Associated Press

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. -- For all of the revivals that his Virginia football teams have enjoyed in October, coach Al Groh has never been known as Mr. November.

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 UVa'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 could not have been more lopsided, although the halftime score, 24-17, did not reflect it.

The Cavaliers blocked two punts, the first one leading to a 34-yard Rashawn Jackson touchdown run that momentarily put Virginia on top, 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 it's hard to say Virginia had the advantage in that area Saturday.

Thearon Collier's 60-yard punt return for a touchdown with 1:17 remaining in the first quarter gave Miami a lead that it would never relinquish and was part of a 21-point Hurricanes' blitz that consumed 4:19.

Replays of Collier's return showed that he was surrounded by six UVa 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 UVa's Nathan Rathjen, who eventually had to be replaced by former starter Jimmy Howell. Punting into the wind, Rathjen had efforts of 27, 29, 35 and 12 yards.

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

"We had plenty of evidence during the first quarter of the effect that the wind had going in that direction," Groh said. "We selected a play on third down to try to make sure and keep the clock going. It was worth a timeout by them to keep the wind in our face."

At halftime, Miami had outgained the Cavaliers 233-92. By game's end, the differential was 515-149, with that latter total a season's low for a UVa team that ranked 116th out of 120 Division I-A teams in total offense.

One week earlier, the Hurricanes had given up 515 yards in a 28-27 victory at Wake Forest.

"They've [the Deacons] got Riley Skinner," said Groh, referring to Wake's all-time passing leader.

Virginia's quarterback, Marc Verica, was making his first start since the next-to-last game of the 2008 season. Jameel Sewell, who has been the Cavaliers' No. 1 quarterback for most of the season, was in uniform but was held out of action with a shoulder injury.

Verica completed 11 of 29 passes for 75 yards and a pair of Miami sacks left him with 46 yards in total offense. Fifth-year running back Rashawn Jackson had eight carries for 77 yards, but the Cavaliers almost never had the ball.

Miami had 83 offensive plays, in comparison to Virginia's 53.

UVa'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."

One week earlier, Duke had scored 16 points in the final 3:54 and had overcome two fourth-quarter deficits to defeat the Cavaliers 28-17.

"It's always tough when you can't get off the field," said UVa freshman Steve Greer, who had 14 tackles on an afternoon when fellow linebacker Darren Childs had 15. "We do conditioning every week in practice; it's more mental than anything. It would be nice to have a break, but we've got to have the mentality of, 'It's not going to affect us.' "

The loss left Virginia (3-6, 2-3 ACC) with its second three-game losing streak of the season and the Cavaliers have now lost 10 of their last 13 games since last November. Miami (7-2, 4-2) has won five of its last six games.

"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."