After a slow start, season ticket sales for Florida football have picked up in recent weeks as excited Gators fans prepare for the start of the Jim McElwain era in Gainesville.

But a strong showing by the new coach and his team in their upcoming Sept. 5 season opener against New Mexico State could help speed things along.

As of Aug. 26, just 228 regular-season tickets remain after a recent spike in sales, according to Ticketmaster.com. That number figures to dwindle even further should the Florida impress in putting away the heavy underdog Aggies when they visit The Swamp for a much more fan-friendly 7:30 p.m. ET kickoff.

“We had a very busy August last year and we expect that to be the case again with practice starting [in early August] and the excitement that’s building,” Florida associate athletic director Mike Hill said, according to the Gainesville Sun. “That’s typically when sales start to heat up again.”

The most recent numbers represent a dramatic uptick since a recent survey by the website GatorBait.net revealed what initially appeared to be a relatively slow embracing of the upcoming season among the Florida faithful.

According to that report, the Gators had 2,275 tickets still available as of Aug. 2. Optimism about those numbers appeared even less likely when the school began it recent marketing campaign to boost interest.

The updated figures are sure to please Florida officials, who were hopeful that the influx of a new offensive-minded coach in McElwain, new facilities and fresh faces within the program would translate into added in-game revenues for the athletic department.

The Gators made just $93,300 in six home dates of a year ago, although that total would have been higher had a non-conference game against Idaho not been rained out. Either way, the total was well below the $600,000 the school collected in six home games the year before. The drop in revenues was attributed to a reduction in luxury ticket and season ticket sales and increases in both guarantees and season ticket prices, according to the newspaper.

The Gators appear to having much better luck this year, as all the luxury suites at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium are already sold out. There are still plenty of seats to be had, however, in the Champions Club seating that runs $2,850 with a season ticket and donation. Hill, who could not be reached for comment, told The Sun that Champions Club sales are comparable now to previous years.

While in-game revenue declined sharply, Hill said that Florida’s football ticket revenue remained steady, at $21.4 million in 2014 compared to $22.5 million the season before.

Florida split its six home games last year, losing to LSU, Missouri and South Carolina.

Fans still reveling from the heady days of Steve Spurrier’s “Fun ‘n Gun” offense were never enamored with Will Muschamp’s much more conservative “Ground and Pound” scheme that failed to deliver enough victories.

His firing opened the door for McElwain, the former Colorado State and Alabama offensive coordinator.

Florida sold out 137 straight football games from 1990-2010.

Now all that’s left is for McElwain and Co. to do their part against New Mexico State.