ARLINGTON, Texas - Baylor completed its final on-field piece of preparation for the 79th Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic by conducting a walk-through at AT&T Stadium on Wednesday afternoon.

The No. 5 Bears (11-1, 8-1 Big 12) spent about an hour doing light work for their New Year's Day game against No. 8 Michigan State (10-2, 7-1 Big Ten) before heading back to the team hotel for final meetings.

"It has been a great week and it is show time," Baylor Head Coach Art Briles said earlier in the day. "The thing about bowl weeks, it's kind of a challenge to you mentally - our players, our coaches - to stay focused and keep a high energy level.

"But our guys have maintained that and the Cotton Bowl certainly made that easier to attain just by the hospitality and the setting and the organization."

The walk-through marked the fifth time the Bears worked on the AT&T Stadium field in the last week. The four other times were regular practices.

Baylor has played in AT&T Stadium five consecutive seasons, including Nov. 29 in a 48-46 victory over Texas Tech. Playing in a venue convenient to the fan base is helpful, Bears running back Johnny Jefferson said.

"We feel like it's going to be our home crowd here," Jefferson said Tuesday. "I feel like we're going to see more green and yellow than just green."

The Goodyear Cotton Bowl celebrates its 79th edition on New Year's Day and kicks off a new era as a member of the College Football Playoff. Airtime on ESPN is set for 11:30 a.m. CST with kickoff slated for 11:45 a.m. For the first year, the Classic joins ESPN's bowl lineup with Dave Pasch and Brian Griese on the call from the booth with Tom Luginbill reporting from the sideline.

For the third consecutive year, ESPN Radio returns as the Classic's national radio partner. Brad Sham, the "Voice of the Dallas Cowboys," teams with Kelly Stoufer in the booth and Ian Fitzsimmons from the sideline to describe all the action from AT&T Stadium. This will be Sham's 18th straight year as the Classic's play-by-play man and his 22nd overall.

QUESTIONS FOR HEAD COACH Art Briles

COACH BRILES: It has been a great week. And it is show time. The thing about bowl weeks, it's kind of a challenge to you mentally, our players, our coaches to stay focused and keep a high energy level.

But our guys have maintained that, and the Cotton Bowl certainly made that easier to attain by just the hospitality and the setting and the organization that the Cotton Bowl has presented to us.

And it is just a great venue. It's a good thing we're indoors tomorrow, of course, the way the weather is going to be. And that was one of the things, when we saw that we had the opportunity to come to the Cotton Bowl that we were excited about. Because you play a bowl of this magnitude this late in the season, there shouldn't be any weather implications that keep people from having an opportunity to come see the game. So that's a big deal. It's a big deal for our fans, Michigan State's fans and football fans in general.

So we're extremely excited. We know it's a great chance for accomplishment for our football team, our program, our university on the national stage against on what I feel like is one of the top one to five, six teams in America in the last five years in Michigan State.

I think their record speaks for themselves. You don't have to throw any hype around it or anything. They've done a great job, Coach Dantonio and his staff over the last four or five years.

And that's hard to do in this profession. It's hard to stay at a level that everybody wants to be at. And they've been able to maintain it, and we hopefully feel like we're finally having a little substance in our program also.

Q. You won every game. But what happened with the playoff and everything, is there any more significance to the outcome of this game because of what happened and being so close to the playoff?

COACH BRILES: The game has huge significant value. I think from the national standpoint, the College Football Playoff deal could play into it. But that's -- that really hasn't been in our minds.

I mean, the thing we're looking at is just that we have an opportunity to play a really fine football team in a really great venue.

So this, to us, is motivation enough, particularly with how we get to this point last year at the Fiesta Bowl and didn't finish the job. So our motto has been finish the job since about last January

Q. Coach Briles, yesterday Mark Dantonio talked about getting to know you on a couple of trips you guys have taken. People know you as a coach but how much respect he has for you personally off the field as well.

Would you talk about your relationship with Coach Dantonio, please.

COACH BRILES: If you looked up "class" in the dictionary, I think you'd see his name next to it. Just what you see is what you get whether he's at Wal-Mart or whether he's at the Cotton Bowl. I mean, it's the same deal day in and day out.

That, to me, is what I equally respect about him because I've always thought consistency is the key to success. And people don't have to wonder about what you're thinking or feeling. They should be able to tell by how you act and how you respond.

So, yeah, I have had the fortune of being around him and his wife on two or three occasions for a four or five-day period. They're just great people. They really are. They're really good wholesome people.

Q. Art, other bowl games you've been to recently, you practiced off-site. Here you've been at AT&T Stadium the whole time. How beneficial has that been?

