Arizona fans are eager to see if a healthy Trevin Wade can help contain OSU's prolific passing attack.

Tim Kish, Defensive Coordinator

Opening statement:
We’ve had great preparation these last couple of weeks getting ready for the game. We have nothing but the utmost respect for Oklahoma State University offense. We know this is gonna be a tremendous challenge for us. It seems like in the Pac 10 there’s a tremendous challenge every week. What’s unlikely is we’re sitting here talking about the team that’s number one in the country in total offense. I don’t think that goes as highly regarded when you’re playing the likes of Oregon and some folks like that then you really realize you have a tremendous clallenge on your hands, going up against this kind of offense. We realize that, we respect that, we prepare that way and we’re looking forward to the challenge here Wednesday night
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On preparing his defense for OSU wide receiver Justin Blackmon:
I’ve been asked that question already a couple times and I’m gonna tell you, the hard thing about (Oklahoma State’s) offense is they’ve got several tremendous receivers. It’s not just Blackmon – he seems like catches everything within 10 feet of him so he’s his own entity. The other receivers in that corps are really gifted athletes and we respect them as well. It’s gonna be a challenge to us because we can’t throw all our eggs at one receiver and expect to leave the other guys isolated. So that’s gonna be our challenge going into this thing.

On evaluating defensive back Trevin Wade’s performance during the team’s preparation over the last month:
He’s had great focus out there at practice and he’s been a good leader. I think his preparation has probably been the best it has been all year, so from that standpoint we’re enthused by that and that’s usually a reflection of his play at the end of the game.

On compacting the amount of the team’s bowl preparation from last year:
I think sending the guys home for a couple days really made a big difference. We were there for almost eight or nine days last year in San Diego. It’s just an excuse to say that’s the reason we didn’t come out and play well. (This year) we had plenty of time to get prepared at home when we weren’t on the road recruiting. So we felt like we had an opportunity to let these guys go home and be with their families. Even though they didn’t get to spend Christmas Day with them, they were there prior to and I’m speaking for all four of them that they appreciated having that little break in between. It helped when we came back here and got into San Antonio Christmas Eve and went out and practiced Christmas Day. The focus has been tremendous with our players. The energy level has been up, the enthusiasm has been up and we expect that to transfer over to Wednesday night’s game.

On how preparing has changed without former Co-Defensive Coordinator Greg Brown:
I’m sleeping at the convention center meeting room across from the hotel. You know, it’s been interesting. We have a routine that we go through setting up the gameplan and obviously I’ve been doing most of that myself. Certainly, Coach (Mike) Stoops has been voicing his opinion on some things that we want to have in the gameplan and ready to go for Wednesday night. We want to have enough ammunition going into the game but we want it to be simple enough to go out and execute. We know the challenge we have ahead of us is trying to stop them and trying to make them out-execute us. That’s kind of been the plan for this whole thing.

We are short a coach. You know, Joe Salavea is coming in as our defensive line coach. He’s been here for three or four practices right now. It’s great to have him around our guys. He’s a great motivator and it will help having him on the field Wednesday and we’ll take care of the other position after the bowl game.