While George Welsh coached before my lifetime, if I have heard any stories about his teams, he loved to run the football. Producing studs like Tiki Barber and Thomas Jones, Welsh made sure Virginia was never one-dimensional and always had defenses guessing. If George Welsh could still be here with us today, I have a feeling he would be watching the 2026 Cavaliers very closely.
Virginia’s run game in 2026 was already suspected to be pretty solid before the transfer portal even opened. Xavier Brown, Noah Vaughn, and Xay Davis all announced their returns to the program in 2026. As if those returns were not already big news, essentially the entire offensive line who were all set to graduate from the program announced each would return. The type of foundation George Welsh always built his team around. The main starting 5 consisting of McKale Boley, Noah Josey, Drake Metcalf, Makilan Thomas, and Monroe Mills. All of which are entering Graduate student years with decades of experience combined at the college level. Keep in mind, this was BEFORE the transfer portal opened, in my opinion was a set offensive line and maybe an extra running back or two would need to be added.
As the transfer portal came and went, Virginia would add THREE more really talented running backs to add to the room. Jekail Middlebrook joined the ‘Hoos first from Middle Tennessee St, then Solomon Beebee from UAB, and then the big name came later in the portal from Tennessee, Peyton Lewis. All three back’s tape looks promising, and they all join a Cavalier squad who again has the most experienced offensive line in Virginia history and maybe in the country.
A big upside to having this many backs, is staying fresh and healthy. While Xavier Brown has been a great running back, the biggest demon he has faced is trying to stay healthy and play every game. Brown has not played a full season except for 2022 technically because Virginia canceled the last two games of the season due to the tragedy. With a shared workload, one would expect Brown and all the other Back’s to stay fresh and be explosive all 12 regular season games and beyond that.
The depth of the running back room really speaks wonders when a quality running back like Xavier Brown might be buried on the depth chart. When healthy, Brown has proved he can be one of the most explosive backs in the ACC and he is in a room where all six players could maybe start at many power 4 level schools. What can this depth chart look like? My money would be on Peyton Lewis getting the bulk of the carries, but I would expect Coach Elliott and Coach Kitchings to split the carries a lot. Middlebrook might get the second most carries, with the next load of work splitting between Xavier Brown, Noah Vaughn, and Solomon Beebee. Xay Davis showed a lot of promise late last season, but because of the depth of the room I doubt he gets serious time this season. If Coach Welsh believed you could never have too many capable back’s, this room would have been right up his alley.
Adding to the already very experienced offensive line were two quality pieces. OT Alex Payne comes from USC and Ryan Brubaker comes from South Carolina. It would be one thing if this offensive line was paired with the running backs that were already on the roster. However, when those three transfers pair with that line, I cannot help myself but to believe that this Virginia team can have one of the best running games in the country. The biggest problem will not be can the offense achieve, but who will the Coaching staff choose to achieve. Let’s also not forget that transfer QB Beau Pribula is one of the fastest in the ACC and will pose a threat himself by being mobile. All of these factors create a perfect storm that will be nearly impossible for opposing defenses to figure out.
Coach Elliott establishing a quality run game amplifies this Cavalier offense to a whole new level. We saw last season, when J’Mari Taylor and the run game is cooking, the entire offense is cooking. It helps the offense establish dominance in the trenches and forces opposing defenses to guess making plays even more deadly when the defense guesses wrong.
So back to Coach George Welsh, do you think he would have enjoyed a 6 deep running back room with 5 all-conference returning offensive linemen? I have a feeling Coach Welsh would’ve looked at that running back room and muttered, “Chriiiiiiiiist, we have so many good running backs, I might actually have to stop complaining for a week.”