The new college football game was just released to the general public yesterday, and the first thing we wanted to do was obviously simulate Virginia 's 2026 season to see what the outcome would be. Well, we did, and the result was pretty surprising, to say the least.
12-2 record, lost in the CFP Quarterfinals to USC by a score of 45-37.
Crazy, I know. We were honestly expecting to see a 9-3/10-2 type of record and possibly a more legitimate bowl win. Making the College Football Playoffs as the #1 seed and losing in the quarterfinals wasn't on our bingo cards.
Here is how the regular season and the ACC Championship game played out:
vs NC State- W 33-11
vs Norfolk State- W 55-0
vs West Virginia (in Charlotte)- W 34-14
vs Delaware- W 45-30
at Florida State- W 31-24
vs Syracuse- W 31-13
at SMU- L 45-31
vs Duke- W 36-35
at Wake Forest- W 40-21
vs California- W 47-21
vs North Carolina- W 38-7
at Virginia Tech- 42-24
vs Miami
(ACC Championship game)- W 35-33
382/599, 63% comp., 4,312 passing yards, 37 TDs, 7 INTs
Though Beau Pribula is probably the odds-on favorite to start in real life, Holstein definitely has the kind of talent to put up some astonishing numbers over a full season of work. These types of stats, on the other hand, are pretty much Heisman-level.
169 carries, 895 rushing yards, 5.3 avg., 18 TDs
138 carries, 604 rushing yards, 4.4 avg., 11 TDs
89 carries, 456 rushing yards, 5.1 avg., 5 TDs
In terms of rushing, these stats could be fairly realistic for a team that might want to spread the ball around and utliize Peyton Lewis and Jekail Middlebrook in a "1A/1B" type of role. 500-600 rushing yards by a quarterback like Beau Pribula is probably pretty doable in 2026 as well.
93 recs., 1,087 receiving yards, 11.7 avg., 12 TDs, 3 drops
79 recs., 964 receiving yards, 12.2 avg., 8 TDs, 2 drops
79 recs., 934 receiving yards, 11.8 avg., 5 TDs, 2 drops
75 recs., 867 receiving yards, 11.6 avg., 8 TDs, 0 drops
25 recs., 205 receiving yards, 8.2 avg., 1 TD, 0 drops
21 recs., 185 receiving yards, 8.8 avg., 3 TDs, 0 drops
10 recs., 70 receiving yards, 7.0 avg., 0 TDs, 0 drops
This is the area that's more skewed than the others in terms of what's realistic and what's not for 2026. Having four pass-catchers eclipse the 75-catch mark is literally video-game, air-raid-type stuff, and something that probably has a 5% chance of happening for UVA this year.
103 tackles, 6 TFL, 3 sacks, 5 INTs
81 tackles, 3 TFL, 1 INT
76 tackles, 1 TFL
63 tackles, 3 INT
54 tackles, 18 TFL, 11 sacks
50 tackles, 2 INT
48 tackles, 12 TFL, 5 sacks
48 tackles, 1 TFL, 5 INT
46 tackles, 15 TFL, 8.5 sacks
38 tackles, 10 TFL, 6 sacks
Having players like Corey Costner, Matthew Fobbs-White, and Fisher Camac standing out with excellent individual seasons would be exciting, as they definitely have the ability to do so in John Rudzinski's defense this season.
It's important to note that the game still has Zion Wilson listed on UVA's roster, despite him signing with the Philadelphia Eagles after his eligibility waiver was denied.
This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/virginia as CFB 27 simulated Virginia's 2026 season and UVA fans won't believe the results .
