Virginia’s offense is leaning back into what made it dangerous in the first place: personnel groupings that force defenses to guess.
Last season told the story in two halves. With tight ends Sage Ennis and Dakota Twitty both available, Virginia opened the year humming, putting up 30 or more points in each of its first six games. Once Twitty suffered a season-ending injury, the production dipped hard, and the Cavaliers reached 30 points only twice over their final eight games.
That split reinforced a simple truth about this offense: it works best when it isn’t ordinary. The standard look in football is 11 personnel - three wide receivers, one tight end and one running back. Virginia will use that alignment, but the Cavaliers have found more juice when they shift the math and make the defense adjust.
Offensive coordinator Des Kitchings has been clear about where that starts. Virginia’s 12 personnel package, with one running back and two tight ends, became a major piece of the offense when Ennis and Twitty were on the field together.
“You look at the tight end room, and as we say, do they become the core of the offense?” Kitchings said Wednesday.
“Nobody wants to work on their core. They got to be the glue that kind of holds this thing together, our tight end room.
That was evident last year when we lost Dak, and kind of how that impacts some of the things, and we feel like we have some good depth there in that room.”
The appeal of 12 personnel starts with the run game. Extra tight ends usually mean better blocking, which can give Virginia more push at the line of scrimmage.
But the real damage comes when the Cavaliers marry that run threat to play action. Defenses bite on the run, the quarterback rolls into a passing look, and suddenly there are more windows to hit.
Kitchings laid out that connection during fall camp.
“[Multiple tight end sets] tend to be heavy run sets, and we had some success last year with running the football,” Kitchings said. “So a couple of those play actions out of those sets benefited Sage, and it all ties together, right? If we're able to run the football, then a lot of times it can create for tight ends to have the ability to find some space.”
That was part of why Ennis became such a useful piece in the passing game. He was mostly known as a blocking tight end, but he still tied for the team lead with five receiving touchdowns. Ennis was a central figure in Kitchings’ offense, and he used up his eligibility this offseason.
Now Virginia is testing other ways to build the same kind of stress on a defense. Kitchings said the Cavaliers could turn to 22 personnel, or possibly 23 or 13 personnel, depending on how the roster pieces fit together.
“They're evolving, and what we've been doing is trying to really evaluate all of our personnel,” Kitchings said. “So whether we're in three receiver sets, two tight ends, three tight ends and just seeing kind of how it comes together, who's being the most consistent and making plays for us consistently, right?
Limiting missed assignments, right? So it's fun in that right.
We got some pieces to play with and are trying to just figure out exactly what's the best way for us to move to football.”
There’s also a practical side to all this experimentation. Virginia learned last year how much a key injury can change the offense, so mixing up the personnel groups gives the Cavaliers more flexibility if someone goes down.
“We may have a guy out this day, right?” Kitchings said.
“Well, can somebody go in there and fill the void to help us get ourselves through practices? And then you try to see what guys can do skill-wise.
You know, whether it's you know two tight ends, two backs or three receivers. We're gonna play with five O-Linemen and a quarterback.
So that makes up six, right? Where are the other guys going to come from?
So, and like I said, [there is] this new climate kind of per se of college football, and we built the roster.”
Virginia has played with specialized packages before, especially in short-yardage situations. The Cavaliers have used the quarterback sneak, known as the Grady Bunch, and a direct snap to running back J’Mari Taylor. Kitchings said the team has been working on exotic plays, and some new ones could surface.
Even with all the tinkering, the foundation remains the same. Virginia’s offense still runs through the ground game, and the Cavaliers have a deep backfield to support it. What Kitchings is trying to sort out is the best way to line up all those pieces so the run game can help open the pass, and the pass can keep the run game honest.
“We feel like we got some variety of pieces to kind of put together. So, that's the exciting part about it,” Kitchings said.
In Other News...
Virginias Young Players Face A Tough Path To Bigger Roles
The path to the field looks crowded for Virginias younger players this fall, with the Cavaliers projected to lean heavily on a starting lineup made up mostly of seniors and graduate students. That leaves freshmen and sophomores with a familiar challenge in college football: waiting their turn while trying to prove they belong in the rotation.
Virginias coaching staff has made it clear that opportunity can still come for underclassmen, just not always in the biggest or most obvious ways. Injuries can open a door, brief game situations can turn into auditions, and special teams often becomes the quickest route to meaningful snaps. For the younger Cavaliers, the message is simple enough, even if the road is not - stay patient, stay prepared, and be ready when the moment finally arrives. [Read more 🡒]
Virginias Backfield Just Became A Real 2026 Debate
Virginia spent much of 2025 leaning on the run game, and it showed in the way the offense was built. The Cavaliers threw it 492 times but still logged 548 rushing attempts, with the running back group handling about 453 of those carries. With the offense expected to stay ground-heavy, there is already a reasonable case that the backfield workload could climb again in 2026, especially if the overall rushing total rises by roughly seven percent.
The bigger question is how those carries get divided up. Virginias current depth chart and what the backs showed last season both point to a real competition, and injuries remain part of the conversation after affecting the 2025 team. The staff has some choices to make, and the way it sorts out could shape not just the backfield rotation but the entire rhythm of the offense next season. [Read more 🡒]
Virginias Veteran Lineup Could Change Everything For The Cavaliers
Virginias football roster is leaning hard into experience this fall, and that could give the Cavaliers a very different kind of foundation than theyve had in recent seasons. The expected starting group is built mostly around upperclassmen, with a heavy dose of graduate players on offense and an offensive line that brings all-conference experience into the mix. On paper, it is the kind of veteran base that can help settle a team early in the season and give the coaching staff more confidence in the core pieces up front.
The continuity does not stop there. Virginias defense is also expected to feature a long list of fourth- and fifth-year players who already know the system and have worked together across multiple seasons, while special teams brings back familiar faces with years of experience in those roles. For a program trying to turn stability into results, that kind of age and familiarity can matter a lot, especially when the margin for error is small and the smallest details often decide games. [Read more 🡒]