GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Florida opened fall camp early on Friday morning, getting in a relatively cool morning practice before things heat up later in the day and the coaching staff gets busy with the program's annual Friday Night Lights recruiting event.

The first six periods of the Gators' practice were open to the media, and Swamp247.com was on hand to take in the action. We provide a comprehensive report of everything we saw below.

The transformation on the O-line is legitimate

It didn't take long out at practice to be willing to give a major cap tip to director of strength and conditioning Nick Savage. It was pretty readily apparent which of the freshman offensive linemen were early enrollees.

The Gators need at least a handful of a five-man signing class on the O-line to pan out early, and based on sheer physical appearance and movement it now looks like that might be possible.

Early on in the stretching and warm-up sessions, it was very apparent how much work a handful of the freshmen have put in in the weight room.

Right tackle Michael Tarquin was pretty underdeveloped in his upper body this spring but now appears very well-balanced in terms of his frame. He looked significantly bulked up in the arms and chest, to the point that he now looks like a capable tackle physically.

It was similar story with right guard William Harrod, who also was quite lean in the upper body this spring. Harrod has had one of the most impressive physical turnarounds on the team in just a few short months, really filling out his frame across the board. He looks the part of a college guard now.

But the most impressive change had to belong to guard/tackle Ethan White. White came in topping the scales at more than 400 pounds. He has easily lost at least 50 pounds, to our eye. If you hadn't seen the before pictures, you'd probably say something to the effect of, 'Wow, that guy looks great for a freshman.'

While there's going to be plenty of work for those players to do still to be ready to actually play at the college level, they look miles and miles closer to actually contributing now than they did just a little more than three months ago when spring ball ended. It's hard to overstate the differences physically.

Florida's got some elite athletes away from the trenches

Speaking of physically impressive players, the Gators might have their best set of athletes outside of the trenches in the last decade -- on both sides of the ball.

Starting cornerbacks Marco Wilson and CJ Henderson have both filled out considerably and look like physical, college veterans at the position. Impressively enough, there is hardly any physical dropoff in terms of size or length at the second string, where freshmen Kaiir Elam and Jaydon Hill began the day on Friday.

Meanwhile, the athletes are all over the place on the offensive side of the ball.

At running back, Dameon Pierce caught our eye. He was a one-man wrecking crew in spring ball with his compact, physical frame. He actually appears to have leaned up a decent amount despite still packing a ton of power in his frame, an intriguing thing if it helps make him even a touch quicker.

At receiver, the athletes are everywhere. Trevon Grimes and Van Jefferson looked to have picked up right where they left off, shining in individual position work and snagging virtually everything that came their way. Receiver Kadarius Toney also appears significantly bulked up but doesn't appear to have lost a step. Receiver Jacob Copeland was also healthy and back in the fold and moved and cut well.

Finally, two guys really, really stand out at tight end. Lucas Krull looks like a prototypical NFL tight end and has chiseled out his frame even more. And while Kyle Pitts remains a bit lean, his athleticism jumps off the page at the position. Pitts has bounced back and forth between tight end and receiver over the past few months but spent the opening portion of practice working with the tight ends.

Other News & Notes

-- Florida's first six periods included mostly positional work, so there wasn't much to glean in terms of the passing game or either trench working against the other.

-- In individual drills, the receivers worked with a Jugs machine at one point. The veterans seemed to make the drill old hat, catching virtually everything thrown at them. Joshua Hammond, in particular, continues to display some of the softest hands on the team. A few struggled, though. Toney had at least four drops, including at least one that hit him square in the hands. That was an issue for him in the spring and something he'll need to continue to work on. Meanwhile, both freshmen had drops. Dionte Marks seemed a bit surprised at how quicky the ball came into him off the Jugs machine, twice taking balls off the helmet. Fellow freshman Ja'Markis Weston also had a drop. Weston has a pretty lean frame, something that stood out against the more physically refined veterans.

-- While Copeland certainly looks like one of the veterans from a physical standpoint and might be one of the most natural athletes in the group, he is still a youngster when it comes to practice. At one point during a receiver screen drill with the wideouts focused on juking an imaginary defender at the line and perfecting a spin move, assistant Billy Gonzales wasn't happy with one of his reps and made Copeland redo the rep. His second time through was much crisper.

-- In terms of who lined up where on the offensive line, the first day was pretty consistent with the spring. The first-team O-line from left to right was: Stone Forsythe, Brett Heggie, Nick Buchanan, Chris Bleich and Jean Delance. Bleich looked notably leaner and seemed to be moving better than he did in the spring.

-- Freshman offensive lineman Riley Simonds repped at both guard and tackle in individual drills. Meanwhile, redshirt freshman Griffin McDowell, who missed spring with an injury following a scooter accident, repped mostly at left guard in individual drills. McDowell appears to have added back some upper body mass.

-- Defensively during walk-throughs, the starting lineup was as follows:

DE Jabari Zuniga

DT Adam Shuler

NT Kyree Campbell

BUCK Jeremiah Moon

MLB David Reese

MONEY Amari Burney

CB Marco Wilson

STAR Trey Dean

S Donovan Stiner

S Jeawon Taylor

CB CJ Henderson

On the second time around in walk-throughs, Jonathan Greenard replaced Moon at the Buck position.

-- Of note defensively, Moon appears to have bulked up considerably and looks capable of playing the run from the Buck position much better. Meanwhile, Andrew Chatfield lined up at strong-side defensive end after spending the spring at Buck.

-- True freshman Khris Bogle lined up at Buck and looks the leanest of anyone at the position. He might need another year to add some mass before he's ready to be a big-time contributor. Fellow freshman Lloyd Summerall appeared to be nursing a minor injury, warming up on the sideline by himself early on.

-- Another player who has seemingly moved from Buck to another position is freshman Jesiah Pierre. Pierre has bulked up considerably and looks like a bowling ball. He worked with the linebackers on Friday morning rather than the rush ends. He struggled somewhat with lateral mobility in positional drills.

-- Quarterbacks focused on a ball security drill during one individual period, tucking the ball with two hands as they hit the ground face first. They later worked with running backs on exchanges in the run game, then transitioned into throwing a few passes out of the backfield. There wasn't much to note from the group overall. Freshman running back Nay'Quan Wright is the smallest running back in the group. He didn't particularly stand out as an explosive runner or cutter, which was the book on him coming in. He's best known for his vision and constantly making things happen despite having jump-off-the-page athleticism. It will be interesting to see how that translates in the coming practices.

-- Nickelback John Huggins was not at Friday's practice and is not expected to practice this weekend. UF officials said that Huggins was dealing with a family issue. Starting safety Jeawon Taylor practiced Friday morning in a red non-contact jersey.