Virginia's opener shows that last season wasn't a fluke

Maybe now they'll get more than one vote in the AP poll. The Cavaliers looked like a ranked team in a 34-8 win over NC State at home Saturday.

Preseason skepticism — at least externally — surrounded the Virginia football team. Even after winning a school-record 11 games and the school's first regular-season Atlantic Coast Conference title, the Cavaliers were the NCAA's version of Rodney Dangerfield: no respect.

Despite fielding the NCAA's most experienced roster, they were chosen sixth in the preseason ACC media voting and went unranked in both major national polls, getting exactly one 25th-place vote from the panel of 69 media members.

Perhaps the outsiders had little faith in the consistency of a program that had gone 11-23 in Coach Tony Elliott's first three seasons and had posted consecutive winning seasons just once in the past two decades.

If so, Saturday's dominant season-opening 34-8 wipeout of the Wolfpack made an early statement that reports of Virginia's demise may be exaggerated.

"I think we just took advantage of the opportunity," Elliott said. "That's what we've been asking for — an opportunity to show that Virginia can be a destination. ... I didn't come to Virginia to go somewhere else. I came to Virginia to make Virginia a destination."

For three hours Saturday, at least, it was. With a sellout crowd of 62,779 and a national audience watching, they dominated a solid Wolfpack team that had handed Virginia one of its three losses last season.

They dominated in total yardage (413-168) and time of possession (38:03-21:57), thanks largely to a 23-play, 75-yard second-half touchdown drive that consumed over 12 minutes of game clock. That march, which would have made Navy's triple-option offense proud, was the longest by snaps and time in the school's 139-year history and featured four fourth-down conversions.

A defense that had few answers for Wolfpack quarterback CJ Bailey a year ago in Raleigh made him look mortal. The Cavaliers sacked him twice, forced a pair of turnovers and held him to 117 total yards (84 rushing, 33 passing).

And Virginia did it without its most talented player, Kam Robinson, who is still recovering from the torn ACL that prematurely ended his 2025 season in November — and without its nominal top receiver, Rico Flores Jr., who was sidelined with a sore hamstring.

"We just showed the team we are," said fifth-year defensive end Fisher Camac, who deflected a Bailey pass that teammate Brandyn Hillman intercepted. "We knew the team we were, and we just had to go out and show it today."

Maybe now others will share that opinion. Virginia's depth and athleticism were on full display, with five running backs sharing carries — none more effective than Xavier Brown, who returned from his own ACL tear to score a pair of touchdowns (one rushing, one receiving).

"We circled [this game]," Brown said. "The last two times, we let the game get away, so obviously it was a focal point. We knocked down two of our team goals, winning our home opener and our ACC opener. I just think that's a testament to the leaders that we have and the work we put in."

Virginia's most effective rusher, though, was quarterback Beau Pribula, who gained almost as many yards with his legs (110) as with his arm (155). He was an efficient 9 for 11 passing on the day.

Meanwhile, a rotation of defensive linemen who kept constant pressure on Bailey. The Wolfpack's longest gain of the day was 21 yards.

There are still 11 games to be played. But barring injury, aside from an Oct. 17 visit to 19th-ranked SMU, the Virginia team that showed up on Saturday should be favored in the rest of its contests — if it can match that intensity and discipline each week.

Getting Robinson and Flores back can't hurt; Elliott said he considered allowing Robinson to suit up, but said, "I couldn't live with myself if something happened to him."

Added Elliott: "We've still got work to do. But we kind of showed what kind of potential we have here at U.Va."

We'll wait to see how many others notice.

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