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Shockley's team favored

NOKIA SUGAR BOWL - Atlanta,Georgia

January 2, 2006, at 8:30 p.m. ET ABC

Bowl Matchup:Georgia vs. West Virginia

Coach: Chan Gailey (4th year)

Conference: Atlantic Coast

Record: 10-2

ATS: 6-6-0

O/U: 6-6

Bowl History:

2004 Citrus Syracuse W 51-14 (-6, 44)

2003 Humanitarian Tulsa W 52-10 (7, 46.5)

2000 Peach Lsu L 14-28 (-8.5)

1999 Gator Miami Florida L 13-28 (-4.5)

1998 Gator Notre Dame W 35-28 (2.5)

1997 Carquest West Virginia W 35-30

1991 Aloha Stanford W 18-17

1990 Citrus Nebraska W 45-21

1985 All American Michigan State W 17-14

1978 Peach Purdue L 21-41

Schedule/Results:

September 3 No. 18 Boise State W 48-13 1-0 (0-0)

September 10 South Carolina W 17-15 2-0 (1-0)

September 17 Louisiana Monroe W 44-7 3-0 (1-0)

September 24 at Mississippi St. W 23-10 4-0 (2-0)

October 8 at No. 8 Tennessee W 27-14 5-0 (3-0)

October 15 at Vanderbilt W 34-17 6-0 (4-0)

October 22 Arkansas W 23-20 7-0 (5-0)

October 29 at No. 16 Florida L 14-10 7-1 (5-1)

November 12 No. 15 Auburn L 31-30 7-2 (5-2)

November 19 Kentucky W 45-13 8-2 (6-2)

November 26 at No. 20 Georgia Tech W 14-7 9-2 (6-2)

December 3 at No. 3 LSU W 34-14 10-2 (6-2)

Trends:

• Georgia is 5-3-0 ATS in its last 9 lined games
• After a win are 8-1
• When playing outside conference are 10-0
• After out gaining opponent are 8-1
• When playing on turf are 7-1
• When playing in January are 5-0

With a chance to play in the Sugar Bowl, it was sweet revenge forGeorgia. The Bulldogs routed No. 3 LSU 34-13 in a shocker in the Southeastern Conference title game to avenge their loss to the same Tigers in the 2003 championship game. Their reward is a "home" game - the Sugar Bowl will be hosted at the Georgia Dome this year due to Hurricane Katrina damage in New Orleans - against West Virginia, champs of the Big East.

Senior QB D.J. Shockley guidedGeorgia to the SEC crown, getting a few big plays on offense and defense to de-claw the Tigers. He will be expected to do the same against West Virginia, but will need to complete more than six passes to get the job done.

It’s the eighth Sugar Bowl forGeorgia, which brings a 10-2 season mark to Atlanta. Those two losses were back-to-back conference defeats coming against Auburn, which was ranked No. 7 at the time, and at Florida. It threatened to impound the Bulldog season, but they rallied after those back-to-back losses, destroying Kentucky and winning at Georgia Tech.

Then, the surprisingly easy time they had with LSU. They took control early with a pair of early scores coming on long TD passes, a blocked punt and an interception to blow the game open. But will this win give Bulldog fans – or Bulldog backers – a false sense of security?

They did not move the ball well against the Tigers and relied on big plays to blow the game open. Sean Bailey caught a pair of touchdown passes, doubling his output for the entire season. Fortunately, both went for long TDs. Shockley was just 6-of-12 for the game.

So what is the Bulldog game plan?Georgia boasts a balanced offense where three receivers made 30 or more catches from Shockley in 2005, including 6-foot-8, 260-pound TE Leonard Pope. In all, 10 different players caught a scoring pass. On the ground, Thomas Brown and Danny Ware churned out more than 1,200 yards between them and averaged nearly five yards a pop.

But the talent runs deep forGeorgia on both sides of the ball. They placed eight first-teamers on the All-SEC team and two more on the second team. The defense – in particular the pass coverage group – got lots of attention from the voters. Corners Tim Jennings and DeMario Minter along with safety Greg Blue made the first team for a unit that ranked fifth in the nation in points allowed and was +12 in turnovers.

