GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- The Florida offensive line is coming into the 2019 season with a few questions surrounding it.

However, if you ask any of the linemen, there is no question that this group will be ready for the opener.

"Last year around this time, there were question marks on the offensive line," said center Nick Buchanan. "Then now people are saying, oh, now you’re losing an offensive line that had question marks at this time last year. So, the media, and all the questions and everything, they are what they are and we just have to put our head down and work.”

The O-line put in the work this offseason.

The group put in the hours in the weight room and in training to develop their craft. However, there is another reason for this group's confidence; and it has to do with the guys that line up in front of them.

"We had the defense making us better, so we get better everyday," said Griffin McDowell. “They make us a lot better. They’re really big guys that are going to be playmakers this year, so for them to give us good looks and give us their best is making us all better.”

"They’re really good guys," added Jean Delance. "They’re just not just any guys you are getting off the street to put out there - they’re really good players. So that’s preparing us for a big season actually just seeing those type of physical and athletic guys who play defensive end. Especially in the interior [Adam] Shuler and Kyree [Campbell], they’re good players, so it’s not like we’re just out there practicing against scrubs. They’re really, really good players.”

According to Delance, it's not just the talent level on the other side of the field, it's also about facing a Todd Grantham defense daily.

"We are seeing something new every day," explained Delance. "You don’t know what to expect. You don’t see it coming. They disguise it very well. And the guys doing it are good players, they’re a lot better players. This is the SEC, you got to have good talent, especially up front in the trenches, and the guys on the back end who are getting it done, bringing the pressures and the blitzes and all these different things, it’s phenomenal. It’s a lot different, a lot more physical than where I was before.

"When you’re getting ready for games, you’re going to see two or three different things, obviously you have different pressures, but you’re not going to see as many schemes and all these blitzes and all this coming from this way and that way," he added."So obviously you want to pick it up and get it done and get used to seeing these different fronts.

"Also it’s given us a chance to see these fronts, seeing these schemes and preparing us for whatever team we see during the season and that week with that different type of scheme.”

Earlier this week, offensive line coach John Hevesy told reporters that Nick Buchanan often led longer film studies this offseason. Those mental reps will pay dividends.

"You can always get physical reps but actually your body can only take so much," said DeLance. "But just sit down and actually get mental reps in the meeting rooms and sit there and doing walkthroughs. It doesn’t matter if you’re one, two, or three, you have to get those mental reps. Those are going to put you above a lot of guys in this level, especially the SEC. Mental reps. You’re going to get good players regardless in the SEC, but just mental, mental, mental is what we harp on.’

The mental and physical reps allowing the game to slow down for the O-line group.

“For me personally it was overwhelming," said DeLance about when he first faced off against the Gators defense. "Now you sit down and take the time to review, review, review. And it slows the game down a whole lot.

"It's a fast game, you can’t sit down there and think, ‘I got this, him and him, take me to here,’ it’s too fast. The game has already past you by"

“The biggest thing you learn is you just have to do everything right all the time," said Buchanan. "You have to pay attention to small details. You can’t let anything slip by. You always have to be in attack mode, grind mode. You can’t go out there and have a lazy day. You have to go out there and actually try to get better every single day that you’re out there.”

After almost one week of fall camp, the line understands that although there is significant progress, they have yet to reach their true potential.

"We are all on the same page, just need to work out the kinks out," said Stone Forsythe.

“ We have progressed a whole lot [with communication]," said Delance. "But we’re not there yet. We are not content. We are not happy where we are at. We want to be a whole lot better. “