2025 was a historic year for the Virginia football program. The 11-win campaign included numerous late victories, a top-10 upset over Florida State, a victory in the Commonwealth Cup, an ACC Championship Game appearance and a Gator Bowl victory over Missouri. Not much can top that.
This year, the Cavaliers and Coach Tony Elliott have the job of ensuring 2025 was not the peak of the mountaintop. With a reloaded roster and ever-increasing resources in 2026, this is entirely possible, but things will still have to break their way on the schedule. After all, tough opponents make any season incrementally harder.
But, how does Virginia stack up to their 2026 opponents and what does the future hold in store for the Cavaliers? Three beat writers discuss below.
Will Virginia improve on last season’s result?
Ben McNiff, Senior Writer: No. To appear in the ACC Championship, the 2025 Cavaliers had to go 3-1 in overtime games — a feat achieved by only a handful of teams in FBS history. Virginia will pick up at least three conference losses between matchups at Florida State, at No. 19 Southern Methodist, versus California and at Virginia Tech. They will not return to Charlotte for the conference title game, but an 8-4 or 9-3 regular season finish and a respectable bowl game appearance is a good result to have in their future.
Drew Dillman, Staff Writer: I think not. The 2025 Virginia football season can be summed up as lightning in a bottle. Although lightning can strike the same place twice, the circumstances surrounding that season — from the repeated overtime heroics to the resurgence of a passed-over Chandler Morris to a program desperate to claw its way out of the wilderness — are near-impossible to repeat this year. Will the Cavaliers be a solid, perhaps fringe-Top-25 team who makes a bowl game and has a chance to play spoiler with contending ACC squads? Sure. But 11 wins? Probably not.
Theo Moll, Staff Writer: What fun is there in a base-case prediction? Sure, Virginia set a lofty bar last year with the first 11-win season in program history, an ever-elusive conference championship appearance and the first campaign to end with a Cavalier victory since 2018. But a schedule with just one game against a preseason top 25 program and a roster replenished with more than two dozen incoming transfers sets the table for another impressive year for Coach Tony Elliott and company. Are another 11 wins likely? Maybe not. But Virginia has the necessary ammo to repeat as a conference contender.
Aside from Beau Pribula, who will be the team’s most impactful addition?
BM: Trell Harris, Virginia’s leading receiver last season, and Kevin Coleman Jr. — senior quarterback Beau Pribula’s favorite target at Missouri — are very similar players. They possess short but rangy frames, both straight-line and lateral quickness, as well as great ball skills. With a very similar profile to both, junior receiver Da’Shawn Martin should step right into the outside Z slot for most formations in offensive coordinator Des Kitchings’s system as the centerpiece of the Cavalier passing game, just as Harris, a fellow former Kent State receiver, did last year.
DD: Senior running back Jekail Middlebrook feels like a player waiting to break out with extended playing time, having gone from playing in four to nine to 11 games in his three seasons at Middle Tennessee State before transferring to Virginia in 2026. He led the team in rushing over the season, tallying 752 yards for a woeful 3-9 Blue Raiders squad. Additionally, his top-five placement nationally among receptions for running backs last year leaves offensive options open on the Power Four level.
TM: The departure of impact safety Devin Neal leaves a hole at the back of the Virginia defense — senior safety Brandyn Hillman is poised to fill it. The All-Big Ten honorable mention and Michigan transfer will be a powder keg in the Cavalier secondary, running fast and hitting hard.
“He’s one of those safeties that those receivers and tight ends are like ‘alright, where is he?’ They want to know,” defensive coordinator John Rudzinski said.
In camp, those receivers and tight ends wear orange and blue. Come week one, they will not — and Hillman will show the college football world who he is.
Which non-Commonwealth Cup game will be the most exciting and/or pivotal?
BM: Picture the environment on a Friday night at a packed Scott Stadium for a family weekend matchup against the school who denied Virginia not just a 2025 ACC title in football, but in basketball as well. Duke has had much of its talent depleted in the portal, but that does not make a late-season chance at revenge any less important for telling the story of this season. Virginia faithful, along with returning players who experienced the devastation of last year’s ACC Championship loss, will be thirsty for Blue Devil blood Oct. 23 — the Class of 2027 has yet to see a family weekend victory.
DD: The Cavaliers have two bye weeks this year by virtue of their scheduling NC State in “Week Zero.” One comes directly after that first game, and the other comes towards the end of the schedule. Off of this November bye week, Virginia will play California.
Although the Golden Bears will have an arduous trek to play in Scott Stadium for the first time ever, that does not mean they should be underestimated by any means. They are led by a phenom at quarterback in sophomore Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele. Sagapolutele is projected as one of the top-tier quarterbacks nationwide, and seems assured to take a step forward in 2026 with a better supporting cast. Pencil this one in — it’ll be appointment viewing, especially considering Coach Elliott’s undefeated-off-a-bye streak could be on the line.
TM: As the College Football Playoff field came together towards the end of last season, one story surrounded the ACC — that of a mediocre conference rife with mediocre teams. The only way to rewrite that narrative is by playing competitive out-of-conference games, and the Cavaliers are doing just that with their neutral site Sept. 19 showdown against West Virginia. It marks Virginia’s first regular season matchup with a non-ACC Power Four team since 2024. And though the Mountaineers, with just two Big 12 wins, finished near the bottom of their conference last season, a Cavalier win in Charlotte, N.C. lies on Virginia’s — and the ACC’s — path to prominence.
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