FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- One look at the Florida defenders on Friday afternoon and you knew something was just not right.

Unless TJ Slaton lost about 200 pounds and Shawn Davis gained about a 100 pounds, the Gators were in a middle of a Freaky Friday remake.

"Shawn must have been on steroids or something; he hit a growth spurt," joked Jon Greenard on Saturday.

Davis was injected with some Greenard muscle ahead of practice, well technically his jersey was.

The Gators defenders had an idea to prank the coaches and the media in attendance by swapping jerseys.

"We were in the locker room and it was the last day in pads, so we wanted to do something unexpected," defensive tackle Kyree Campbell told Gators Territory. "Out of no where, Andrew Chatfield said, 'lets switch jerseys. So we all switched jerseys."

"Chatield and Trey Dean as well inspired the change," added Greenard. "We were about to go out to practice and then next thing I know I see those boys switching jerseys. In my old school, we tried to go out like that, and they sent us back in the locker room. I was like, these guys are going to send us back in if we go out like that, but it was like 'no, no if we go out at the same time, they are not going to send all of us back.' Then I said, 'maybe you got an idea.'"

A wonderful awful idea this bowl season.

"We gave the corners the big numbers and then us the small numbers," explained Campbell. "I know you saw Adam Shuler in No.11 and then Jon had on Shawn Davis and Zach [Carter] had on [Donovan] Stiners' and I had on Kaiir's. We just did it. We noticed some of the reporters confused out there, it was just funny."

"It was hilarious when I saw Zu [Jabari Zuniga] in Trey Dean's jersey, and then you got Trey Dean running around the locker room, yelling, 'I got Zu's jersey, I'm Zu, I'm Zu for the day,' thats the funniest thing I seen. It was hilarious," said Greenard.

Todd Grantham did not see the blitz coming.

"I'm used to being around those guys all the time and all of a sudden your used to a number, and then when you see that number a little bit bigger, you go wait a minute who is that," Grantham laughed.

"All of a sudden I see T.J. Slaton playing nickel, and I'm like (what is going on)..." Grantham added. ."It threw me off. I mean, I saw Mohamoud out there, and I'm like the dude is stretching his jersey out all of a sudden."

"It was funny. Coach [Dan] Mullen and Grantham, you can see them waiting on us like, 'where these guys at,'" laughed Greenard. " I mean we took a little longer as usual just to make sure we all went out at the same time."

They did not just walk into practice at the same time, they ran into practice singing the now famous "we ready" chant.

"I was the last person out there, so I thought we were just going to run. And then I heard the 'we ready' chants. I felt like I was back at little league," joked Greenard. "I'm surprised that we didn't beat on our pads and thighs and stuff like that.

"That was a long run. We were out of breath by the time we got there."

Mullen and his coaching staff have never been shy about injecting some levity into the daily lives of the game. It's all about balance.

"That's always a challenge and I've talked to our team about that constantly. Is, but we do try to make it fun now," said the Gators head coach. "When it is time to work, we work."

"It's all mentality," Campbell said. "You've got to know when it's time to focus and when it's time to have fun. I think our team is actually pretty good at that."

"I think with the leadership and character of our team that have done a good job with that," said Grantham. "It makes for a much more enjoyable bowl outing when guys are mature, handle their business, and we don't have to deal with issues. Our guys have done a good job with that. They came out as a unit singing, 'we ready' and had the jersey switch. As long as we practice with energy at practice I'm cool with that. I thought it was fun. It was a good practice."

It was definitely something that spiced up practice.

Call it chaos, call it a prank, the Gators defense showed a unified front on Friday afternoon. It was a memory that they will take for them as their careers continue on.

"We just wanted to have fun. We are down in Miami and this is a big bowl game and we needed to let loose a little bit. We have been down here putting in work preparing for this game and we put in work before coming down here," said Greenard.

" It was funny. Stuff like that we are going to remember forever."