How many things can we say are the same today as they were almost 11 years ago? The changes happen faster and more regularly in sports, and it seems to be especially true for college football. But in the 2006 Sugar Bowl, West Virginia played Georgia. The Bulldogs were coached by Mark Richt. He coaches Miami, which takes on the Mountaineers in today’s Russell Athletic Bowl. Georgia’s leading rusher? Thomas Brown. He’s now Miami’s offensive coordinator.

“What’s crazy is if you throw on the old Georgia film and you throw on this film, it’s very similar,” WVU defensive coordinator Tony Gibson said.

And so it was the preparations for today’s game began with the teams scurrying for copies of the 2006 Sugar Bowl.

“We’ve changed a little bit on offense, but we are similar in some areas from back in the day,” said Brown, who replaced JaJuan Seider as Marshall’s running backs coach when Seider left the Thundering Herd for WVU in 2013. “I look at their defense and there are definitely some similarities that I remember. There’s definitely the same versatility as before.”