The following is a list of VMI Keydets football seasons. Representing the Virginia Military Institute (VMI), the VMI Keydets football program competes in the Southern Conference (SoCon) at the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) level. VMI competed in the SoCon for 79 years, from 1924 to 2002, and moved to the Big South Conference in 2003, but returned to the SoCon beginning in 2014. [1] The Keydets have played their home games out of 10,000-seat Alumni Memorial Field since 1962. VMI is led by head coach Danny Rocco, who took over in 2023.
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Though VMI played its first intercollegiate football game in 1873 against Washington and Lee University, the first official team was fielded in 1891 under coach Walter Taylor. The program was successful early on, notching two undefeated seasons in 1894 and 1899, and another 9–0 campaign in 1920. VMI captured the first of seven conference titles in 1951 under head coach Tom Nugent with a 5–0 mark in SoCon play and a 7–3 record overall. The Keydets won four additional SoCon in a six-year span between 1957 and 1962 under the direction of John McKenna, who, to this day, is the all-time coaching wins in program history.
After playing as an independent, VMI joined the South Atlantic Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SAIAA) in 1918. In 2020, the Keydets earned their first trip to the NCAA Division I Football Championship playoffs since the subdivision's inception in 1978 after winning SoCon championship. This marked the program's first winning season since 1981. They followed up with another winning season in 2021, the first back-to-back winning campaigns since posting six straight from 1957 to 1962.