2005 West Virginia Mountaineers football team
| 2005 West Virginia Mountaineers football | |
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Big East champion
Sugar Bowl champion |
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Sugar Bowl, W 38–35 vs. Georgia
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| Conference | Big East Conference |
| Ranking | |
| Coaches | No. 6 |
| AP | No. 5 |
| 2005 record | 11–1 (7–0 Big East) |
| Head coach | Rich Rodriguez (5th year) |
| Offensive coordinator | Calvin Magee (2nd year) |
| Offensive scheme | Spread |
| Defensive coordinator | Jeff Casteel (4th year) |
| Base defense | 3–3–5 |
| Home stadium |
Mountaineer Field at Milan Puskar Stadium (Capacity: 60,000) |
| 2005 Big East football standings | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Conf | Overall | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Team | W | L | W | L | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| #5 West Virginia $ | 7 | – | 0 | 11 | – | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| #19 Louisville | 5 | – | 2 | 9 | – | 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rutgers | 4 | – | 3 | 7 | – | 5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| South Florida | 4 | – | 3 | 6 | – | 6 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Pittsburgh | 4 | – | 3 | 5 | – | 6 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Connecticut | 2 | – | 5 | 5 | – | 6 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cincinnati | 2 | – | 5 | 4 | – | 7 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Syracuse | 0 | – | 7 | 1 | – | 10 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 2005 West Virginia Mountaineers football team completed the season with an 11–1 record. The Mountaineers won their third consecutive Big East title with a conference record of 7–0. They ended the season with a 38–35 Sugar Bowl win over Georgia.
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.
The 2005–2006 West Virginia Mountaineers opened the football season at Syracuse. Syracuse was playing its first game under new head coach Greg Robinson. The Mountaineers committed 5 turnovers, including 4 lost fumbles, but managed to hold on to a lead for a 15–7 win. Syracuse started the scoring with a 5-yard touchdown run by tailback Damien Rhodes.
West Virginia tied the game at 7 with Eric Wicks's 32-yard interception return for a touchdown. Right before halftime, the Mountaineers had a chance to take a 10–7 lead, but freshman place-kicker Pat McAfee missed a 47-yard field goal wide right. He redeemed himself later with a 33-yard field goal with 5:33 left in the third quarter.
With just over 8 minutes left in the game, West Virginia's Ernest Hunter tackled Perry Patterson in the end zone for a safety to increase the lead to 12–7. On West Virginia's next possession they added a 26-yard field goal by McAfee with 3 minutes left. The win brought the Mountaineers record to 1–0, and the Orangemen fell to 0–1. The win increased WVU's streak to 4 wins over Syracuse.
Backup quarterback Pat White ran for 107 yards and a touchdown to lead West Virginia to a 35-7 victory over I-AA Wofford. West Virginia finished the game with over 500 yards of total offense, and no turnovers.
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