GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- If you strolled into a Florida player-run-practice late this summer, you might have had one quick takeaway.

These guys are big.

Players always make gains in the offseason strength and conditioning program, but this year there have been more noticeable gains across the board. GatorBait.net has noted it several times already this summer, and Jim McElwain was quick to point it out at the team's media day on Wednesday.

"I think when you see them roll off the bus here tomorrow, I think you're going to see a lot of guys that have significantly changed the way their body looks, and I think that's a credit, obviously, to what our guys are doing in the weight room, but moreso maybe what their personal commitment was to the work put in in the weight room," he said.

Sometimes even just change for the sake of change can help athletes break through a lifting plateau. Whatever the case, everyone is singing the praises of new director of strength and conditioning Mike Kent.

Even a guy who has seen four different head strength coaches after transferring from Virginia and going through multiple coaching changes.

"I've enjoyed all of them, been close to the strength coaches, but I don't know what it was about what they did (this summer), maybe it was the coaching change that came with it, but they were able to get guys to new levels," tight end Jake McGee said.

McGee said the team started off a bit slowly, but a light clicked on midway through the Summer A semester. Since then, the progress has been astounding.

"Credit a lot of that to coaches and this staff and the guys being receptive and wanting to get stronger as fast as they could before the season," he said.

There haven't been a ton of details on the exact changes Kent has implemented, but the Gators have moved from a primarily Olympic-lift focused regiment to a more position-specific set of strength workouts.

That has helped individual position groups develop more functional skills and movements for their positions, McGee explained.

"It's a lot of agility, conditioning, stuff that's sort of on-field drills," he said. "The cuts and stuff you're doing is the same as you'd be doing in a game. It's not straight-ahead running, it's a lot of cuts and simulating different parts of practice and games."

Regardless, Florida's players have enjoyed the change and are ready to show off their progress.

And really, while Kent is certainly due a lot of credit, a lot of that credit also needs to go to the players. They've put in the work, and the results are clear.

"I think it's a great program, but like anything else, a lot of it was just these guys, and me included, just committed to this program and committed to getting ready for the season," quarterback Will Grier said. "A huge part of that is the offseason conditioning. Strength and conditioning programs. A lot of these guys just committed to it. When you commit to something like that and it's important to you and everybody's doing it, everybody's giving 100 percent, that's when you start to get results like this."

How those results translate to the field remains to be seen. McElwain's ready to see for himself after limited contact with players this summer.

Simply gaining size and strength doesn't necessarily produce better results in the fall. He knows it, but the gains are a definite start.

"Obviously you haven't been able to see them run or do any of that stuff, but to see how they're carrying their new weight, that will be interesting," he said.

Florida opens fall practice Thursday afternoon in a split-squad session that will feature veterans in one group and first-year players and junior Ahmad Fulwood (exam conflict) in a second group.

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