The countdown continues for Thursday night's Valero Alamo Bowl featuring No. 12 Oklahoma versus No. 14 Arizona.
Arizona coach Jeff Fisch praised Oklahoma during a series of pregame news conferences this month.
"Oklahoma has won ten games or more — 19 in their last 23 years," he said. "We've won ten games — three times in 100 years."
Oklahoma coach Brent Venables returned the compliments: "There's nobody in college football right now that's playing better football the last half of the season than the University of Arizona — a six game win streak."
The Oklahoma Sooners enter the game at 10-2 overall, while the Arizona Wildcats enter at 9-3.
Bowl officials said the matchup is the highest outside the College Football Playoff system this bowl season and the seventh time in the last 10 years the game has welcomed two Top 20 teams.
Fisch has led the Wildcats to their first bowl game since 2017, while Venables leads a team ranked third national in points scored per game with 43.2.
Both teams are playing in the Alamo Bowl for only the second time. Arizona lost its 2010 appearance to Oklahoma State, 38-10. Oklahoma won the Big 12 Championship during its 2021 visit against Oregon, 47-32.
ESPN on Tuesday listed Arizona as 2.5-point favorites. True freshman Jackson Arnold will start the game in place of previous starter Dillon Gabriel, who transferred to Oregon.
Pregame events continue before Thursday night's Valero Alamo Bowl featuring No. 12 Oklahoma versus No. 14 Arizona.
Both teams arrived in San Antonio over the weekend and held practice sessions on Tuesday with Arizona at Trinity University and Oklahoma at the UTSA Race Facility.
A pep rally for both teams took place Tuesday afternoon on the River Walk at 418 Villita street. It featured the head coaches, team captains, and pep bands.
The teams then attended Tuesday night's Spurs game against Utah at the Frost Bank Center.
Wednesday's pregame schedule included a joint press conference by both head coaches at the Alamodome and a kickoff luncheon for the coaches and players and emceed by ESPN at the Marriott Rivercenter.
On Thursday at 9 a.m., the "Fill The Bowl" community project takes place at the San Antonio Food Bank. The Alamo Bowl will award complimentary tickets to donors of the 30 most wanted items by the food bank.
In other bowl news, Alamo Bowl Chair Randy Smith thanked Valero Chief Operating Officer Gary Simmons at a recent news conference for the company's support of local students.
The support beats out more than 40 other bowl games across the country.
"We are so proud," Smith said. "You'll never stop hearing me say this. We are the number one bowl in scholarship giving. Period. And that's something that could never happen without you. It's the Valero Alamo Bowl, the Valero Texas Open. Valero exemplifies the servant's heart of San Antonio's community," Smith said.
The bowl game's high school and college scholarship programs combined award more than a million dollars in scholarship money to 180 local students each year.
Kickoff for the Alamo Bowl is at 8:15 Thursday night on ESPN.
