Turner is barely into her second month on the job, opening a stretch filled with official visits and recruiting functions as Florida's assistant athletic director of recruiting strategy. She is the first person to hold that title with the Gators, a position retooled on the organizational chart devised by new head coach Billy Napier.
At times like these, when home is a temporary place to rest your head after another long day filled with phone calls, meetings and fresh faces to meet, Turner relies on the lessons that got her here.
Most importantly, be the person you were hired to be.
"When you are going through the transition, you do have to take a step back and just breath,'' she said. "You can recruit really, really well, but if you are not genuine, they are going to see that eventually. For me, I have players at Louisiana literally tell me that they thought I faked my enthusiasm and energy just for recruiting. Then they got to know me. That means a lot. That consistently is something I want to be known for. You know what you are going to get with me. I think a lot of the people on the coaching staff that [Coach Napier] has hired are like that."
Napier first crossed paths with Turner when he was an assistant coach at Alabama. Turner was an undergraduate student buzzing around the Crimson Tide's football offices, giving tours to recruits and their families, adding a dose of personality to make the experience memorable for visitors. Soon after Napier's introduction as Florida's head coach on Dec. 5, he hired Turner away from eventual national champion Georgia to manage and humanize the Gators' recruiting efforts.
Despite growing up in Orchard Park, N.Y., despite attending an all-girls catholic school, despite having never been to Alabama until the day she moved into her dorm room, and despite knowing more about Lou Saban than Nick Saban, Turner fit right in.
She was friendly, energetic, creative and intelligent. The same person she's always been.
"She is fearless. She is very confident in her ability, and she loves meeting people,'' said Greg Turner, Katie's father. "She's got a great way about her and can really relate to others from all walks of life. She is genuinely interested to learn about you when she talks to you. She's made some great choices."
Yes, she has. At 27, Turner has one of college football's most prominent positions for a female. She struck Napier as someone to remember in their time together at Alabama.
When Napier became a head coach for the first time at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in 2018, he called Turner to see if she would be interested in leaving home and moving to the South for a second time. After graduation from Alabama, Turner returned to upstate New York and worked as an intern for her hometown Buffalo Bills, first in community relations and then business development.
Turner jumped at the opportunity and reunited with Napier as Louisiana's director of on-campus recruiting. Results followed as the Ragin' Cajuns signed the No. 1 recruiting class in the Sun Belt Conference in 2019 and 2020. Turner left Louisiana after two seasons to join another former Alabama contact, Georgia coach Kirby Smart, in Athens as the Bulldogs' director of on-campus recruiting.
In Turner's eyes, it was an opportunity to test herself in the Southeastern Conference and at a program with the country's largest recruiting budget. Once again, success followed the upbeat go-getter as Georgia signed recruiting classes ranked in the top five in 2021 and '22.
When Napier took the UF job after four seasons at Louisiana, he picked up the phone to call Turner to see if she wanted to join the new team he was building.
"I think she's a leader. She brings a ton of value and works extremely hard. She is kind of a pace-setter. She is a tone-setter. You meet unique people along the way and say, 'that's a really unique person there.' You are always looking for those people."
On a recent weekday afternoon at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, Turner juggled various tasks as she prepared for the first big recruiting weekend for the Gators since she arrived. She took a call from colleague Bri Wade, hired late last month as UF's on-campus recruiting and football events director. There was a meeting with a caterer scheduled. And while discussing her path to UF, a recruit's mom called to check on hotel reservations for an official campus visit.
In other words, just another day at the office doing what she loves.
"I feel my strengths lie with relationships and people,'' Turner said. "That's what I do best. In recruiting, it is event planning. It's booking venues and caterers and finding guest speakers and entertainment. It's all the above.
"But like Coach Napier always says, first and foremost, this is about the people. That's what it's all about."
*****
In her brief time in Florida, Turner has become one of the most visible members of Napier's staff. She and Wade served as social-media ambassadors for the Florida gymnastic team's season opener on Jan. 7. Turner has gained thousands of new followers on social media, with recruiting interest peaking toward National Signing Day next month.
