When Florida dropped its first conference game of the Dan Mullen era at home to a team that it had beaten for 31 consecutive years, many took it as a sign of the rebuild the coaching staff had on their hands this season. Flash forward just under two months later and the Gators are sitting pretty with a 6-1 mark and enter the Georgia game with a chance to take another step closer to Atlanta in Year 1 of the Mullen era.

So what has changed since that time? According to the Florida coaching staff, the biggest key to the team’s quick turnaround has been the practice habits of the players.

Here’s what Dan Mullen had to say when asked what’s changed with his program since the Sept. 8 defeat to Kentucky by a 27-16 margin.

“I think their understanding of how to prepare and play in different games. You know your performance on Saturday is a reflection of how you practice during the week,” Mullen answered. “Just because you have a Gator helmet on doesn’t mean everything is going to work out fine and will be okay. If we don’t put in the time, we don’t put in the work in every phase of the game, we can’t expect to be successful.

“I think that’s the biggest one that our guys have learned and really bought in to. That it’s not about one thing or another, it’s about everyone on the team living up to do their part and live up to the standard.”

His defensive coordinator was asked the same question on Monday and came up with a near identical answer.

“I think we are playing more physical and faster — as a group. I think some of it is communication, some of it is knowing what we are doing. I think some of it is confidence. I think it’s all that,” Todd Grantham said. “I think also, honestly, on Monday we’ll show a play from practice that wasn’t as good and it correlated to a play in the game that wasn’t good. Then we’d show a play from practice that was really good, then run the same play against the same call and it’s really good.

“So you can show how your performance in practice is an influence on how you play in the game. That’s the biggest thing I’ve been preaching when going about how to handle their business and making sure we do the things we need to do to perform at a very level.”

Now that the coaching staff has the full attention of the players during the week, their performance has taken off on the field on the weekends. That’s something tangible the players can see and have clearly bought in to leading up to the Georgia game and should give Gator fans plenty of confidence after two weeks of preparation leading up to the contest.

If the Gators learn from the Vanderbilt tape and Georgia evaluation, the team should be ready for just about anything Kirby Smart and his team plan to throw at them in Jacksonville.