Virginia has seven home games this season, four of which will be played before the end of September. That could allow the Cavaliers to rack up some wins in nice Charlottesville weather early in the season, but it also means they play a lot of road games later in the year. UVA will play three of its final five games on the road, including what are likely to be very tough challenges at North Carolina, who is now led by Bill Belichick, and at Duke, who went 9-4 in year 1 under Manny Diaz. That trip to Chapel Hill will also be immediately followed by UVA’s first coast-to-coast road trip to Cal on the first day of November.

Virginia has played some tough non-conference games under Tony Elliott. In 2022, the Hoos got crushed on the road by an Illinois team that went 8-5. In 2023, what was technically a neutral site game against Tennessee in Nashville went about the way you’d expect it to. Last season, it was a road trip to South Bend to take on a Notre Dame team that wound up being the runner-up in the national title game. At least on paper, there is no such behemoth on UVA’s four-game non-conference slate this time around. The season opens with Coastal Carolina, who fell to Virginia at home 43-24 last season and who lost its starting quarterback and both coordinators this offseason. UVA hosts William & Mary, a good FCS team, but still an FCS team. The Cavaliers will also face Washington State for the first time. The Cougars went 8-5 last season, but lost their head coach and half of their starters to the transfer portal. Virginia’s toughest non-conference opponent will likely be NC State on the road in week 2. The Wolfpack went 6-7 last season, but they’ll be a tough challenge for the Cavaliers in Raleigh. With that non-conference slate, 3-1 should be the expectation and 4-0 is very possible for Tony Elliott and company.

We just talked about NC State being a tough road test and we’ve already mentioned that Duke and North Carolina will be challenging opponents to defeat on the road as well. The most difficult game on UVA’s schedule will probably be week 6 at Louisville. The Cardinals are popping up on many way-too-early top 25 rankings and are likely to contend near the top of the ACC this fall. With the exceptions of Virginia Tech, who has proven to have UVA’s number time and time again no matter where the game is played, and Florida State depending on how the Seminoles bounce back from their disastrous 2024 season, Virginia’s most difficult games will likely be those road games at Louisville, North Carolina, Duke, and NC State.

One should never entirely base the next season’s projections on the results of the previous season, especially in this era of unprecedented player movement and roster turnover. With that said, if last season is any indicator, Virginia has a favorable draw of ACC opponents in 2025. The Cavaliers avoid the top four finishers in the 2024 ACC standings – SMU, Clemson, Miami, and Syracuse – and they are scheduled to face each of the four teams who finished below them in the standings last year – California, Wake Forest, Stanford, and Florida State. Six of UVA’s eight ACC opponents finished in the bottom half of the conference standings. Some of those teams are bound to have better seasons in 2025 – Florida State and North Carolina in particular – but the current power programs in the ACC are not found on Virginia’s 2025 schedule.

It could be perceived as both a good and a bad thing that Virginia is forecasted to have such a soft strength of schedule. On the one hand, wins are wins no matter who they come against, so it’s great for the Cavaliers to have several winnable games on the schedule. On the other hand, there will be no excuses for Virginia not to reach bowl eligibility this season, so the pressure is on Tony Elliott and his staff to get the job done this year.

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