'Canes blow away Cavs with second-half surge

By Doug Doughty
The Roanoke Times

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla.

For all of the revivals his Virginia football teams have enjoyed in the 10th month, coach Al Groh has never been known as Mr. October.

A three-game October winning streak seemed like a distant memory Saturday, when 16th-ranked Miami scored 28 unanswered points in the second half and routed the Cavaliers 52-17.

It was U.Va.'s sixth straight loss in November dating back to 2007, when the Cavaliers pummeled Miami 48-0 in the Hurricanes' final game at the Orange Bowl.

That was Virginia's first win in the state of Florida, where the Cavaliers are 1-16, including 0-4 at the site currently known as Land Shark Stadium.

Saturday's affair couldn't have been more lopsided, although the halftime score, 24-17, didn't reflect it.

The Cavaliers blocked two punts, the first leading to a 34-yard Rashawn Jackson touchdown run that momentarily put Virginia up 10-3 with 2:54 remaining in the first quarter.

The second block, by Trey Womack, was turned into a 20-yard return for a touchdown by redshirt freshman Billy Schautz.

Special teams have been an issue for the Cavaliers all season and continued to be Saturday.

Thearon Collier's 60-yard punt return for a touchdown with

1:17 remaining in the first quarter gave Miami a lead it would never relinquish and was part of a 21-point Hurricanes' blitz that consumed four minutes, 19 seconds.

Replays of Collier's return showed he was surrounded by six U.Va. players, with nary a Miami blocker in sight.

"We had plenty of guys there," Groh said. "In the special teams meeting (Friday) evening, it was said pointedly that there's another player who's got more reputation or more statistics, but No. 28 (Collier) is the guy. He's the most dangerous guy, and he lived up to that for sure."

Collier's return came on the longest of four first-quarter punts by U.Va.'s Nathan Rathjen, who eventually was replaced by former starter Jimmy Howell. Punting into the wind, Rathjen had efforts of 27, 29, 35 and 12 yards.

It appeared the first quarter ended prior to Rathjen's 12-yarder, but Miami had called a timeout and the clock was reset to,02.

At halftime, Miami had outgained the Cavaliers 233-92. By game's end, the difference was 515-149, with the latter total a season's low for a U.Va. team ranked 116th out of 120 Football Bowl Subdivision teams in total offense.

Marc Verica made his first start at quarterback since the next-to-last game of the 2008 season in place of Jameel Sewell, who was sidelined with a shoulder injury.

Verica completed 11 of 29 passes for 75 yards. A pair of Miami sacks left him with 46 yards in total offense. Running back Rashawn Jackson had eight carries for 77 yards, though the Cavs almost never had the ball.

Miami had 83 offensive plays compared to Virginia's 53, and the Hurricanes had the ball for 36 minutes.

U.Va.'s defense was on the field for 44 plays in the first half, "which is well above what we wanted," Groh said. "We're very aware of that (disparity). We have been for weeks. We came in with a very specific plan to try and keep that from being the case. Clearly, we missed the mark."

The loss left Virginia (3-6 overall, 2-3 ACC) with its second three-game losing streak of the season. T he Cavaliers now have lost 10 of their past 13 since last November. Miami (7-2, 4-2) has won five of its past six games, with the only loss coming in overtime against Clemson.

"We played a team that we could see last year, with all of their young players, was on the way back to being a very, very talented, powerful team," said Groh, whose Cavaliers were 24-17 losers to Miami last year in Charlottesville. "Early (this) year, it certainly caught our attention when they beat a team like Oklahoma. We saw it with our own eyes today."