The Sugar Bowl , the second BCS bowl , and the final game of six played on January 2 , 2006 , was contested at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta , having been , like the New Orleans Bowl , displaced from the Louisiana Superdome by Hurricane Katrina . West Virginia , representing the Big East as conference champion , upset Georgia , the winner of the SEC championship game , 38 – 35 . Georgia was looking for its third straight win in Atlanta in as many appearances , having won its last regular season game ( against rival Georgia Tech on the Tech campus ) and the SEC championship game ( over LSU ) at the Georgia Dome , located near the Bulldogs ' Athens , Georgia campus , but West Virginia took a 28 – 0 lead in the game 's first 16 minutes and withstood a furious Georgia comeback before scoring late in the fourth quarter to secure the win . Mountaineers freshman running back Steve Slaton began a career day early , running for a 52-yard score just 2:48 into the game en route to accumulating 204 yards on 26 carries against a Bulldogs defense that entered the game having allowed only 3.5 yards per carry . On the subsequent West Virginia possession , freshman quarterback Pat White accounted 56 yards of a 64-yard scoring drive , connecting with wide receiver Darius Reynaud for a three-yard touchdown pass ; Reynaud caught six passes for 50 yards on the day . Just two plays into the next Bulldogs drive , running back Danny Ware lost the first of what would be three Georgia fumbles on the day , and West Virginia took just five plays to go 26 yards , scoring a touchdown on a 13-yard Reynaud run . The Mountaineers defense stymied an additional Georgia drive and forced a fumble by Georgia quarterback D.J. Shockley , setting up a 50-yard drive that culminated in Slaton 's second touchdown scamper , an 18-yarder that gave West Virginia a 28-point lead just 15:50 into the game . Shockley began to have success against the Mountaineers defense in the second quarter , completing three straight passes for a total of 46 yards before running back Kregg Lumpkin , who finished the day with 67 yards on nine carries , scored from 34 yards to put Georgia on the board . After their defense forced a West Virginia punt , the Bulldogs went 91 yards in just six plays , with Thomas Brown 's scoring on a 52-yard run ; Brown has held largely in check the remainder of the game , totaling only 78 yards on nine carries . A long run by West Virginia fullback Owen Schmitt , who finished the day having run for 80 yards on nine carries , set up a 27-yard Pat McAfee field goal , but Shockley , who finished the day having completed 20 of 33 passes for 278 yards and having gained 62 yards on eight carries , drove his team 80 yards in under five minutes and hit wide receiver Leonard Pope , who caught six passes for 52 yards on the day , from four yards to cut the West Virginia halftime lead to 10 points . After combining to give up more than 600 yards in total offense in the first half , both defenses tightened in the second half and although Brown lost a fumble to the Mountaineers , neither team managed a score until 1:44 remained in the third quarter when Shockley hit A.J. Bryant for a 34-yard touchdown to bring the Bulldogs to within three points . White continued to play well through air and on the ground in the fourth quarter , though , and led his team on an 80-yard drive that ended when Slaton ran for a 52-yard touchdown and once more extended the West Virginia lead to ten . For the game , White completed 11 of 14 passes for 124 yards — completing four passes for 64 yards to senior Brandon Myles , his leading receiver — but also added 79 yards on 24 carries in contributing to his team 's 386-yard rushing performance . Shockley drove his team once more , connecting with Mohamed Massaquoi , whom he four times for 43 yards on the day , to convert a crucial third down and then finding Bryan McClendon , who caught three balls for 72 yards , on a 43-yard scoring drive . The Bulldogs defense held but West Virginia punter Phil Brady successfully carried out a fake punt and ran for a first down , allowing the Mountaineers , behind Slaton and White , to run out the clock , run their season to 11 – 1 , and prevent the Big East from going winless in four bowls ; South Florida , Rutgers , and Louisville had all lost earlier . The game was the final of three games hosted by the Georgia Dome in four days ; the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl was held on December 30 , and an NFL contest between the Carolina Panthers and Atlanta Falcons was played on January 1 , which the Panthers won 44 – 11 . The game returned to New Orleans in 2007
Big East
Big East Conference (1979–2013)
2005 West Virginia Mountaineers football team