KYLE GREEN The Roanoke Times

Virginia Tech's Cody Grimm (right) wraps up on Virginia's Corey Mosley during the Hokies' 42-13 win over the Cavaliers on Saturday.

KYLE GREEN The Roanoke Times

Virginia Tech's Ryan Williams (center) breaks away for some of his 183 rushing yards as Virginia's Ras-I Dowling (left) and Brandon Woods chase during Saturday's game.

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Too bad there aren't any mulligans in college football. Virginia Tech would pay big money for a couple now.

Led by a career-high 183 rushing yards and four touchdowns by redshirt freshman Ryan Williams, and a career-high six receptions for 135 yards by Lexington's Danny Coale, the 14th-ranked Hokies exploded in the second half and buried rival Virginia 42-13 on Saturday at Scott Stadium.

"I think the way we've been winning lately is still proving to people that we can play with the top teams in the country. I'll take my team against any team in the nation," said Tech quarterback Tyrod Taylor, whose 219 total yards helped the Hokies to their fourth consecutive victory to close the regular season.

Tech, which knocked itself out of the national picture with back-to-back losses to Georgia Tech and North Carolina in October, finished 4-0 in November with an average scoring differential of 24.25 points per game.

Continuing to get better offensively, the Hokies rolled up 482 total yards against a fired-up UVa squad that was hoping to hand Al Groh a victory in what was likely his final game as Cavaliers' coach.

Williams pushed his rushing total to 1,537 yards and needs 111 yards in Tech's bowl game to break the school's all-time single-season rushing mark of 1,647 yards, set by Kevin Jones in 2003. His 20 TDs is a new ACC freshman record.

Virginia (3-9, 2-6), which ended the season with a six-game losing streak, was thinking upset midway in the third quarter. Tech led 14-13 at the time, and UVa had just stopped a scoring drive by the visitors when Chris Cook intercepted a Taylor pass from the 25-yard line in the end zone.

Two plays later, on UVa's ensuing possession, came the moment that turned the game. UVa quarterback Jameel Sewell's pitch to Mikell Simpson was off target, and the ball went rolling on the ground. Tech free safety Kam Chancellor picked up the loose ball and returned it 15 yards to the UVa 10. Seconds later, Williams was talking to his big blockers up front on the sideline.

"I told the offensive line, 'you know what time it is' ... what I meant by that is get me in the end zone," said Williams, who covered the 10 yards -- a 6-yard run and a 4-yard run for the TD.

"Those guys know what time it is we're inside the 10-yard line, that's just smash-mouth, get it in the end zone, and I think that's what we did. I think they kind of fed off my energy because we were in there two plays after."

The Hokies put the hammer down the rest of the way. The Cavs, who had shockingly run the ball for 151 yards and had 200 total yards in the first half, did little after halftime.

Williams, who scored Tech's two first-half TDs on runs of 5 and 20 yards, got his final score on a 2-yard run to make it 28-13 early in the fourth quarter. Tech made it 35-13 when receiver Jarrett Boykin, hustled to recover a Williams fumble in the end zone after a 51-yard jaunt. Freshman David Wilson's 10-yard TD scoot with 2:43 completed the blowout.

Williams said Chancellor's fumble recovery and return prior to Tech's third TD appeared to suck the life out of the Cavaliers.

"It felt like they eased up," Williams said. "I scan the field all the time before the play starts, and looking in those guys' eyes before that play they were hungry. They were ready to take our heads off at any second of the game, but after that, a lot of their heads started to drop, slouching around. They really didn't seem like the same team."

Coale, who provided most of Tech's first-half offense, was the other big man for the Hokies. In the first half, he had three catches for 93 yards --all at the expense of Ras-I Dowling, UVa's best cornerback.

"He is a great corner; he's got a long reach and he competes and we just wanted to go right at him," Coale said of Dowling. "We wanted to go downtown and make plays. We tried to do that early on. We got a few there, and I think it helped momentum a little bit."

Coale's most spectacular catch came in the fourth quarter, when he leapt and extended to snare a Taylor dart -- all while keeping his feet in bounds.

Williams was impressed by Coale's work.

"Danny Coale, to me, was our player of the game," Williams said. "He made terrific plays. I've seen him do that all this year.

"Lots of those passes that Tyrod threw, those were trust passes. Danny wasn't wide open, but he believed that Danny could catch the ball. And that's the best thing that's going on with Tyrod and our receiving crops. He believes in our receivers and we can go a long way with that."

Coale, who grew up a UVa fan but wasn't offered a football scholarship (he was offered for lacrosse), refused to get drawn into any "take that" stuff following the game. His good friend, Tech linebacker Cody Grimm, took care of that work.

"Yeah, [UVa] should have offered him like a football-lacrosse full scholarship, buy him a car, money or something," Grimm joked.

Tech, which will find out its bowl destination and such next weekend, is hoping to finish with a postseason triumph and extend its streak of double-digit victory seasons to six. Only Southern Cal and Texas have also won at least 10 games in each of the past five years.

"Our team came in here and won a battle," said Tech coach Frank Beamer, whose team has beaten Virginia 10 times in the past 11 meetings. "The fumble that we recovered turned the game around for us. In a game like this -- rival games -- one play kind of turns it around, and I thought that one did."