Virginia Cavaliers Football Lands in Upper Half Of Returning Production Rankings

The Virginia Cavaliers are currently navigating spring practice, but the 2026 college football season will be here before we know it. While there are plenty of returning veterans, the Cavaliers also have quite a few new faces joining them on the field this year.

The Hoos are looking to return to the ACC Championship Game and redeem themselves after last year's painful heartbreak at the hands of the Duke Blue Devils. However, according to the latest returning production numbers, the Cavaliers have some work to do. Here's how things are shaping up at this point in the year.

Where Did UVA Land?

Wake Forest Demon Deacons Demond Claiborne being tackled by Virginia Cavaliers Donavon Platt — Wake Forest Demon Deacons running back Demond Claiborne and Virginia Cavaliers defensive back Donavon Platt | Amber Searls-Imagn Images

According to ESPN's Bill Connelly, Virginia ranks No. 36 nationally. As he noted, there's a method to this madness. In his own words:

"... I mash an incoming player's production from his previous team into the numerator and denominator for his new team. (Because the translation in moving from the lower levels of the sport to the FBS is extremely inconsistent, I give only half-credit for players transferring up from lower divisions.) So, if your quarterback leaves, and you bring in a transfer who was productive elsewhere, that dampens the blow of your QB leaving.

So really, we're talking about returning and incoming production here. I fiddled with the concept of splitting the two for SP+ projections, looking at both separately, but I didn't find an approach that made the projections more accurate. So, we move forward with an approach similar to that of years past..."

The Virginia Tech Hokies, a fellow ACC team, rank toward the top of his lengthy list, coming in at No. 4. As for UVA, the Hoos underwent some drastic changes during the offseason. Their starting quarterback Chandler Morris, was replaced with Missouri transfer Beau Pribula, and head coach Tony Elliott also brought on quarterback Eli Holstein from the Pittsburgh Panthers.

This is yet another year of change for the Cavaliers, and the Hoos certainly have work to do. As Elliott stated during his recent media appearance, "... So we got to continue to improve protecting the football offensively because if we would have protected the ball better we could have been one of the top turnover margin teams in the country because defense got a ton of them for us this this past season and we want to continue to emphasize that defensively right and how positive that was for us."