Part of his gift that year was a ticket package to the Sugar Bowl, where Georgia, the team to which he was committed to play, was taking on then-lightly regarded West Virginia at the Georgia Dome.

"The whole time I was talking junk to West Virginia fans," said Davis, now a freshman offensive lineman for the Bulldogs. "I thought we were going to roll over them."

The SEC champion Bulldogs on the field thought the same thing. Instead, Big East champion West Virginia took a 28-0 lead in the first 16 minutes of the game. The Mountaineers went on to win, 38-35, and have been a national figure since.

"I remember when they jumped up 21-0, I got quiet real quick," Davis said. "The Big East made a statement with us that year. We don9t want the WAC to be able to do that, so we have to show up and play."

The Western Athletic Conference will be represented by Hawaii in Tuesday's Sugar Bowl. The game will be played at 8:30 p.m. EST at the Louisiana Superdome and televised by Fox.

Hawaii is the nation's only undefeated team but isn't considered a major threat to a team from a BCS conference. Georgia is a 7.5-point favorite in Tuesday night's game, but the Bulldogs were big favorites against the Mountaineers two years ago, too.

"I don9t know if we did a good enough job of convincing our guys how good West Virginia was, how fast they were," Georgia defensive line coach Rodney Garner said. "We've tried to really emphasize that this year with Hawaii."

Georgia has made changes in its bowl preparation since that loss to West Virginia. The Bulldogs now have more conditioning and fewer days off from bowl practices.

"I think we have a little different edge than we had before that game," Bulldogs head coach Mark Richt said.

Hawaii head coach June Jones has spent most of the week playing up his team's underdog role and some of his players are playing along.

"We need to get over the fact that we're here and that we're in this game," record-setting quarterback Colt Brennan said.

At the same time, the Warriors are using that status as extra motivation.

"A lot of people have been giving us trouble all week, like why are we here, and we feel like we want to prove to the world that we're capable of playing at this type of level," wide receiver Davone Bess said.

Hawaii is the third team from a non-BCS conference to qualify for a BCS bowl game. The first two, Utah and Boise State, both won. Boise State, which beat Oklahoma last year, set a precedent for WAC teams upsetting big favorites.

"That's definitely something you have to look at," Richt said. "Just like we're going to look at it saying we don't want it to happen to us, they'll look at it and want it to happen to them. It's definitely something we're both reiterating to our teams."

Boise State head coach Chris Petersen offered just one piece of advice to the Warriors — relax.

"I hope they don't feel pressure because then they won't play their best," he said. "I hope they will go over there and relax and play the way they are capable of playing. If they do that, they will represent their state and their school and the WAC very well."

(c) 2007, The Macon Telegraph (Macon, Ga.).

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