By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — For the first time in more than a month, the Virginia Cavaliers had reason to celebrate after a football game, and the scenes he saw on the field and in the locker room delighted head coach Tony Elliott.
“The fun is in the winning,” Elliott told his players afterward. “That’s what it’s all about, to come in and see the smiles on your faces. It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”
UVA ended a three-game losing streak Saturday (Nov. 14) with a 36-7 rout of California on Heroes Appreciation Day at Scott Stadium. The victory was the first for the Wahoos (5-5 overall, 3-4 ACC) since Oct. 10, when they rallied to defeat visiting Syracuse 28-25.
With two regular-season games left, Virginia needs one more win to become bowl-eligible for the second straight year. This is Elliott’s fifth season at UVA, and the margin of victory Saturday was the program’s largest over an ACC opponent during his tenure.
The Hoos punished Cal (3-7, 2-5) in a variety of ways. They scored two touchdowns on offense and two on defense, and Will Bettridge was 3 for 3 on field goals.
“I think it just gives us a lot of confidence,” quarterback Beau Pribula said, “playing such complementary football tonight ... We have two regular-season games left and we want to maximize those to gain one more opportunity. So we'll enjoy this one for a little bit, but we'll be right back to work.”
Pribula, who rushed seven times for a game-high 67 yards, completed 16 of 24 passes for 146 yards and one touchdown.
“I thought he put the ball, for the most part, where it needed to be,” Elliott said.
The story of this game, though, was the play of the Cavaliers’ defense. Late in the first half, safety Brandyn Hillman, who’d missed the previous three games with an injury, picked off a pass on a fake field-goal attempt and returned the interception 100 yards, a program record, for Virginia’s second touchdown.
Several other Cavaliers escorted him as he ran along Cal’s sideline, and “I was just asking my teammates, like, ‘Is anybody near me?’ ” Hillman said, smiling. “I was a little gassed towards the 10-yard line, but everything was great.”
🤯🤯🤯 @dmv_b3's PICK-6 GOES FOR 100 YARDS‼️ That's the longest interception return in school history. 📺 ACCN https://t.co/uAF94YMGJD
— Virginia Football (@UVAFootball) November 14, 2026
Not to be outdone, linebacker Kam Robinson produced his own highlight late in the third quarter. Robinson reached out with his right hand to snare a pass by Cal quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele and returned the interception 33 yards for a touchdown.
“His was better than mine, if you ask me,” said Hillman, a transfer from Michigan.
Once he reached the end zone, Robinson didn’t stop. He ran onto the hill at the stadium’s north end and celebrated with fans there.
The pick-six was the fourth of Robinson’s career, tying the program record set by linebacker Randy Neal in the 1990s.
“That’s what Kam Robinson does,” Elliott said.
PICK-6, @Kamrenrobinsonn‼️ That's our second pick-6 of the night. 💯 📺 ACCN https://t.co/BjG17Nvazn
— Virginia Football (@UVAFootball) November 14, 2026
Robinson, a fourth-year, is the leader of the Cavaliers’ depleted corps of linebackers. Unavailable because of injuries Saturday were Maddox Marcellus, Landon Danley and Caleb Hardy, and second-year Justin Rowe made his first start.
“Kam’s had to carry a lot of responsibility,” Elliott said.
No. 5 carried it well against Cal (3-7, 2-5). In addition to scoring a TD, Robinson made a game-high 12 tackles and helped the Hoos hold the Golden Bears to a season-low 201 yards.
Virginia, which recorded four sacks, came up with a third takeaway early in the fourth quarter when safety Montino Williams intercepted a pass deflected by linebacker Myles Brown.
“It’s just a good day at the office for the guys on defense,” Elliott said, “and I think that feeds into playing complementary football all the way around.”
UVA was coming off a 51-7 loss to then-No. 14 Wake Forest on Oct. 31 in Winston-Salem, N.C. After that stinging defeat, Elliott said, his team had a bye week during which critical decisions had to be made.
Were the Cavaliers going to splinter and start pointing fingers at each other, or were they going to pull together? They had to decide “what they wanted to do as a team,” Elliott said. “But also individually, what kind of person are you going to choose to be? Are you going to say, ‘All is lost, the sky is falling,’ or are you going to be a person that digs your feet in and says, ‘I'm going to focus on what I can control, I believe in the best to come ahead of me, and I'm going to go fight for that?’ And that's what you saw in the football team and in the staff.”
The hard conversations among players and coaches during the two weeks leading up to the Cal game “kind of focused us and got us prepared for this game to come out the way we did,” Hillman said.
“To be honest, it was kind of like a now-or-never [situation]. Either we're going to get it together now or it's just too late, and we're just going to keep feeling the same feeling we've been feeling. I feel like as a collective, as a whole, as a team, we all came up to the agreement of, keep it going and let's get these last three games done.”
On offense, Virginia totaled 424 yards Saturday and punted only three times. The game’s first drive ended with a 12-yard touchdown pass from Pribula to wide receiver Da’Shawn Martin. Late in the fourth quarter, first-year wideout Jack Rhodes made a spectacular catch of a pass by backup quarterback Eli Holstein for a 35-yard gain, and second-year tailback Xay Davis ran in from the 1 to score UVA’s final touchdown on the next play.
Martin, a transfer from Kent State, leads Virginia with 30 receptions for 425 yards and seven touchdowns this season. Early in the season, Martin was used mainly on deep routes, “but he's kind of developed into an even bigger role,” Pribula said. “The guy gets open and he plays hard and he's really stepped up, especially when we had some of our top guys go down with season-ending injuries.”
With Drake Metcalf nursing an ankle injury, Noah Josey moved from left guard to center against Cal, and Ben York took Josey’s spot at left guard. The Cavaliers didn’t allow a sack Saturday and didn’t turn the ball over.
“When the offensive line plays really well and the receivers get separation, things just start to click,” Pribula said. “Noah Josey did a great job stepping into a new role tonight, and the entire offensive line did a great job.”
The Hoos came into the game ranked 14th among the ACC’s 17 teams in total offense and 12th in scoring offense, and “whenever you're not getting the result that you're accustomed to getting, somebody's got to say, ‘OK, where's the finger got to go?’ ” Elliott said. “And, obviously, the quarterback is going to be the No. 1 person, or the head coach, or the [offensive coordinator], because everybody wants points.
“Let's just be transparent. Everybody wants to see points scored. But when you look at it in totality, the quarterback can only do so much. His supporting cast has to do their job.”
Against Cal, Elliott said, the supporting cast around Pribula “kind of carried their weight today.”
UP NEXT: Virginia’s home finale is next Saturday. At 12:30 p.m., UVA (5-5 overall, 3-4 ACC) meets North Carolina (5-5, 2-4) at Scott Stadium.
In what’s known as the South’s oldest rivalry, Carolina holds a 66-59-4 series lead. The Cavaliers edged the Tar Heels 17-16 in overtime last year in Chapel Hill, N.C. Virginia has won 11 of its past 13 games at Scott Stadium.
UNC lost 16-14 at home to Louisville on Saturday night.
UVA closes the regular season Nov. 28 against Virginia Tech at Lane Stadium in Blacksburg. To the winner will go the Commonwealth Cup, which the Hoos reclaimed last year in Charlottesville.
To receive Jeff White’s articles by email, click the appropriate box in this link to subscribe.