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The Arizona Wildcats travel to Corvallis to begin Pacific-10 play against the Oregon State Beavers.

The Arizona Wildcats travel to Corvallis to begin Pacific-10 play against the Oregon State Beavers. They will face off at Reser Stadium on Saturday at 4:30 p.m.

Both 2-1 teams are looking to bounce back from losses last week to strong non-conference foes in closing that portion of their schedules.

Arizona works against a streak of tough going against the Beavers, dating to the year it helped OSU gain bowl eligibility in November 1999. The Beavers have won nine of the last 10 in the series.

The UA's lone win came at Corvallis in 2005.

In the matchup, the UA's Pac-10-leading rushing attack faces off against OSU's stingy rushing defense, rated No. 17 nationally.  

Arizona's defense – ranked 14th in the country – matches up against Jacquizz Rodgers and his brother James. The latter's fly sweep killed UA a year ago in Tucson, gaining 102 yards.

Meantime, Arizona counters with its top RB, Nic Grigsby, who is seven spots (5th) ahead of Jacquizz Rodgers on the NCAA rushing chart at 133 yards per game.

Sophomore quarterback Nick Foles will make his first start for the Wildcats, and Matt Scott – who started the first three games – is expected to see action.

Arizona had what head coach Mike Stoops called a total team effort at Iowa in dropping one to the Hawkeyes, 27-17, last week. Iowa hung on to the ball for 38 minutes and took advantage of Arizona's uncertainty from the onset, marching 10 plays and 75 yards off the opening kickoff.

The Cats had more than their share of chances, held a second-quarter lead and were within a touchdown late in the third quarter.

Inability to move the chains kept any semblance of continuity out of Arizona's attack, which otherwise checked in with an advantage (5.0 to 4.1) in average yards per play. The UA defense held Iowa to 338 total yards, but gave up 10 of 19 third-down conversions.

Foles came off the bench in the fourth period to lead Arizona on a nine-play, 63-yard scoring drive capped by his TD pass to Juron Criner.

Arizona had some standout defensive performances led by sophomore cornerback Trevin Wade, whose 38-yard interception return had tied the score at 7-7. He had a career-best seven tackles and broke up three other passes. Defensive end Ricky Elmore had a career-high eight hits and 1.5 sacks.

Trips to the Pacific Northwest have been kind to the Wildcats under Mike Stoops. The UA is an impressive 6-3 under Stoops on the road against the Oregon and Washington schools, winning six of the last eight. That includes the Cats' 29-27 win at Oregon State in 2005, Arizona's lone win against the Beavers in the last 10 meetings between the schools.

In the most recent nine games in the Northwest, Arizona has scored an average of 33.1 points per game, and it has scored 45 points or more in the last three games. However, Oregon State limited the Cats to just 16 points in a 31-16 win in 2007 – the UA's last trip to Corvallis.

The Wildcats are in the midst of a three-game road trip, the first such in-season stretch since the 1993 squad played three straight games away from home.

Arizona continues to look for a way to score more points. It's doing well on scoring defense (16.7) but will find it tough to win Pac-10 games with 23.3 points per game. A year ago every league team with a winning record averaged 30.5 points per game or better.

The Cats' five touchdowns in 11 trips inside opponents' 20 yard-line is behind the reduced scoring punch.

One of the area's the Wildcats have shown significant early-season improvement is in the kickoff return game. A season ago, the Wildcats ranked 105th among all FBS teams. Through three games, the UA has upped its 19.3 average from a year ago all the way up to 26.7 yards per return. Keola Antolin leads the charge with eight returns for an average of 29.0 yards. Against NAU, Terrell Turner returned his first career kickoff a season-long 49 yards. On the flip side, Arizona has limited opponents to just 20.1 yards per return.

Arizona junior tight Rob Gronkowski, who missed most of the full-action drills in fall training camp and the first three games with back trouble, will not play this season, Stoops announced Saturday.

Gronkowski was a third-team AP All-American as a sophomore and a top preseason candidate for the John Mackey Award this year. He also is the reigning first-team All-Pacific-10 Conference tight end.

The Wildcats' defense has been a nightmare for opposing offenses, particularly when it comes to moving the football. In its last 15 games, the UA defense has held four opponents under 200 total yards in a game. The stat is even more impressive when compared to previous UA clubs, as the Wildcats have accomplished the feat just six other times in the last 12 seasons.

Next Up:
Arizona will enter its first bye week of the season, before visiting Washington on Oct. 10 to wrap up a three-game road trip.