UA News

The Wildcats are looking to improve their bowl prospects while spoiling the Beavers' chances for a Rose Bowl berth.

The Arizona Wildcats (6-4, 4-3 Pac-10) return home this Saturday to face the Oregon State Beavers (7-3, 6-1 Pac-10), currently in first place in the conference and eyeing a berth in the Rose Bowl.

This is the 32nd all-time meeting between the two schools, with the UA owning a 20-10-1 edge. Oregon State has won eight of the last nine meetings, including two straight.

Arizona takes on the challenge of facing the team that controls its own destiny. If they win their next two games, OSU will go to the Rose Bowl.

In the meantime the UA is jockeying with others for post-season positioning and looking to win seven games for the first time in a decade.

On paper it's an even match of teams that rush for 172 yards per game, pass for 240, score in the 30s and mostly play solid defense. Arizona and Oregon State both have 223 first downs this year, made 49 trips to the red zone and split their games with the Bay Area schools. In addition, both teams have young, exciting and diminutive running backs – in Arizona's Keola Antolin and OSU's Jacquizz Rogers.

In last year's match-up, Oregon State's fast start doomed the Wildcats to a disappointing road loss, 31-16, in Corvallis.

The Beavers warmed up with a four-and-out, then scored on their next four possessions and tossed in a 49-yard interception return for a score somewhere in the middle of that to take an improbable 31-3 lead with all their points four minutes into the second quarter.

UA cornerback Antoine Cason picked off a pass and returned it 60 yards for a touchdown with 25 seconds left in the first half. The UA came out in the second half and figured out a way to hold OSU to 44 yards of total offense in the final 30 minutes and hold a team scoreless in the second half for the first time in 2007. But the Wildcats couldn't figure out a way to nullify OSU's defensive front.

The Wildcats have reason to be optimistic, evidenced by their recent successful playing in November. Now in his fifth season, UA head coach Mike Stoops has led his squads to a 9-5 mark in games played in November.

Now the Wildcats hope they can remember their November games this season for another reason besides late-season momentum – because this year there is a lot at stake. The Wildcats entered November with five wins for the first time since 2000 and started the month with a 59-28 win at Washington State.

Arizona now hopes to put last week's 55-45 loss to Oregon on the backburner and close out this month with a winning record.

Wildcat sophomore running back Nic Grigsby needs 59 yards in two games to give him his first 1,000-yard season. The Wildcats' last 1,000-yard rusher was Clarence Farmer in 2001, with 1,229 yards on 209 attempts. Trung Canidate set the school record with 1,602 yards on 253 carries in 1999, and also eclipsed the barrier with 1,220 in 1998.