When ACC media met in Charlotte last week for the league’s “Kickoff” event, Virginia was picked to finish last among the conference’s 14 teams in the preseason football poll.

When Ronde Barber first arrived to Virginia’s football program in 1993, he wasn’t sure he belonged. The product of Cave Spring High School in Roanoke only weighed in at 149 pounds.

Virginia football continued on an uptick Thursday when the Cavaliers landed a promising edge rusher from famed Ohio football factory Archbishop Moeller High School in Cincinnati.

Virginia defensive end Chico Bennett Jr. was named to the preseason Wuerffel Trophy Watch List on Thursday. Bennett is one of 16 ACC players to make the 110-person watch list. 

Tony Elliott kicked off his second Virginia fall training camp with intensity and a sense of urgency on Wednesday, and he liked the response from a healthy, hungry group of Cavalier football players.

Virginia punter Daniel Sparks was named to the Preseason All-ACC team announced by the league on Wednesday. The Cavalier junior was also one of 50 punters featured on the Preseason Ray Guy Award watch list.

Virginia has been picked to finish last in the 2023 ACC preseason poll conducted by a media vote from last week’s conference event in Charlotte.

Legendary Virginia defender Chris Slade, now in his second year as graduate defensive end Chico Bennett Jr.’s position coach, knows a thing or two about getting in opposing quarterbacks’ faces.

Virginia had to take one of its top recruiting targets off the board Sunday when Highland Springs quarterback Khristian Martin committed to Maryland.

Virginia’s new 90,000-square foot operations center for its football program is well underway, and coaches are using the new facility to help with recruiting.

In his final season of college football this fall, not only will Virginia running back Perris Jones be honoring the memories of fallen teammates Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis and D’Sean Perry, but also his backfield mate, Mike Hollins.

With training camp only days away, Virginia running back Mike Hollins said Friday that he’s at 100 percent physically, back to his playing weight of 205, and excited about camp and the upcoming season.

Throughout the spring and early summer, it was somewhat routine that quarterback candidate Jay Woolfolk would text football coach Tony Elliott and ask if they could chat.

Tony Elliott believes the biggest mistake he and his offensive staff made in their first season at Virginia was assuming too much.

The Virginia football program has been through an offseason unlike any other, as the team continues to grieve the losses of Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry, who were all tragically shot just hours after the last time the Cavaliers took the field.

Scattershooting around the ACC on the eve of Virginia football’s appearance at the annual ACC Kickoff event in Charlotte on Wednesday …

Everything ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips had to say at ACC Kickoff Tuesday in Charlotte, N.C.

Virginia’s defense landed a promising addition to its recruiting class of 2024 on Monday when defensive tackle/end Tyler Simmons of Windermere (Fla.) Prep announced his commitment on Twitter.

A quarterback on UVA’s football squad since 2021, Jay Woolfolk has seen little action on the gridiron, but had a strong role for Brian O’Connor’s baseball team the past two years.