Arizona's 'heavyweight fight' with No. 11 Oregon State comes down to the trenches

Like the title of a TLC song (or, depending your era, like the tune made famous by The Temptations), Jedd Fisch ain’t too proud to beg.

Before the Arizona Wildcats square off with 11th-ranked Oregon State on Saturday in Tucson, the UA head coach revealed just over 42,000 tickets were sold for the “stripe out” game, which is about 8,000 shy of a sellout.

“I just feel like we got three home games left, and this one is against a Top-12 team. Come to the game! Come to the game,” Fisch said. “That’s my feeling.

“I believe we should be able to sellout this game, be able to sell out the next one (against UCLA) and the next one against Utah.”

Fisch has plenty of reasons to clamor for a sellout Saturday. Excluding the Wildcats’ overtime loss in SEC country at Mississippi State, Arizona has lost to two Top-10 teams by a combined nine points, including a triple-overtime thriller at No. 9 USC. Before a bye week, Arizona manhandled No. 19 Washington State 44-6 in Pullman for the program’s largest margin of victory over a ranked opponent on the road. If No. 23 UCLA beats Colorado this week, the Wildcats will likely face five straight ranked opponents. As Fisch put it, “it’s been a unique run here.”

“All four of these games in this stretch have been against Top-20 teams,” Fisch said.

The under-the-radar Beavers have won 10 of their last 11 games dating back to last season, which includes wins over rival Oregon, a 27-point beatdown of Florida in the Las Vegas Bowl and Utah and UCLA this season. Led by reigning Pac-12 Coach of the Year Jonathan Smith, Oregon State is 16-4 since last year. The Beavers are bowl-eligible for the third season in a row, which hasn’t happened in 14 years.

“The messaging has been pretty clear: this is a really good team,” Fisch said. “This is a really, really good team. You go back and look at how they finished last year, the way they started this year, how they’re playing, and for our team to have this opportunity to host them in our stadium is awesome, and we need to take advantage of that opportunity.”

Unlike Washington, USC and Washington State, Oregon State is a run-heavy team. The Wildcats previously faced three of the top five passing offenses in college football; now they’ll battle the fourth-best rushing team, led by star running back Damien Martinez, in the conference, which has 250 rush attempts and 198 pass attempts this season.

OSU has two offensive linemen, right tackle Taliese Fuaga and right guard Tanner Miller, who were recently named to the Pro Football Focus Midseason All-American teams. Beavers left tackle Joshua Gray was named a Pac-12 Offensive Lineman of the Week earlier this season.

Arizona’s bolstered defensive line between transfer portal additions and up-and-coming players budding into elevated roles, coupled with potential All-Pac-12 linebacker Jacob Manu, has evolved the Wildcats rushing defense from allowing just over 209 yards per game in 2022 to just 96.6 this season — fourth in the conference.

Oregon State’s defense ranks in the top half of the Pac-12 in every statistical category. Fisch said OSU’s 3-3-5 defense isn’t complex; the Beavers just “do it really well and they’re sound.”

“They swarm to the ball, they’re very physical, they tackle extremely well. ... You don’t see too many missed opportunities on their defense,” Fisch said. “When they have a shot to get to the quarterback, they get the quarterback. When they have a shot to make a tackle, they make a tackle. In the end, they’re just very well-coached and a very disciplined defense.”

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Between the Wildcats and Beavers Saturday, “it’s going to be a heavyweight fight, there’s no question about it,” Fisch said. “These guys are physical. Everybody is healthy.

“Their running backs are really good, and our defensive line is healthy and ready to go,” he said, adding: “It’s going to be a big-time brawl inside. Our guys are excited about that challenge and I know that’s the type of game they like to play.”

Arizona defensive coordinator Johnny Nansen said Oregon State will use multiple running backs and tight ends. Arizona’s “dollar” package that uses seven defensive backs and counters passing attacks will likely not have as much of an influence this week or next against a balanced UCLA team.

This isn’t Arizona’s first rodeo this year — or last season — in attempting to stop a run-heavy team, albeit the Wildcats were among the worst in college football in that department a year ago. As far back as Arizona’s second-week matchup at Mississippi State, the Wildcats tempered the Bulldogs’ rushing attack after the first quarter; one linebacker and explosive tackler Justin Flowe, who tied Manu with a team-high 12 tackles, earned more snaps.

“As a linebacker, this is what you look forward to,” Nansen said. “They run the ball, that’s what you’re looking for. You’re not going to see the ball spitting out there and then you have to go chase it down. (Flowe’s) gotta do a great job at being disciplined this week with his gaps and things like that.”

Arizona safety Dalton Johnson, who leads the team in rushing tackles (23) according to PFF, said OSU’s offense doesn’t force Arizona to change its defense much “except being more involved in the run game obviously, coming downhill more.”

Despite Arizona’s winning record, their close losses to Top-10 opponents and being just two victories from a bowl invite, the Wildcats aren’t getting complacent.

“I think you could always get better at anything you do,” Johnson said. “(Defensive backs) are always saying, ‘Just get one day better.’ That’s just a mindset. We just have to get better at everything we do. We haven’t done anything yet. We haven’t accomplished anything.”

However, potential back-to-back wins against Top-20 opponents isn’t anything to glance over. It could even garner the UA some votes in the upcoming Associated Press Top 25 poll heading into the final third of the season.

“That would certainly put Arizona football on the map based on how we’ve played the last few weeks,” Fisch said, “and the players understand that.”