Freshman's poised performance in first start wins over Gators.
By ANTONYA ENGLISH
Published October 2, 2003
GAINESVILLE - In a far from ideal situation, Chris Leak never wavered.
His Gators were on the road, trailing by 18 points with 15 minutes left. A freshman quarterback making his first start, Leak was running the show.
The situation was desperate, but his actions were not.
"He kept us up the whole time," Florida freshman receiver Andre Caldwell said. "He was walking around saying, "Don't worry about it, we're going to get it going.' He always kept high spirits and kept us in the game. He says things with a straight face and you see on his face that he really means it."
Florida scored 21 straight points in the fourth quarter against Kentucky and mounted its greatest road comeback win. With the victory, Leak helped settle the lingering question of who is running the Gators.
The rotating quarterback system with Leak and redshirt sophomore Ingle Martin officially is over.
It is Leak's team now.
He believes it. More important, his teammates believe it.
"He may have a little bit of a rough beginning, but we're going to stick with him," center Mike Degory said. "We definitely feel confident with him now. We have somebody that we can rely on back there. We were kind of used to Ingle (Martin), but now we definitely know Chris can play."
Saturday's win might have done wonders for the Gators' confidence in their freshman star, but the hardest part is yet to come.
Florida is about to enter one of the toughest stretches of the season and what it needs most is for Leak to enroll in an accelerated learning program.
Coach Ron Zook seems confident Leak is on the right track.
"The one thing that Chris has done if you look at the first four games, and one of the reasons that we decided to make the decision (to start Leak), is the fact that Chris has taken things and learned from every game. He doesn't continually repeat the same mistakes. ... What you saw (against Kentucky) is a guy who got better and better as the game went on, and that's the thing you'll continue to see with Chris."
Florida hosts Mississippi on Saturday in a rematch of one of its most bitter losses last season. Ole Miss coach David Cutcliffe has been a Leak fan for years.
"I saw him when he was really young in a camp," Cutcliffe said. "He's an extremely talented football player. He's extremely accurate and poised and he has all the things you would want in a quarterback. He can make all the throws, he has athleticism, he's shown tremendous poise to be a true freshman in some tough environments already and he's played against some outstanding football teams. He's more of a veteran today than he was at the beginning of this thing."
Lavish praise aside, Leak knows one win does not make a season. An ardent student of the game, he spent Sunday watching film of the Kentucky matchup, analyzing the good and bad of his performance.
"You've got to look at the whole picture, the big picture," he said. "There's always room for improvement even when you look at the good things you do. We just have to focus on getting better every week."
Through the first four games, Zook rotated Leak and Martin. While outside observers questioned that strategy, players insisted they had no preference.
"Whoever gives us the best chance to win" was the standard answer. But everything changed Saturday. After a less than spectacular start, Leak finished 20-of-35 for 268 yards. The final stats do not tell the whole story.
His teammates expected him to be nervous, and he admits that he was. They knew he would make mistakes and he did, including two interceptions.
But when it counted most, it was what he didn't do that won teammates over. When a loss seemed imminent, Leak didn't panic or let the Gators collapse.
"He stayed in there. He kept good composure," senior receiver Carlos Perez said. "You couldn't even tell he was a freshman out there. It was like watching a young man grow up in a game. I'm very excited for Chris. I just feel like he's going to get so much better with every game. ... I think by the end of the season he's going to be awesome."
