College football rarely hands out certainties, but Virginia football is bringing back a few things in 2026 that look about as close to locked in as you can get.
The Cavaliers should still be able to lean on the run game. In 2025, Virginia piled up 2,502 rushing yards, which was third in the ACC, and finished with 29 rushing touchdowns, also third in the league. If those numbers show up again, only a handful of ACC teams - Miami, Georgia Tech and Florida State among them - figure to be able to keep pace.
That production is especially notable because the personnel is changing. J’Mari Taylor, Harrison Waylee and Brady Wilson are all gone.
Even so, Virginia may come out ahead with Peyton Lewis and Jekail Middlebrook in the mix, Monroe Mills healthy again, four of five offensive line starters back and more depth added on top of that. The combination of experience and depth at running back and up front gives the Cavaliers a ground attack that should be difficult to stop.
Discipline should remain another calling card. Virginia gave up only 45.2 penalty yards per game last season, second fewest in the ACC, and the program is set to enter 2026 with the most experience of any team in college football. More veteran teams usually make fewer mistakes, and that lines up with what Tony Elliott has been pushing all along.
Elliott has repeatedly emphasized disciplined football, and he said that has to come before anything else, including playbook installation earlier this spring. He also noted that the reworked roster came together quickly and bought into one another, which helped make spring practice productive.
Protection should be a strength too. Virginia blocked for the First Team All-ACC running back in 2025, and the offensive line allowed the third-fewest sacks in the ACC. If the North Carolina game is taken out of the numbers, the Cavaliers would have given up fewer than one sack per game.
The line has plenty of proven pieces returning. McKale Boley, Noah Josey and Mills are back with All-ACC honors from 2024, and Drake Metcalf returns as well after what should have been an All-ACC season of his own. Makilan Thomas is also back healthy, and Virginia added transfers Ryan Brubaker from South Carolina and Alex Payne from Southern California.
There is depth behind them, too, including promising underclassmen. Put it all together, and Virginia looks built to handle whatever the 2026 season throws at its offensive front.
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Among the five signal-callers Virginia is expected to see, the headliner is C.J. Bailey, the kind of polished, dangerous quarterback who can stress a defense in more than one way. The list also includes a young, highly accurate freshman presence in the short and intermediate game, plus a transfer with big-name pedigree who once carried major hype in Norman, all of which makes the path through 2026 feel a lot less forgiving than the one Virginia just survived. [Read more 🡒]