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After two unproductive years at Florida, defensive lineman Lawrence Marsh is starting to do everything right. Well, almost everything.

Marsh emerged as the team’s best defensive tackle this fall and was rewarded with a starting spot this week. He will start at nose tackle Saturday when the fifth-ranked Gators host Hawaii.

“I was very excited,” Marsh said. “You think you’re going to start, but you don’t really know sometimes. Your play just takes care of it and if you just keep making plays during practice and keep working hard and the coaches start believing in you, then you know you’re going to start. When I was getting the coaches believing in me, I felt like I was good to go.”

Marsh, a 6-foot-5, 305-pound sophomore from Augusta, Ga., didn’t play his first year and hardly got off the bench last season — even though the Gators struggled to stop the run and pressure quarterbacks.

But things turned around for Marsh after he committed himself to the team’s offseason program and got considerably stronger. He also spent the spring and summer working on his footwork. The combination has him playing better than everyone else at his position.

Now, coach Urban Meyer just wants one more thing from him.

“Marsh, get a shave before Saturday,” Meyer told him this week.

“He’s really worked hard,” Meyer added. “If I can get him to shave, he’ll be much better. He’s had a great camp.”