Piscataway, NJ - The Hokies got 250 yards passing and four touchdowns from Bryan Randall, cruising to a 48-22 win over Rutgers in their last meeting in Big East play. It is Virginia Tech's eleventh straight victory over the Scarlet Knights.

Virginia Tech's big win had some rough spots, as the Hokies (5-0, 1-0 Big East) had four turnovers and eight penalties, and missed a field goal and an extra point. Backup QB Marcus Vick threw two consecutive interceptions in the second half, one of which was returned for a TD to close the gap to 41-22 in the fourth quarter.

"At times, we did things as well as we've ever done them at Virginia Tech, but at other times, you kind of scratch your head," Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer said afterwards.

One thing that didn't make Beamer scratch his head was the play of starting QB Randall, who was 16-of-22 and had just one interception to go with his four TDs. Randall was 12-of-17 for 207 yards and 3 TDs in the first half alone. His scoring strikes went to unexpected players, with Chris Shreve and Mike Imoh each catching 2 TD passes.

The Hokies spotted Rutgers (3-2, 0-1 Big East) an early touchdown and then scored the next 41 points to put the game away. Rutgers got possession on the Hokie 29-yard line after Tech's DeAngelo Hall muffed a punt, and the Knights put it in the end zone on a 17-yard pass from Ryan Hart to Shawn Tucker. That made it 7-0 Rutgers, just over two minutes into the game.

The Hokies answered with scores on their next four possessions, and 41 straight points over the next 45 minutes. Randall immediately answered the opening score by Rutgers with a 28-yard TD strike to former walk-on Shreve, who was making his first career start at flanker because of injuries to Richard Johnson and Justin Hamilton.

The catch was Shreve's first touchdown of his career, and he followed it up two minutes later with a 45-yard catch-and-run TD on a quick slant. The play came on a second and one, and Randall read a Rutgers blitz and hit Shreve in stride, with Shreve taking it the last 35 yards or so on his own.

Kevin Jones, who carried the ball 26 times for 118 yards on the day, his third straight 100-yard game, finished off the first-quarter scoring with a 5-yard TD run on Tech's next possession.

With the Hokies leading 21-7, they got the first of four interceptions on the day by Rutgers QB Ryan Hart. Under heavy pressure late in the first quarter, Hart threw a pass that was batted by defensive end Nathaniel Adibi and picked off by tackle Jonathan Lewis. Tech quickly turned that into a TD, with Randall throwing a 10-yard TD pass to Mike Imoh, who played wideout. Imoh caught the pass from Randall at the 5-yard line, then scrambled and lunged his way into the end zone.

That score gave the Hokies 28 points in 11:29, and they spent the remainder of the second and third quarters stretching the lead out to 41-7. For most of the second quarter, both teams were inept offensively, as Hart threw another interception (a great one-handed grab by Vegas Robinson) and Randall answered with his only pick. But with 16 seconds left to go in the half, free safety Jimmy Williams made a brilliant play for Tech, cutting in front of a Hart pass, intercepting it, and returning it 55 yards untouched for a score that made it 34-7, Hokies, at the half.

Tech missed the extra point in part because Williams took a showboat dive into the end zone, drawing an unsportsmanlike penalty and turning the extra point into a 34-yard kick, which was blocked.

Tech came out after half time and put the game out of reach with a 12-play, 79-yard drive that ended with Randall's fourth TD pass, another 10-yarder to Imoh. Randall scrambled to avoid the sack and found the wide-open Imoh in the corner of the end zone.

From there, holding a 41-7 lead, the Hokies played some reserves, most notably Vick, who struggled. Vick was just 2-of-6 for 37 yards and 2 interceptions, the first of which came when he avoided the rush and underthrew an open Doug Easlick on a long pass. Rutgers picked the ball off at their 12-yard line, then embarked on an 11-play, 88-yard drive that spanned the third and fourth quarters and made it 41-14 when Rutgers tailback Justise Hairston scored untouched on a 21-yard run.

Vick's second interception came on the next play, when Rutgers safety Jarvis Johnson read Vick's eyes, cut in front of his throw, and returned it 47 yards for a touchdown with 12:39 to go. Rutgers closed the gap to 41-22 with a two-point conversion throw to fullback Brian Leonard, who had a big day, rushing for 76 yards on 12 carries and catching 4 passes for 30 yards.

That Rutgers score got the crowd back into it, but the Hokies put many of their starters back in to quell the comeback. Tech put the crowning TD on the board when reserve tailback Cedric Humes burst up the middle and scored a 35-yard rushing TD with just under four minutes to go.

• The Hokies never lost to Rutgers in Big East round-robin play, going 11-0 since losing to the Knights 50-49 back in 1992, before round-robin play began. In those 11 games, VT outscored Rutgers 511-189 (average score: 46-17, Hokies).

• Wilford watch: Ernest Wilford had 4 catches for 66 yards, giving him 93 career receptions and putting him past Mike Burnop (90 catches) and Donald Wayne Snell (92 catches). Wilford is now #6 in career catches at VT, with Myron Richardson (100 catches) next up on the list. Wilford has caught at least one pass in 19 straight games.

• Kevin Jones now has 2,378 career rushing yards, putting him ninth on Tech's career rushing list. In this game, he passed Shyrone Stith (2,292 yards) and Vaughn Hebron (2,327 yards) on the list.

• Chris Shreve had 4 catches for 93 yards and 2 TDs. Coming into the game, he only had 7 career catches for 79 yards.

• Rutgers' game-opening TD marked the first time Tech had trailed all season. 

• Tech had only given up one sack coming into this game, but Rutgers had 3 on the day.

• After going 0-for-8 on third-down conversions against Connecticut, the Hokies went a solid 6-of-12 on third-down conversions in this game.

• Congrats to TSL game previewer Jeff Ouellet, who almost predicted the score exactly right. He guessed 48-20 (and if Rutgers had missed the 2-point conversion, he would have been right on).

• The Hokies now embark on the difficult portion of their schedule, beginning with a home game against Syracuse next week (noon, ESPN or ESPN2). Tech has outscored their first five opponents 222-82, an average of roughly 44-16 per game.

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