Tampa, Fla ? For all the problems Michigan tailback Chris Perry gave Florida on the field, nothing matched what Gators coach Ron Zook did to his own team.

Perry set a Wolverines bowl record with four touchdowns, and Zook made a number of questionable calls that helped No. 12 Michigan to a 38-30 win against No. 22 Florida in the Outback Bowl on Wednesday.

Bulling through the middle and taking advantage of screen and swing passes galore, Perry accounted for 193 yards — 85 rushing and 108 receiving.

“I wouldn’t say it was my best game, but it was one of them,” he said.

His last two touchdowns lifted the Wolverines (10-3) from a two-point deficit to a 35-23 lead in the third quarter, and from there, Michigan held on — with plenty of help from Zook.

Playing in possibly his last game for the Gators (8-5), junior Rex Grossman threw for 323 yards and two scores.

But with the game on the line, last year’s Heisman Trophy runner-up didn’t have the ball in his hands. Instead, he was running a pass pattern.

With the Gators trailing 38-30 and moving downfield nicely with a minute left, Zook called for a trick play from the Michigan 27.

Florida quarterback Rex Grossman (8) rolls away from Michigan's Norman Heuer during the first half of the Outback Bowl at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla. The Wolverines won Wednesday's game, 38-30.

Freshman cornerback-turned-receiver Vernell Brown took the ball on a reverse and, under heavy pressure, lobbed a terrible pass downfield that was intercepted by Victor Hobson to seal the victory.

Grossman was the intended receiver, and Zook explained he would have been open because the Wolverines were in man coverage.

“I OK’d the play. I was on the headset,” Zook said of the call that came from offensive coordinator Ed Zaunbrecher.

“We brought it up early in the series,” Zook said. “I asked, ‘Are you sure we want to do this?’ We had worked on it. Sometimes it would work, sometimes it doesn’t.”

Grossman said the play worked in practice all the time.

“It’s a risky call,” he said. “But you can get some good rewards, too. It can go both ways.”

Hobson said he was shocked to see Brown, a high school quarterback who hadn’t thrown a pass all season, making the key throw of the game.

Of course, that play may have only masked another series of questionable calls by Zook.

After Earnest Graham’s touchdown gave the Gators a 13-7 lead in the second quarter, Zook inexplicably called for a 2-point conversion try out of an unbalanced set.

It failed.

Later, when the Gators scored a touchdown to go ahead 22-21, Zook went for 1, not 2 because, he said, “it was too early.”

Thus, the Gators found themselves behind by eight points late, instead of seven.

Grossman finished 21-for-41 and wasn’t necessarily the best quarterback on the field. Michigan quarterback Navarre went 21-for-36 for 319 yards.