Virginia football has lined up two of its biggest preseason fan events for late summer, with Meet the Team Day set for Aug. 9 and Paint the Town Orange scheduled for Aug. 28.
Meet the Team Day, presented by UVA Orthopedics, will run from 4-6 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 9, inside UVA’s George Welsh Indoor Practice Facility. The annual pep rally, Paint the Town Orange, presented by the UVA Community Credit Union, is slated for Friday, Aug. 28 at the Ting Pavilion on the Charlottesville Downtown Mall, beginning at 8 p.m. Both events are free.
At Meet the Team Day, UVA Fralin Family Head Football Coach Tony Elliott and the Cavaliers will sign autographs starting at 4 p.m. Fans can also pick up the team’s 2026 official season poster. The event will include inflatable games, balloon artists and face painters for kids.
Fans should enter through the northwest entrance of the IPF and use the promenade between the McCue Center and the outdoor practice grass fields to get there. Parking will be free in the lots around the McCue Center and John Paul Jones Arena. Accessibility shuttles will run from the designated accessible parking area to the outdoor grass practice fields, which are just steps from the IPF entrance.
Paint the Town Orange will bring the UVA marching band and spirit squads onto the Downtown Mall at about 7:40 p.m. before both groups enter the Pavilion at 8 p.m. Elliott and the Virginia football team are scheduled to appear at the rally.
The Fridays After Five concert series starts at 5 p.m. at Ting Pavilion, and UVA cheerleaders and spirit squad members will be on hand to hand out the 2026 Virginia Football poster and other giveaways.
UVA is also pushing fans toward a strong orange showing for the season opener against NC State on Saturday, Aug. 29. The Sell Out Scott campaign is encouraging orange attire at Scott Stadium for the 3:30 p.m. kickoff.
ACC Network’s ACC Huddle will also be back on Observatory Hill, or O’Hill, for a live broadcast on Aug. 29 from 10 a.m. until noon. UVA hosted the show twice last season, for games against Wake Forest and Virginia Tech.
On the ticketing side, the school is offering a Fan-First Four-Pack for the first three games of the 2026 season, with discounted single-game orders of 4-10 seats in select upper- and lower-level areas.
Season-ticket renewals are now open for 2026, with seven home games included and prices starting at $180 per seat. UVA is also offering a Family Four Pack starting at $560 for four season tickets, with the option to bring up to 10 family and friends at the program’s best discounted rate.
Current full-time UVA faculty and staff, young alumni within five years of graduation, and contributing members of the Alumni Association can get a 20% discount by calling the UVA Ticket Office at 434-924-8821 and providing a computing ID.
Virginia Athletics and the Virginia Athletics Foundation have also moved to digital parking passes for all permit-required parking areas used for home football, men’s and women’s basketball, and baseball games. The mobile passes are available through fans’ online ticket accounts at UVATix.com and the Virginia Sports mobile app, and the change is meant to improve convenience, traffic flow and account management.
Public lots that do not require permits are not affected. Fans can find parking maps, step-by-step instructions and FAQs on UVA’s digital ticketing page.
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Virginia begins preseason practice on Wednesday with a familiar challenge for Tony Elliotts staff: keeping the offense on the same track after its best season under him. The Cavaliers do have some stability up front, with key offensive linemen and tight ends back in place, but the rest of the unit is going to look different when they open the 2026 season against NC State on Aug. 29 at Scott Stadium.
The biggest unknowns are the spots that usually drive an offense, and Virginia will be sorting through new faces at quarterback, running back and receiver while also filling a couple of openings along the line. For a team trying to build on last years progress, the next few weeks of camp will matter less for what is already settled than for how quickly those new pieces come together before a 3:30 p.m. kickoff that will arrive sooner than it looks. [Read more 🡒]
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Dylan Cope has already drawn attention in spring practice and looks like one of the newcomers most likely to factor into the rotation. The bigger picture is that Virginia may not be asking this class to carry the team right away, but it could be leaning on it in meaningful ways during the season, which gives the group a chance to matter long before the long-term recruiting grade catches up. [Read more 🡒]
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The challenge is that the jobs are not just open, they are layered with uncertainty at both tackle and end, which means every rep in camp matters. With several players jockeying for starting and backup roles, Virginia is still trying to find the right mix of size, production and reliability, and the answers up front may end up telling the story of how far this defense can go. [Read more 🡒]