COACH BRILES: I think it's great for us and Michigan State, in that our guys go to the same locker room every day and go to the same field every day and have everything the same. So that part of it, the routine of that, I think is a big, big plus for us.

Plus, like I mentioned earlier, the weather is never an issue. Like I told our players, I checked it two weeks ago and it was 72 degrees, no wind. So it's going to be that way every time you step out there, and that's the good thing about it.

Q. Art, what's the health of your team like, particularly [Devin] Chafin, [Desmine] Hilliard coming in for tomorrow's game?

COACH BRILES: Getting Devin back is a huge boost. He's kind of a power back, short-yardage guy but certainly has the ability to be an every down back.

Just kind of had an up-and-down season with his injuries. But when he's been able to play, he's been very effective for us. Brings a different element to the table for us. So we're excited he's back and able to play.

And Dez (Desmine Hilliard) getting back at guard is a guy that can relieve Brox (Jarell Broxton) and/or [Blake] Muir a little bit. He can float and go either side. Extremely talented.

And he's missed about five games, so it's a deal where we're happy to have him back and add a little depth to our offensive line.

Q. Will he start?

COACH BRILES: No, we'll start [Jarell] Broxton.

Q. Coach, I know they're a young group but throughout the season, the secondary has been a little bit susceptible to the big play. Is that an area where you were kind of concentrating on during the month leading up to the game? And how confident are you feeling in the group right now?

COACH BRILES: We have confidence in our players or they wouldn't be on the field.

It's just all about making plays, either side of the ball, offense or defense. You have got an opportunity to make a play, you've got to understand the situation, the personnel, down and distance, time on the clock, score on the board, all that equates into what's happening on either side of the ball in a given situation.

So it's all about anticipation skills more than anything else defensively, particularly on the backend, linemen, receiver, personnel packages, all that stuff, plays into what might happen once the ball is snapped. And I think with experience that gives you a better opportunity to make plays while you're back there.

These guys, I guess were all pretty young with the exception of maybe [Terrell] Burt that played a little bit last year.

So they've done a good job. And like I say, we have a lot of confidence in them. And tomorrow will be a good opportunity for them to showcase their skills for Baylor again.

Q. For Bryce Petty, this will be his last game in a Bear uniform. Just talk about your relationship with him and how that's grown over the last couple years.

COACH BRILES: I mean, y'all know Bryce, know what kind of a man he is, person. He's just one of those -- I've had three or four once-in-a-career-type people and he's one of them because of his dedication, because of his attitude, because of his effort, because of his character, and just because of his willingness to put himself second.

And that's the thing that strikes me over him probably more than anything else. He is as unselfish as probably any person in a selfish position that I've been around. And we'll miss him tremendously. He's done a great job leading for us by his actions on and off the football field. And I certainly want him to have a great day for Baylor tomorrow and also for himself.

Q. Building off of that last question, Bryce has said on a handful of occasions this year that by the time he's all said and done, he wants to be the best that's ever come through Baylor.

Years down the road, when people look back, I know there's still a game left, but how do you think they'll reflect and look on Bryce Petty's career?

COACH BRILES: There have been a lot of great quarterbacks for Baylor, if we're talking about that position. I think the one that jumps out at everybody is RGIII (Robert Griffin, III). Robert put us on the map on a national scale, won the Heisman. Out of the last 50 years, there's been 49 that won it. So that's something that doesn't happen very often. So that puts you on a different level at that position.

But I think what Bryce has come in and what he's done for our program is equally impressive. I mean, a person to come in and win us back-to-back Big 12 championships, take us to two major bowls, get us into a New Year's Six bowl and with the potential to hopefully come out on top, then I don't think there would be anything wrong with putting a statue of him around the stadium some day.

Q. Art, you talked a little bit the other day about the impact of both Shawn Oakman and Spencer Drango coming back. What does that mean for next year's team?

COACH BRILES: First of all, I didn't know I wasn't supposed to mention that Spencer was coming back. He told all of us, and you found out who can't keep a secret. I really didn't know if he didn't want it out, I certainly wouldn't have said anything yesterday because that's his right and I want him to do it how he wants to do it. And I feel bad about talking about it wrongly, but I didn't think I was.

But, yeah, having those two guys back, what you're talking about is potentially two first-round picks next year, two guys by that time a year from now would have played in a lot of big football games and, hopefully, won a lot of football games, continuing on next year, that just have a whole lot of big-time experience.

And, you just -- you can't find people like that. You have to develop people like that. And so any time you can get fifth-year guys back that have been developed and have been in those situations throughout their career, then it just escalates you to another level. So it's -- it's a huge, huge benefit for our football team and the best thing we can do for them is to win tomorrow to really set ourselves up for a great, great year next year.

