Virginia Cavaliers football

The Virginia Cavaliers football team represents the University of Virginia (UVA) in the sport of American football. Established in 1887, Virginia plays its home games at Scott Stadium, capacity 61,500, featured directly on its campus near the Academical Village. UVA played an outsized role in the shaping of the modern game's ethics and eligibility rules, as well as its safety rules after a Georgia Bulldogs fullback died during a 17–4 Virginia victory in 1897.

Quickly asserting itself as the South's first great program with 28 straight winning seasons after its first in 1887, Virginia football won 12 Southern championships in 20 seasons and became the first Southern program to defeat Yale, 10–0, at the Yale Bowl in 1915. During this period, Virginia established enduring rivalries, including the South’s Oldest Rivalry with North Carolina and a heated rivalry with Virginia Tech. The team has also faced William & Mary regularly, annually or biennially, since 1908.

Virginia lost its mantle as the region's mark of success between World War I and World War II, but soon thereafter Art Guepe had Virginia winning big again. To avoid the trappings of "big-time football", university president Colgate Darden reduced scholarship and recruiting support, argued against joining the ACC, and declined an invite for 8–1 Virginia to play unbeaten Georgia Tech in the 1952 Orange Bowl. The Board of Visitors voted to join the ACC anyway, but Guepe left for Vanderbilt and under Dick Voris Virginia embarked on a 28-game losing streak from 1958 to 1960, as Darden retired. Voris left with a record of 1–29, his lone victory a 15–12 home victory against Duke. Still limited by a relative lack of funding or administrative interest in those times, his successors managed moderately better records through the 1960s and 1970s.

George Welsh led a turnaround effort from 1982, and took Virginia to its first dozen bowl games and its first AP No. 1 ranking for several weeks in October 1990. He was the first ACC coach to reach 100 wins, and retired in 2000 with the most ACC wins (his 85 ranking second to Bobby Bowden as of 2025) of any coach in history. In November 1995, similar to winning the first Southern victory against Yale 80 years prior, Virginia was the first ACC team to defeat Bowden's Florida State teams after they started 29–0 in the conference. The nationally televised event led FSU's president to create the Jefferson–Eppes Trophy, which Virginia holds in Charlottesville after winning the latest matchups in 2019 and 2025.

Virginia set a school record with 11 wins in 2025, and has played in two ACC Championship Games as well as four Peach Bowls and an Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl, and Citrus Bowl among its 22 bowl appearances. The Cavaliers have produced 11 Consensus All-Americans and 10 NFL Pro Bowlers—Ronde Barber, Tiki Barber, D'Brickashaw Ferguson, Thomas Jones, Patrick Kerney, Heath Miller, Herman Moore, Matt Schaub, Tom Scott, and Chris Slade.