Virginia football’s offensive line is filled with grown men

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Yesterday was the first “Depth Chart Tuesday” for the Virginia Cavaliers this season. With that came wandering eyes throughout the nation to see just how experienced this football team actually is, specifically the front five that will be protecting Beau Pribula and being the catalyst for a successful ground game this season.

McKale Boley (LT) is entering his 5th year of college football, and he has the least experience. Noah Josey (LG) is in his 6th year, as is Makilan Thomas (RG), and both Drake Metcalf (C) and Monroe Mills (RT) will line up in their 7th season as college football players.

How did we get here? Well, it’s as simple as Virginia playing within the rules of the NCAA and these athletes squeezing out every ounce of college football as they possibly can. Love it or hate it, it’s where college football is at right now, and Virginia will be using it to their advantage this season.

Every story needs context, however. To the untrained eye, the depth chart looks ridiculous, but rest assured these guys have not taken the football field for 12+ games a year since 2019.

McKale Boley (LT)

Boley is a rare breed in today’s world of college football. This is his fifth year of college football and his fifth year at Virginia. He has actually exceeded the four-game redshirt rule in every year, playing at least six games in all of the previous four years, but the reason he was granted a fifth year is tied to a special UVA waiver stemming from the November 2022 shooting that killed UVA players Lavel Davis JR, Devin Chandler, and D’Sean Perry.

Virginia canceled its final two games of that season and then requested special eligibility from the NCAA, which was granted.

Noah Josey (LG)

Noah Josey has also been a Cavalier throughout his college experience. He was at Virginia a year before Boley in 2021 as a freshman. He appeared in only one game in 2021 and was also part of the group granted tragedy-related eligibility relief from the NCAA, even though he played in ten games. The NCAA granted those on the team a full season of eligibility in 2022.

So, Josey’s first two seasons were basically a wash, which brings us to his sixth and final year in 2026.

Makilan Thomas (RG)

Thomas is another sixth year on the Virginia roster. He started his college football career at Arkansas State in 2021, where he played in four games and redshirted within the rules. He played the entirety of the 2022, 2023, and 2024 seasons before transferring to UVA in 2025.

Instead of playing his final year in 2025, he unfortunately broke his foot during training camp in July and missed the whole season. As a result, his final year of eligibility is in 2026.

Drake Metcalf (C)

Metcalf is in his seventh year of college football, which raised eyebrows among folks who weren’t paying attention beforehand. His first season was with Stanford in 2020, where he did not appear in a single game and was also a beneficiary of a COVID eligibility year. So he redshirted in 2020, played in all 12 games in 2021, but still used his COVID eligibility year after that.

So, he entered the 2022 season with four years of eligibility remaining. Spent the 2023 season with UCF before he transferred to UVA in 2024, when he suffered a torn Achilles and missed the whole season. This gave him two more years of eligibility entering the 2025 season, and here we are in 2026, awaiting Metcalf to take the field in his seventh year as a college athlete.

Monroe Mills (RT)

Monroe Mills has a similar eligibility history as Metcalf. He played one game for Oklahoma State in 2020, using his COVID waiver, and played one game in 2021 for the Cowboys when he used his redshirt. He then transferred to Texas Tech in 2022 and was one of the Raiders’ starters for two seasons.

In 2024, he transferred to Louisville and started two games before coming to Charlottesville for his final year of eligibility. Mills suffered a torn ACL in the spring before the 2025 season and sat the full year, so he was granted a seventh year.

These players, and others like them across the country, have the right to be on the field this season. The NCAA will end situations like this with the five-year eligibility rule that became effective August 1, 2026. There is a transition period, however, and that’s how we are here today.

Clear as mud? Welcome to college athletics in 2026.

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