By: Jenna Ladd

It is not news that a new era is beginning for the Florida Gators football team this season under a new coaching staff after an 11-13 (7-9 SEC) record the past two seasons. However, it is one thing for the staff to say what they want to change, and another for these changes to actually come about. On media day we had the opportunity to hear about the program’s revamp firsthand from the players themselves.

Fortunately for Gator fans, Jim McElwain’s newly adopted team had nothing but praise and full support of what he is trying to accomplish — a testament to McElwain and the coaching staff for getting the players to buy in. His players sounded like a broken record as they repeated that there has been a complete turnaround in everyone’s attitude.

Even the seniors, who had spent all of their time under former head coach Will Muschamp, are buying in to this new staff. Senior defensive back Brian Poole commented on this new attitude saying, “I feel like there’s more of a winning atmosphere around, it’s a better feel. Everybody is buying in to what they are coaching, so it’s a different feel around the program.”

A team that did not have much to brag about last season, other than a few individual performances, has completely shifted their mentality to become more team-oriented. Junior defensive lineman Joey Ivie harped on this, saying that these coaches are “wanting us all to come together and celebrate together when someone makes a play.” This new staff is getting back to basics and making the Gators work as a team before anything else.

As much help as a shift in their mentality can help a program, in order to see different results on the field there had to be some changes in the way things were physically done. Senior defensive back Marcus Maye said that one of those changes was to focus on the minor details of the game.

“They basically just hop on just the small stuff,” he said. “Pretty much just the small 10-percent of the details. Just about lining up and the game in general that they’re trying to teach us to learn if you pick up on the small stuff then the big things will take care of themselves.”

According to redshirt sophomore linebacker, Matt Rolin, everything that the team does, from their meals, to the weight room is better than before.

“The weight room, the way we go about things and lift is much better than it used to be,” he said. “Everything is now more football related, the stuff that we do.”

With new attitudes, focus on the basics, attention to detail and everything that this team does coming full circle back to football, it seems that the new coaching staff is making a positive impact on a team that struggled the past two seasons.

As Poole said, “We’re Florida. We’re the Gators, we win. The last couple of years have not been acceptable and we’re ready to change that.”

So if you are a Gator fan, I would be looking forward to seeing these changes translating to the football field this upcoming season.