Q. Art, I wonder if you could speak to the importance of dictating pace tomorrow. I know Michigan State doesn't quite have the frenetic pace that you guys do but just the importance of you guys being able to dictate the pace out there.

COACH BRILES: I don't think we will try to dictate it. I think they do what they do. We do what we do. They're very good at what they do. And we're pretty good at what we do.

It's going to be a situation, to where contrary to a lot of things, I feel like we have to do a good job of being very balanced. We're not going to get out there and just try to play at this frantic pace just to say, hey, we're playing at a frantic pace.

What we're going to do is try to move the football and make first downs and hopefully get in scoring position and get some points on the board. So our objective is to go out and do whatever it takes to win the football game. And if that means playing slow, we'll play slow. If it means playing fast, we'll play fast.

Q. With Spencer [Drango] and Shawn [Oakman] coming back, Oklahoma did it in '06 to '08, how easy is it to think about the idea of a (conference championship) three-peat looking forward into next year?

COACH BRILES: We hadn't even thought about that quite honestly, and I'd tell you if we thought otherwise. But all of our focus, of course, has been finishing this season and that won't change until after tomorrow afternoon.

Q. Do you believe that you're maybe not just playing for a Cotton Bowl win but maybe you're playing for the perception nationally of Baylor on a national stage?

COACH BRILES: Oh, without question, yeah. And I think you would say the same about Michigan State or any of these other teams that are playing today or tomorrow.

I mean, you're playing for a university. It's like I've been telling our players: We're playing for the name on the front and the name on the back. We're playing for ourselves also. But we're also playing for Baylor University, first and foremost.

So it's a great chance, like I said, to give our university and our football program a national stage to elevate its status to the perception nationally which is what you're always doing. You're in the proving business. Every week you step on the field, you got to prove yourself.

Q. I know you're already used to this by now when you were talking about Bryce a little bit, but you had to go through it with Robert [Griffin, III] and even Nick [Florence] to an extent. And I know you'll worry about it on Friday. But can you talk a little bit about having to replace these quarterbacks? Are you even worried any more or is it just going to be another quarterback stepping into an Art Briles' system and you're not worried about developing another quarterback?

COACH BRILES: I don't like to use the word "worry," but there's always changes that you have to go through from a physical standpoint about who the next guy is going to be and a mental standpoint of what he can absorb and bring to the table. And a skill-level standpoint of how to use his skills to best set the people around him.

So that will be the process that we'll go through. We're always going to have good QBs in our system because we're going to recruit good guys that fit our system that can play that are extremely athletic. And we've got a couple guys on campus.

And I don't know if I can talk any more than that. But we've got a couple on campus that can play. And we'll go from there. Seth [Russell] has come in this year and done a great job playing when Petty was hurt. And we certainly have high hopes to continue that position at Baylor for a long time.

Q. We talked about you being one of three that have played and coached. Do you have any memories or what are your memories of playing in the Cotton Bowl?

COACH BRILES: I mean, it depends on how you define "playing." I mean, I was there. (laughter) It was fun. It was a great deal.

And, honestly, I was actually thinking about it last night. It was just a -- in my day, back in the day of the Southwest Conference, there was Southwest Conference, Big 8, I guess PAC10, Big Ten and then there was the East league. Was it still the ACC back then?

THE MODERATOR: Yes, sir.

COACH BRILES: If you played in the Southwest Conference, of course, if you won, you go to the Cotton Bowl. And that's the way it was for probably a 50-year period. I don't know how long but a long time. So that was kind of the ultimate goal of every kid who played in the SWC.

And when we came here in '76 actually, back then there were some pretty strong independents. Houston was a strong independent. I got there, they were No. 3 in America, "Sports Illustrated" preseason, that was the fall of '74.

Miami was an independent. Penn State was an independent. Notre Dame was an independent. So the climate was a little different.

So our first two years that I was there, we were an independent. And then '76, we came into the Southwest Conference and won it the first year. And so it was a huge momentum deal for the school and for all of us as players because that was the goal that we looked at when we came there, that we'd have a chance to get into the conference and play.

Because they really didn't want Houston in the conference, quite honestly. First year we were in the conference, we didn't get to play a home site. Had a chance to play either at the Astrodome which was our home site or Rice Stadium, so they could determine where we played our home game.

That was one of the exceptions that Houston had to make at that time to get into the league. I think it was the first two years, '76, '77.

It was a great thrill because that was -- like I said, that was the ultimate goal. Everybody played in the Southwest Conference back then. We came in here, played Maryland, they were 11-0. I think they were No. 3 or 4 in America and Houston was probably 8 or 9, 10, maybe. I think we were 10-1.

And we won the game. That's the best part that I remember, is being involved with those guys that you put a lot of time and effort and sweat into and having a chance to feel good with the outcome of the game.