2005 Sugar Bowl
The 2005 Sugar Bowl was a postseason American college football bowl game between the Virginia Tech Hokies and the Auburn Tigers. It was the 71st edition of the annual Sugar Bowl football contest. Virginia Tech represented the Atlantic Coast Conference in the contest, while Auburn represented the Southeastern Conference. Despite Auburn’s victory and undefeated season, they were not named national champions.
About 2005 Sugar Bowl in brief
The 2005 Sugar Bowl was a postseason American college football bowl game between the Virginia Tech Hokies and the Auburn Tigers. It was the 71st edition of the annual Sugar Bowl football contest. Virginia Tech represented the Atlantic Coast Conference in the contest, while Auburn represented the Southeastern Conference. In a defensive struggle, Auburn earned a 16–13 victory despite a late-game rally by Virginia Tech. Despite Auburn’s victory and undefeated season, they were not named national champions. Several players from each team were selected in the 2005 NFL Draft and went on to careers in the National Football League. The Hokies entered the 2004 college football season having gone 8–5 in 2003, culminating with a 52–49 loss to California in the Insight Bowl. The 2003 season had also been Virginia Tech’s new year in the Big East Conference, and it began the season unranked for the first time since 1998, but recovered to win its next game—against Western Michigan 63–0. The game was the Hokies’ first game in their new conference was a non-conference contest at FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland, in which they lost to the top-ranked USC Trojans, 24–13. The next week, Virginia Tech won its first game of the season against 16th-ranked Virginia and ninth-ranked Miami, and was picked to finish sixth in the annual ACC poll held in July. It finished 10–2 in the regular season prior to the Sugar Bowl, which was selected by the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) Virginia Tech was selected as a participant in the game after winning the ACC football championship during the team’s first season in the conference.
Auburn, meanwhile, finished the season undefeated at 12–0 and was named champion of the SEC. The Tigers defeated fourth-ranked LSU and fifth-ranked Georgia during the course of theSeason. The team was one of five teams to finish theRegular season undefeated; the others were Southern California, Oklahoma, Utah, and Boise State. USC and Oklahoma were selected to play in the national championship game in favor of two other undefeated teams: the University of Southern California and Oklahoma. By virtue of its lower ranking in the BCS poll, Auburn was left out of the national Championship game and was selected toplay in theugar Bowl. Three voters in the final Associated Press poll voted Auburn the number one team in the country, but their votes were not enough to deny USC a national championship, as voted by members of the Associated Press and Coaches’ polls. Auburn opened the second half with its only touchdown drive of the game, giving Auburn a 16-0 lead, which it held into the fourth quarter. Late in the quarter, Tech quarterback Bryan Randall cut Auburn’s lead to 16-13 on an 80-yard pass that resulted in another touchdown. When Auburn recovered an onside kick to have another chance on offense, the Tigers ran out the clock and secured the win. In recognition of his game-winning performance, Auburn quarterback Jason Campbell was named the game’s most valuable player.
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