Posted by ESPN.com’s Heather Dinich

On Saturday against Nebraska, Virginia Tech running back Ryan Williams rushed for more than 100 yards (107) for the second straight week and now has six touchdowns in his first three collegiate games.

So far, the Hokies’ running game has survived without Darren Evans. It can’t survive, though, without Williams.

So where was he in the second half? Williams had just six carries.

“I’m not sure,” quarterback Tyrod Taylor said after the game.

“I just kind of vanished for a little bit,” Williams said.

Taylor threw the ball 15 times in the second half, and Virginia Tech ran it 15 times. This is a team that has standout freshmen in Williams and David Wilson, and a quarterback whose strength is clearly his feet. And the Hokies didn’t take advantage of either of them against Nebraska.

Yes, Virginia Tech beat the Huskers with two huge pass plays and it was good enough to get the win, but the Hokies will need to get more out of their ground game this year if they’re going to keep winning. Virginia Tech had just 86 yards rushing against Nebraska.

There were two postgame answers for the vanishing Williams: A) He was hurt; and B) offensive coordinator Bryan Stinespring wasn’t patient enough with the running game.

“When I look back on it, and I told our staff, I need to be a little more patient in that part of it, be willing to make sure we establish that,” Stinespring said. “We had a drive going and went for a big shot, took a sack early in the game, it knocked us out of great position there. … It wasn’t like we were getting completely stuffed. If I go back I’d like to be a little more patient on the run game.”

And Williams, one week after saying it was the fastest he’d ever played, said he re-aggravated the same ankle he hurt in the last scrimmage of the summer, and said “it hurt pretty bad.”

“I couldn’t really get into the groove of things like I wanted to,” he said. “But I felt like I did fairly well. I just have to suck it up for the team. I knew the team needed me out there, whether it was blocking or running the ball to keep the drive going and that’s what I did.”

He’s going to have to keep it up if Virginia Tech is going to hang with the Canes’ high-flying offense on Saturday.