However, it won’t be the aerial attack they need to worry about in the Sugar Bowl. West Virginia brings the third-weakest passing game in the nation to the game. The Mountaineers (10-1 SU, 8-2 ATS) are all about the run, averaging more than 50 tries and 260 yards per game. And they boast a QB in Pat White who ran for more yards than he passed. They also boasted one of the nation’s toughest road defenses, which could pose problems forGeorgia as they head for the Georgia Dome. Combine that with a solidGeorgia defensive unit and you have the possibility of a low-scoring affair.

Both West Virginia andGeorgia played primarily UNDERs on the road this year (4-1 in five games). There is another trend that may play into this theory as well.Georgia has not been efficient this year in the red zone. The Bulldogs settled for field goal attempts on one-third of their trips inside the 20, which could conspire to keep the score down if that trend prevails in Atlanta.

With the game’s move from the Superdome, this is essentially aGeorgia home game. The Georgia Dome is barely an hour from theGeorgia campus, making for a likely sea of red-shirted Bulldog supporters. It will also be the third straight gameGeorgia has played at the Dome. They beat Georgia Tech here to end their season, before beating LSU in the SEC title game. So they are familiar with the surroundings and the turf as they play there again in the transplanted Sugar Bowl game. In what shapes up as a defensive showdown, crowd noise could become an issue, especially for a Mountaineer team that relies on White - a redshirt freshman - to audible and call run plays at the line of scrimmage.

The game also shapes up as a destiny storyline for Shockley. He spent four years as the backup before finally getting the reins of the offense this year. Steady, but unspectacular, Shockley has gotten his team this far and seems intent on carrying the job through. For their opponents, it’s more about earning respect for the conference, which has been maligned since losing three powerhouse schools to the ACC last year.

The game should not come down to absentee personnel.Georgia escaped the SEC championship game without any significant injury damage. In fact, they got a bonus when LB Tony Taylor returned early from a knee injury and made an impact, making six tackles against LSU. Another player to watch on the defensive side is Quentin Moses. The hulking DE had 10.5 sacks in the conference this year and also contributed 20 tackles for losses. Ditto for free safety Greg Blue, a heavy hitter who will be expected to take some shots at any Mountaineer ball-carrier coming out of the backfield.Georgia knocked LSU QB JaMarcus Russell out of the SEC game and registered five sacks. But West Virginia allowed the fewest sacks in the Big East.

All in all, a sweet matchup in the Sugar Bowl.

Coach: Rich Rodriguez (5th year)

Conference: Big East

Record: 10-1

ATS: 8-2-0

O/U: 5-5

Bowl History:

2004 Gator Florida St. L 18-30 (-9.5, 45)

2003 Gator Maryland L 7-41 (-4.5, 51.5)

2000 Music City Mississippi W 49-38 (4)

1998 Insight Missouri L 31-34 (-2)

1996 Gator North Carolina L 13-20 (6)

1994 Carquest South Carolina L 21-24

1993 Sugar Florida L 7-41

1989 Gator Clemson L 7-27

1988 Fiesta Notre Dame L 21-34

1987 Sun Oklahoma State L 33-35

Schedule/Results:

September 4 at Syracuse W 15-7 1-0 (1-0)

September 10 Wofford W 35-7 2-0 (1-0)

September 17 at Maryland W 31-19 3-0 (1-0)

September 24 East Carolina W 20-15 4-0 (1-0)

October 1 No. 3 Virginia Tech L 34-17 4-1 (1-0)

October 8 at Rutgers W 27-14 5-1 (2-0)

October 15 No. 19 Louisville W 46-44 6-1 (3-0)

October 22 at South Florida Postponed

November 2 Connecticut W 45-13 7-1 (4-0)

November 9 at Cincinnati W 38-0 8-1 (5-0)

November 24 Pittsburgh W 45-13 9-1 (6-0)

December 3 at South Florida W 28-13 10-1 (7-0)

Trends:

• West Virginia has the third-worst passing game in the nation at 116.2 yards per game
• West Virginia is 5-0-0 ATS in its last 5 lined games
• After a win are 8-2
• When playing outside conference are 6-4
• When playing on turf are 8-2
• When playing in January are 0-3

Putting your money against West Virginia this bowl season is like betting against the spread. Spread formation, that is.

