The AP and the coaches both had the UVA Football program at 16th in their final 2025-2026 season national rankings, marking the first time since 2004 that a Virginia team was ranked in both final national polls, and the best dual finish since way back in 1995.
And yes, I’m acknowledging here that the 2019 team, which had a 9-3 regular season, before losing in the ACC Championship Game to eventual national runner-up Clemson, and then losing to Florida in the Orange Bowl, finished 25th in the final coaches poll; that team, for some reason, was left out of the final AP poll.
The 2004 team, which finished with an 8-4 record, losing three of its last four after a 7-1 start that had those ‘Hoos in the Top three weeks, closed at 23rd in both national polls.
One other Al Groh team, his 2002 team, which went 9-5, with a win over West Virginia in the Continental Tire Bowl, was 22nd in the final AP poll, and 23rd in the final coaches poll.
George Welsh’s last really good team, his 1998 team, was 9-3 after a loss to Georgia in the Peach Bowl, and ranked 18th in both national polls.
That team also spent three weeks in the Top 10.
The 1995 team, which Welsh himself said he thought was his best team, finished with a 9-4 record, and ranked 17th in the final coaches poll, and 16th in the final AP poll.
The ’95 team was in the Top 10 for a week.
Welsh’s 1994 team, with a 9-3 final record, had the best cumulative final rankings of any UVA team – 13th in the coaches, 15th in the AP.
That team peaked at the end of the season.
The 1990 team, which spent three weeks at #1, before fading to an 8-4 finish, was 15th in the final coaches poll, and 23rd in the final AP poll.
Two other Welsh teams finished in the Top 20 in both: his 1989 team, which finished with a 10-3 record, was 13th in the coaches, 18th in the AP, and the memorable 1984 team, which finished 8-2-2, with a win over Purdue in the Peach Bowl, was 17th in the coaches and 20th in the AP.
I somehow overlooked the 1984 team in my first draft of this piece, despite having written a poem (whose main feature was, it rhymed) for a sixth-grade class project about the “Cavaliers being eight-two-and-two, and in the Peach Bowl, they beat Purdue.”
The 1951 Art Guepe team that went 8-2, and saw then-UVA President Colgate Darden turn down an Orange Bowl bid, setting UVA Football back for a generation, was 13th in the final AP poll.
Darden turned down the 1951 bowl game; we didn’t get another invite until 1984.
Why his name is on that business school over there, beats me.
The 2025 ‘Hoos entered the national rankings on Sept. 29, peaked at 14th in early November, and flirted with getting the program’s first-ever College Football Playoff berth, on the way to a school-record 11 wins.
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Chris Graham
