Rain forced the Florida Gators inside on Friday night, practicing in the Florida gym, but Mother Nature cooperated on Saturday, allowing the Gators to get back out on the grass for their first day in shells (helmets and shoulder pads).

The Gators had a spirited day in the hot Florida sun, fueled by the sounds of pads cracking and whistles blowing.

Here are a few notes from the third practice of the first fall camp under head coach Jim McElwain.

Freshmen standing out

McElwain’s freshmen class is quickly adapting to the speed of the game and adjusting to college. To their credit, most of the freshmen don’t look like first year players physically and many in the class will be counted on to make an immediate impact — if not start at their position — right away.

Every player asked on Tuesday singled out freshman defensive lineman CeCe Jefferson as a young player who is making strides and impressing them. Jefferson is 6-1, 275 pounds and the weight he has added is giving him some extra strength on the field, something senior lineman Trip Thurman has taken notice of.

“I’d say CeCe’s stepping up as kind of like a young Jon Bullard,” Thurman said.

On his side of the ball, Thurman also noted that freshmen Tyler Jordan and Martez Ivey are starting to stand out. Both Ivey and Jordan could be counted on to start and play significant time this season, so to hear that they are picking things up quickly is important to the team.

Junior receiver Demarcus Robinson noted that he and freshman receiver Antonio Callaway have been spending a lot of time together off the field. The two often go over film together on the IPads that were given to the players this offseason.

New camp and coaches

There is a difference between being in shape and being in football shape. After looking at him in person, nobody would say that junior safety Keanu Neal is out of shape, but he did admit that the heat got the better of him and his teammates the first couple of days.

McElwain has publically stated that he’s a stickler for details — and loudly voiced this to the offense when they weren’t executing a drill properly on Saturday — and camp has been designed to make the players tired and train them to think and execute when their gas tank starts running low.

“The tempo is a lot faster. Everything is chaotic; so being tired you have to think,” Neal said. “That’s [McElwain’s] motto, focusing on the details, having attention to details, while you’re tired. And that’s what he’s doing and that’s what the practices are setup to do.”

Neal also mentioned that the staff is really coming down on the safeties to be able to communicate through signs. Especially on defense, crowds at home in The Swamp can get so loud that players can’t hear each other even if they’re a few feet away, so the calls on the field are coming from hand signals.

Practice No. 3 highlights

Keanu Neal had an incredible leaping, one-handed interception (watch here). Kirk Callahan quickly instructed the entire secondary to run over and celebrate with Neal (who wasn’t celebrating and didn’t seem to impressed with a very difficult catch.) This is what Callahan is teaching the secondary. It’s a “when I do something, we all do something” mentality. Callahan wants every player to act like they’re the one that made the play and come together as a collective unit.

Duke Dawson came up with an interception of Treon Harris during half-line drills.

Ahmad Fulwood ran a nice double move to get open in a drill and Will Grier hit him in stride for a score.

Antonio Morrison

Morrison was at practice today and participated throughout the entire open portion on Saturday.

While he is still wearing a large brace on his left knee, Morrison hasn’t shown a noticeable limp and he went through some light hitting drills today. Morrison leads off every single linebacker drill and he’s like having an extra coach on the field. Morrison got on the linebackers during a drill saying, “We’ve been doing this all summer long, how are you going to mess that up.” He’s constantly working with other players, talking to them and is the clearly a guy that everyone at his position looks up to and listens to.