Virginia Cavaliers football
2023 Virginia Cavaliers football team
First season	1888 (1888)
Athletic director	Carla Williams
Head coach	Tony Elliott 3rd season, 6–16 (.273)
Stadium	Scott Stadium (capacity: 61,500)
Field	Carl Smith Center, home of David A. Harrison III Field
Year built	1931
Field surface	Grass
Location	Charlottesville, Virginia
NCAA division	Division I FBS
Conference	Atlantic Coast Conference
All-time record	683–642–48 (.515)
Bowl record	8–13 (.381)
Conference titles	5 (1908, 1914, 1915, 1989, 1995)
Division titles	1 (2019)
Rivalries	Virginia Tech (rivalry) North Carolina (rivalry) Florida State (rivalry) Maryland (rivalry)
Consensus All-Americans	11
Current uniform
Colors	Orange and blue[1]
Mascot	Cavalier (CavMan)
Marching band	Cavalier Marching Band
Outfitter	Nike
Website	virginiasports.com

The Virginia Cavaliers football team represents the University of Virginia (UVA) in the sport of American football. Established in 1888, 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,^[2] as well as its safety rules after a Georgia fullback died fighting the tide of a lopsided Virginia victory in 1897.

Quickly asserting itself as the South's first great program with 28 straight winning seasons from its first in 1888,^[3] Virginia football claimed 12 southern championships and was the first Southern program to defeat perennial power (26-time national champions) Yale, in a 10–0 shocker at the Yale Bowl in 1915. During those early days, Virginia established long-lasting rivalries that still continue on: particularly the South's Oldest Rivalry with North Carolina and a heated rivalry with Virginia Tech. Virginia has also played (now FCS) William & Mary annually or biennially for extended stretches since 1908.^[a]

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",^[b] university president Colgate Darden reduced scholarship and recruiting support, argued against joining the ACC, and declined an invite for Virginia to play unbeaten Georgia Tech in the 1952 Orange Bowl.^[6] 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 nailbiter against Duke. Still limited by a relative lack of funding in those times, his successors managed moderately better records through the 1960s and 1970s.

George Welsh led a dramatic turnaround effort from 1982, and took Virginia to its first dozen bowl games and even its first AP No. 1 ranking throughout 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 2021) 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.^[7] The nationally televised event led FSU's President to create the Jefferson-Eppes Trophy, which Virginia again (as of 2021) holds in Charlottesville after winning the latest matchup in 2019.

The Cavaliers have been participants in one New Year's Six bowl to date, the 2019 Orange Bowl; Virginia's 21 bowl games have also included four Peach Bowls, the Sugar Bowl, and Citrus Bowl, among others. Virginia has thus far produced 11 Consensus All-Americans.^[8]

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