Turner's quick ascension in the sport is a tribute to her work ethic and ability to connect with people. It's a good story, too.
Turner is the middle of three kids and the only girl. Growing up the daughter of a Buffalo native and Bills season-ticket holder, Turner tagged along with Greg to then-Ralph Wilson Stadium whenever he didn't take one of her brothers. When the boys started playing in the Orchard Park Little Loop Football organization that Greg helped found in the early 2000s, Katie refused to stay at home or become a cheerleader.
"You could not tell me that my dad was not like Vince Lombardi,'' Turner said. "I just thought it was the coolest thing ever."
She wanted to contribute to the team, not stand on the sideline holding pom-poms.
"She obviously loved the sport,'' Greg Turner said. "She loved coming to the games. She loved coming to the practices. She would run around and get the cones if we were doing cone drills and stuff like that. Always very excited about it."
As she got older, Tuner dipped her toes into the pool as a swimmer, played lacrosse and joined her high school's rowing team. When it was time for her to choose a college, it came down to Alabama and St. Bonaventure. St. Bonaventure was close to home and offered a familiar atmosphere. Alabama was a part of the country she had never visited and presented an entirely different experience. And yes, the school in Tuscaloosa had a football team, an essential consideration for Turner.
The Crimson Tide won the 2012 national championship in her first semester on campus. In the spring of 2013, at the suggestion of an older classmate who volunteered with the football program, Turner joined a group of student ambassadors that served in various roles around the team.
She quickly stood out.
"If Katie had one connection, she was going to fill in the rest,'' Clair Costello, a high school classmate of Turner's, told the Buffalo News in 2020. "Katie is a person who has no hesitation in starting a conversation with someone."
In 2013, Turner opted to live in Tuscaloosa year-round rather than return home for summer break. She got a job as a hostess at a local restaurant and spent as much time around the football offices as possible. She wanted to learn more about how the entire operation worked.
With fewer students to rely upon for help, coaches like Napier and Smart began to rely on Turner to get things done.
"A lot of people just thought I worked in the office,'' she said. "I learned a lot. That was my exposure to SEC football. I cannot believe I picked Alabama. I had no idea what they were building."
*****
A decade since she stepped foot in SEC country for the first time, Turner seeks the same success at Florida that she has experienced at other stops. She is now a league veteran and knows the secret ingredient: great players make great teams.
As Napier said at his introductory press conference, those in the game are in the "talent acquisition business." Wins on Saturday start with wins in recruiting.
Turner's role at Florida is multi-faceted, but Napier highlighted her expertise in recruiting on Friday as the "Ritz-Carlton Effect," the part of the process that involves hospitality, customer service and building relationships that last. Turner, Wade and others on that side of the fence are the ones connecting to recruits and their families on the most human terms. And Napier is a big believer in the importance of their roles.
"We recruit, and we put so much effort into it, you would think we have the worst brand and the worst sell in all of college football,'' she said. "That is their mentality. There's something special about Year 1, being able to lay a foundation and be a part of it. You are very invested and trying to build something upon this foundation and be a little piece of the puzzle."
Napier is grateful to have Turner around. She's young. She's a Northerner and he grew up in the South. She's a woman in a sport dominated by men. She has climbed a ladder once blocked.
When Napier picked up the phone, none of that mattered before asking Turner to join his team. Not at Louisiana, not at Florida. He knows what she can do and how that can help the Gators.
"She's an alpha,'' Napier said. "She gets in there and rolls her sleeves up. She makes everybody better. I think her understanding me, my story, our vision of what we're trying to create here, that's a big part.
"For her to be able to personalize that and sell that to the recruits, not only myself and our vision but really each person in the organization who will touch the player while he's here – recruiting is storytelling – I think she is pretty good at it."
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Turner Made Lasting Impression On Napier During Her Climb In Male-Dominated Game - Florida Gators
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