The Mountaineers, champs of the Big East, bring a unique perspective and unique personnel to the Sugar Bowl, where they will take on SEC championGeorgia. It’s one thing to play no tight end and run with four wideouts and pass like crazy. But use the spread offense in order to run the ball? “I bet they would say, ‘What do you mean run the ball out of the shotgun?’ ” coach Rich Rodriguez said last month, when asked what all-time coaching greats Bear Bryant and Woody Hayes might think of his scheme.

No matter, the Mountaineers led the Big East in rushing for a fourth straight year and compiled a 10-1 mark along the way. Their lone loss was a 34-17 setback at the hands of Virginia Tech. Coach Rodriguez refers to that game as the team’s only “slip-up.” But other than their dramatic OT win against Louisville, there were not a lot of tough games on the schedule to trip them up.

They handled South Florida with ease to end the year with a six-game winning streak, and a six-game streak of covering the spread. On the season, they covered eight of 10 games on the Vegas board and were 5-0 ATS on the highway. And they did it with a redshirt freshman at the controls and a true freshman as the workhorse back. “I don't think there were a whole lot of folks that expected us to win 10 games this year," coach Rodriguez told reporters last month. “The guys in that room really believed that they could do it.”

QB Pat White was one of the believers. The fleet pivot took over the job in early November and has changed the complexion of the Mountaineer attack. If he were a basketball point guard, he might be criticized as a shoot-first, pass-second player. On the gridiron he is scoot first, pass second.

White ran for 875 yards on the season, while passing for just 708. He averaged 8.2 yards per scamper, somethingGeorgia’s defense had better be prepared for. And he has gotten better as the season wears on. He ran for a school-record 220 yards against Pitt and ripped off 177 more – and two scores – in the season-ending battle against South Florida. His scoring dashes of 76 and 65 yards suppressed any upset notions the Bulls may have had.

White’s backfield partner-in-crime is rookie RB Steve Slaton, who scored 14 rushing TDs, while chewing up 924 yards on just 179 carries. He averaged 5.2 yards per carry as the Mountaineers finished fifth in the nation in running offense. When they do throw it, Brandon Myles and Darius Reynaud are the primary targets. But there were only two schools in the nation with fewer passing yards in 2005.

This fact negates one of theGeorgia strong suits – its aggressive and talented pass defenders. On the defensive side, West Virginia proved to be a bunch of ballhawks in 2005. They tallied 17 interceptions on the season, with Dee McCann and Mike Lorello leading the way. Lorello, the senior safety, led the team in tackles and forced fumbles, while hard-rock strong safety Jahmile Addae anchored the defense with 59 tackles.

Pursuit and containment of QB D.J. Shockley will be key to this Sugar Bowl matchup, a game which is about more than West Virginia’s program. It’s about respect for the Big East. Many prognosticators bemoaned the automatic BCS berth to the conference’s title holder, pointing to its overall weakness after the defections of Miami, Boston College and Syracuse to the ACC. That grumbling would end with a West Virginia win over the champs of the vaunted SEC.

Doing so requires that the Mountaineers break a three-game run of bowl futility. They were swamped 30-18 last year by Florida State in the Gator Bowl, one year to the day after they suffered a humiliating 41-7 thumping at the hands of Maryland.

On the injury front, West Virginia may have freshman RB Jason Gwaltney back. He started the season as the primary option, but hurt his knee against Rutgers. He was listed as questionable, but would give the Mountaineers even more running options if he is available.

The problem will be ifGeorgia’s speedy defense manages to contain the Mountaineers’ running game. Will White be able to muster a response through the air against aGeorgia team that boasted eight first-team all-conference players, many of them on defense? And what about the fact that the transplanted Sugar Bowl – moved to the Georgia Dome from the Superdome because of the Hurricane Katrina tragedy in New Orleans – is akin to a Bulldog home game? And the fact this will be Georgia’s third straight game at the Dome, after beating Georgia Tech there and upsetting LSU in the SEC title game?

West Virginia doesn’t seem to mind being on the road. They have won and covered the spread in five straight on the highway, albeit it against teams a few notches belowGeorgia in terms of pedigree. Four of those five 2005 victories doubled as UNDER plays. So, the young Mountaineers will either claim their first bowl in recent memory or end their dream season on a sour note at the Sugar Bowl. They opened as 7-point dogs to the Bulldogs with the total opening at 45.

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