The 2005 West Virginia Mountaineers

West Virginia Mountaineers

The West Virginia Mountaineers are the athletic teams of West Virginia University. The school is a member of National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I and the Big East Conference. On July 1, 2012 the Mountaineers will switch conferences, moving from the Big East to the Big 12, becoming...

 football team completed the season with an 11–1 record. The Mountaineers won their third consecutive Big East

Big East Conference

The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletics conference consisting of sixteen universities in the eastern half of the United States. The conference's 17 members participate in 24 NCAA sports...

 Title with a conference record of 7–0. They ended the season with a 38–35 Sugar Bowl

2006 Sugar Bowl

The 2006 Nokia Sugar Bowl game was played on January 2, 2006, as part of the Bowl Championship Series. This 72nd edition of the Sugar Bowl featured the West Virginia Mountaineers, champions of the Big East, and the Southeastern Conference Champion Georgia Bulldogs...

 win over Georgia

2005 Georgia Bulldogs football team

The 2005 Georgia Bulldogs football team completed the season with a 10-3 record. Winning 10 games for the fourth year in a row, Georgia tied its own record for consecutive 10 win seasons. The Bulldogs, with a regular season SEC record of 6-2, won the SEC East and advanced to the 2005 SEC...

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Preseason

The 2005 season followed a disappointing 2004 campaign, where the Mountaineers started the season with National Championship expectations only to finish the season 8-4. Despite a number of starters returning on defense, the question marks on offense lead many to think the '05 season was going to be a rebuilding year with most national publications picking the Mountaineers to finish behind Louisville and Pitt or lower. With QB Rasheed Marshall and RB K.J. Harris leaving, the quarterback and halfback positions were open. Adam Bednarik and redshirt-freshman Pat White were competing for the spot, with Coach Rich Rodriguez opting to use a rotation that allowed them both to play. It marked the first season for the "new" Big East, welcoming Louisville, Cincinnati, and South Florida into the league following Boston College leaving to join former members Virginia Tech and Miami in the ACC.

2005 Schedule