BY DARRYL SLATER
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

ATLANTA – Ryan Williams limped toward Virginia Tech’s locker room at the Georgia Dome early yesterday, shortly after the Hokies beat Tennessee 37-14 in the Chick-fil-A Bowl. The rest of Tech’s players were already in the locker room, celebrating the end of a season in which their offense made great strides, largely because of Williams.

On his way to the join the festivities, Williams saw Tech head coach Frank Beamer’s wife, Cheryl. She hugged Williams, the Hokies’ redshirt freshman tailback, who sprained his left ankle late in the third quarter.

“You OK?” she asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Williams said as he smiled.

Sore ankle aside, he and Tech’s offense finished the year with a flourish that bodes well for next season. The Hokies gained 438 yards against Tennessee. In their five-game winning streak to finish the season, they averaged 436 yards and 34 points. All told, they averaged 392.1 yards – their best output since 2003, when they averaged 401.8.

Moreover, they lose just four offensive starters: left tackle Ed Wang, left guard Sergio Render, fullback Kenny Jefferson and tight end Greg Boone. So if Hokies fans will remember 2009 as the year offense returned to Blacksburg, after Tech averaged 330.5 yards or fewer in each of the past three seasons, they might anticipate 2010 as the next step in the offense’s progress.

“It’s only getting better for us,” said sophomore wide receiver Danny Coale. “We’ve come a long way, but we have a long way to go. I think we’ve had more confidence as the weeks go along. And we’re gonna use that to kind of sling-shot us into this offseason and into next year.”

It will be Williams’ third, and perhaps final, season in Blacksburg. He will be eligible for the NFL draft in 2011, and if he plays anything like he did this season, it seems difficult to envision him returning for his junior season. “I’d imagine if the rules were different, this guy would be ready to go to the next level right now,” said Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin, who previously coached the Oakland Raiders.

Williams this season ran for a school-record 1,655 yards and had an ACC-record 22 total touchdowns. Of his 293 carries, 44 covered at least 10 yards, including 19 that covered at least 20.

While the Hokies, as usual, relied on their running game, the development of their passing game added another element to the offense. Junior quarterback Tyrod Taylor completed 136 of 243 passes for 2,311 yards, 13 touchdowns and five interceptions. His per-game passing averaged increased from 86.3 in 2008 to 177.8 this season. He threw 27 passes of 25 yards or longer, compared to six in 2008, when he threw 173 times overall.

“You guys can talk about all those other quarterbacks,” Beamer told reporters after the Chick-fil-A Bowl. “But I like my Tyrod.”

Tech’s offense also became a big-play threat because of its top two wide receivers, sophomore Jarrett Boykin and Coale. They had 822 and 614 yards, respectively, after getting 441 and 408 last season. They averaged 21.1 and 20.5 yards per catch, versus 14.7 and 11.3 in 2008.

The offense certainly played a major role in Tech finishing 10-3 – its sixth straight 10-win season, a feat accomplished by only one other current team, Texas, which has nine straight.

But defense remained a staple of the Hokies’ success this season. Tech allowed 295.5 yards per game, limiting teams to fewer than 300 yards per game for the sixth consecutive season. In the final five games, no opponent scored more than 14 points against the Hokies, who surrendered zero points in the second halves of those games.

Tech’s defense loses five starters: tackle Cordarrow Thompson, cornerback Stephan Virgil, end Nekos Brown, free safety Kam Chancellor and whip linebacker Cody Grimm. Also departing is rover Dorian Porch, who split time with junior Davon Morgan, of Varina High.

How will the Hokies replace those players? Can their offense continue to play as well as it did this season? They won’t find out until eight months from now, but they are already awaiting the answers. 

“I look at Virginia Tech as kind of a system program,” said sophomore tailback Josh Oglesby. “We just kind of plug guys in and we’re able to keep the ball rolling.”

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A look back and ahead for Virginia Tech’s football team.