant in the office of institutional diversity and inclusion in Starkville.

She was a participant in the 2020 NFL Women’s Career in Football Forum and 2020 NCAA Emerging Leaders Seminar while also a member of the Women Leaders in College Sports.