The life cycle of a college football player is different for most and a lot depends on the position you play. But one thing that is about 100% true is that when you leave a high school weight program to go to college, your body changes. That might be the understatement of the year when it comes to Nick Savage’s weight program at Florida, and sophomore running back Dameon Pierce isn’t afraid to tell you so.

Pierce was plenty fit a year ago as a freshman where he hit on big runs early in the year to get everyone excited and then finished with a solid 424 yards, a couple of touchdowns, and a hefty 6.14 yard average. But he looks different and knows he feels different and gives the credit to Savage and the other strength coaches that are getting the entire team ready for the fall.

"Coach Savage… Coach Savage's going to reshape (your body) for you, most definitely,” Pierce said after practice on Saturday. "Right now I'm leaned up, but I'm at 220 still. So still the same weight."

Pierce said he can feel the difference just in the first two days of practice.

"I feel a whole lot more agile in terms of making cuts, seeing holes and everything,” he said. But overall Coach Savage did a great job getting us prepared for this fall and moving forward towards the season."

“He's going to make sure you get the most out of every workout and if it's not up to standard you're going to do it again. Our standard is a high-intensity workout, every day full speed. After doing that for six months, you're going to see a difference in your body, man."

All of this stuff takes time. That's something a lot of people may not realize about college football players. They have all of their class time and studies all year long, but football is a year-long venture for them as well whether it be practice and games or going through physical conditioning. It's much more intense at the college level and again with Coach Savage and company.

"Life is all about sacrifices,” Pierce said. “When you're in summer conditioning, you've got to make sacrifices like waking up early and then juggling class with the summer workouts that Coach Savage gives you. He does a great job putting the workouts to fit into our schedule so (we’re not) in too much of a rush to get to class or… the rest of the day, he wants us to come into our workout, get a good breakfast in before so we can attack the day."

Florida’s offense made huge strides in 2018 from really the Gator offenses of each year in the last decade. That was just in Year 1 of Mullen and company at Florida. Now, with knowing what is going on, this offense can really fine tune things from the start of the season.

"I feel like everybody's more comfortable in the scheme,” he said. “The less you think, the better you're going to perform. Coach Mullen stresses he wants us to go out there and he doesn't want us to be thinking. Like if you see two-high, OK, we've got this. One-high? OK, we've got this. He doesn't want it to be a long process because that's going to slow down our tempo. He wants to be an up-tempo team. If you're thinking, you're not going to have a fast tempo."

"It's a big difference because I feel like everybody's more comfortable and ready to get to work."

Pierce was a young guy last year that arrived early from high school and before the spring so he could participate in spring practices. He knows what it's like to be the guy that doesn’t understand everything. He knows he has to help rookie running back Nay’Quan Wright until the young man can catch up with things mentally.

"Really, truly, man, we've just got to be a helping hand,” Pierce said. “Because most guys are timid when they get here, they don't want to ask questions. We've got a new freshman, Nay'Quan Wright. He's doing very well. He's learning, getting in the scheme. We're doing everything we can to help him along."

The Gators open the season against Miami on August 24 and the entire country will be watching as the two in-state rivals kick off the college football season. You’d think that things would be lit with gasoline around practices about the big game, yet Pierce says things are always intense, regardless of the next opponent.

"The intensity is high, I can tell you that,” he said. “The intensity has always been high with coach Mullen. He's certain of that. No matter if we were playing three weeks later or three weeks earlier, we're still going to have the same intensity and same mindset to go out there and attack the day."

And Pierce will be attacking the day with a little more quickness both in mind and body in 2019.