By DAVID JONES
Florida Today

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - When Matt Leach prepared to walk onto Alltel Stadium and break the hearts of Georgia Bulldogs' fans once again, he was stopped by Florida coach Ron Zook.

"I'd give you $1,000 to be in the position to do what you are about to do," he said in his placekicker's ear.

Minutes later, the junior from Sarasota booted a 33-yard field goal with 33 seconds left to give the Gators a 16-13 win over the 'Dawgs on Saturday. The ball sailed end over end through the uprights and appeared, for just a split second, to be twisting too far to the left.

But somehow, it stayed in.

"It was going left a little bit," Leach confessed with a tiny grin. "I saw it going out ... but it stayed in. If I had a chance to beat anybody, it would be these guys or Florida State. This was special."

He'd last kicked a game-winner with a 51-yarder his senior year in high school.

Florida (6-3 overall, 4-2 in the Southeastern Conference) pulled into a tie for first place with Georgia (7-2, 4-2) in the SEC Eastern Division. Tennessee is 3-2 and also still in the hunt.

The Gators have now beaten the Bulldogs six straight times, 13 of the last 14 meetings. It's also the first time UF has beaten three consecutive ranked opponents.

The game was deadlocked at 3-3 at the half with both teams combining for just 250 yards of total offense. Florida went up 10-3 on a 34-yard pass from freshman Chris Leak to Carlos Perez with 7 minutes to go in the third quarter.

UF tried a formation it hadn't used all day. With three wideouts on the same side, Leak tossed a screen to Perez, who broke his leg in last year's Georgia game. Senior receiver Kelvin Kight threw a block and Perez went untouched down the right sideline.

"We played too hard to let this game slip away," Perez said. "(Leak) isn't a freshman, he plays like a junior or a senior now. He's a different player than he was just a few months ago."

He had to be. Leak has led UF to three straight wins away from Florida Field during a time when Zook's job seemed in jeopardy. He was better than ever in the final drive of the game, completing 13 of 23 passes for 235 yards and one touchdown.

"I think he's the oldest 18 year old in the world right now," senior tight end Ben Troupe said.

Leak's biggest drive was still ahead. Georgia pulled even win a pair of fourth-quarter drives, leading to a 1-yard TD run by Kregg Lumpkin at 9:18 and a 21-yard field goal by Billy Bennett with 3:49 to go.

Bennett's kick tied the game at 13. Leak and the offense took over at the Florida 17.

"He just walked in the huddle, looked at everybody and said two words: 'Let's go,' " offensive guard Shannon Snell said. "And everybody got fired up. Everybody shut up when he spoke, the whole drive. It was kind of strange, because that's unusual for us, anyway. And for a freshman to be in the huddle and everybody just shutting up and listening to everything he's saying, that's just rare."

Every play, the players listened quietly to instructions from Leak, then went out and played nearly perfectly in the winning 10-play drive.

Leak's first two completions went 15 yards to Perez and 21 to Troupe to move the ball to the Georgia 46. A 2-yard run by fullback Billy Lasko, passes of 8 and 14 yards to Kight and DeShawn Wynn, and the Gators were at the 'Dawgs' 22 with less than a minute to play.

Florida got to Georgia's 17 when the Bulldogs called a timeout with 37 seconds to play and Zook sent Leach on to try the kick.

"I just kept looking at the clock, seeing how they moved the ball," Georgia running back Michael Cooper said. "For some reason, the clock kept ticking away."

Georgia ran for a season-high 202 yards, but David Greene finished 18 of 32 for 188 yards with no TDs and was sacked four times - all in the first half.

"It's tough," Greene said. "First of all, it's Florida, there's a lot on the line this game and we didn't get it done. It hurts. It's probably the toughest (loss ever). The seniors, we wanted to get a win for them. They'd never got a win against Florida and we didn't do it. Decory Bryant, he broke his neck last week and we wanted to get a win for him and we couldn't do it."

Does Florida just own Georgia in Jacksonville?

"Everybody says that their teams win games against you because it's a curse or there's a jinx or whatever," Bulldogs cornerback Tim Jennings said. "But that's just not true."

But one thing is certain: Things just change when Georgia plays Florida.

"We just didn't make enough plays to win it," Bulldogs coach Mark Richt said. "You have to give Florida credit. They did it when they had to."