The first thing Thearon Collier saw after he fielded Nathan Rathjen's punt at the Hurricanes 40-yard line was a wall of seven Virginia Cavaliers headed toward him.

One minute, the 5-9, 192-pound sophomore looked about as trapped as a mouse as he scurried over toward the opposing sideline.

The next, he was on his way to the most electrifying play of the season for the Miami Hurricanes, a 60-yard momentum-changing punt return for the go-ahead score in what turned out to be a 52-17 blowout of visiting Virginia on Saturday.

``I'm a very shifty guy,'' said Collier, who became the first Hurricane to return more than one punt for a touchdown in a season since Devin Hester had three and Roscoe Parrish had two in 2004.

``My motto is to make the first guy miss. When I first got the ball, I said I got to make No. 31 miss [Rashawn Jackson]. When I came back I saw orange jerseys -- my guys. Once I saw the wedge, it was touchdown city.''

Collier ran all the way back to the UM 27-yard line to evade defenders. Once he eluded them, he had a band of brothers ready to pave his way to the end zone.

First, linebacker Ramon Buchanon laid out receiver Raynard Horne on the edge. Then, linebacker Colin McCarthy took out another Cavalier before Canes cornerback Chavez Grant sealed the wedge at the 38, and Collier was home free.

By the time Collier, who returned a punt 61 yards for a touchdown against Florida A&M, was back on the sideline catching his breath, replays on the giant screens at the Land Shark Stadium had the crowd of 48,350 ``ooohing'' and ``aaahing.''

``It was a great individual return,'' Virginia coach Al Groh said. ``In the special teams meeting last evening it was pointedly stated that there's a player who has more reputation, but number 28's the guy. He's the more dangerous guy, and he lived up to that, that's for sure.''

McCarthy said: ``It was great. Thearon does that all the time in practice. And when cut the ball back, we knew it was just a matter of guys making knockout block after knockout block. It was a huge play in terms of momentum.''

There were two other huge plays on special teams -- punt blocks -- that swung momentum Saturday. Both were made by Virginia and both led to touchdowns.

The first came with under three minutes to play in the first quarter when Terence Fells-Danzer partially blocked Matt Bosher's punt at the UM 33.

The second came right before the half when Trey Womack blocked Bosher's punt, and Bill Schauntz returned it 20 yards to trim UM's lead to 24-17.

``Mental errors,'' Bosher said. ``They switched up and came from different spots than we've seen. We just have to come back, forget about what happened and work hard not to let it happen again.''

Despite the blocks, UM coach Randy Shannon said he was happy his team ``didn't go in the tank.''

``I think we're finally getting the mentality we want on special teams, which is to get big plays,'' Shannon said. ``You don't want blocks because it can change the momentum of the game. But I think our guys responded.''

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