[Quack Attack]

Arizona Head Coach Mike Stoops

Opening Remarks: "We are excited like everybody to get back and get started. This is going to be another tremendous challenge. This is a terrific Conference one-through-ten so it presents some unique challenges week in and week out. We haven't established ourselves as where we want to be in the upper half of the Conference, but I think through this journey we have really come close. Developing a team to win consistently takes a unique group of players. I feel like we have some of those ingredients this year, including a senior quarterback and 10 starters back offensively who will be able to put some points on the board. This is the best group of offensive players we have had since I've been here.

Defensively, we`ve lost some tremendous players so we will have to play better team defense. We lack some of the experience that you would like defensively, but young and enthusiastic and playing scared is not a bad place to be."


On carrying momentum over to this year: "When you look at the last two years, we won four of our last six, and we`ve done that back to back years. However, we haven't gotten off to the start that we would have liked. This season, we open up with two teams at home, with two teams that had lesser or the same record as us in 2007. We have always played strong out-of-Conference games. You go through some tough times, but it still tells you a lot about your kids when they fight through."

Arizona QB Willie Tuitama

On understanding the Arizona offense: "I feel like last year in terms of the offense, when we started we knew what we were doing, but we didn't know how to do it until mid-way through the season. As an offense, we are the most comfortable we've ever been. We are doing things now and making plays with ease, but that's because we have a better understanding of the offense."