Arizona coach Rich Rodriguez is facing the first major discipline moment of his early tenure with the Wildcats, with the news that four football players were arrested early Friday morning.

The student-run Arizona Daily Wildcat reported Wednesday that three of the players were arrested on criminal trespassing in the first degree and assault — sophomore defensive back Jourdon Grandon, sophomore starting right tackle Fabbians Ebbele and sophomore offensive lineman Eric Bender. Another player — sophomore safety Jared Tevis — was arrested on trespassing charges.

Arizona athletic director Greg Byrne released a statement Wednesday morning: “We are taking this matter seriously. We are cooperating fully with the Tucson Police Department, and disciplinary action will be handled accordingly. Due to federal student-privacy laws we will have no further comment.”

The Daily Wildcat, citing reports from the Tucson Police Department, wrote that the arrests occurred after a brawl at a party at the home of five UA students:

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Chris Putton worked as the starting left guard in spring practice. Photo by Michael Chow, The Arizona Republic

In collaboration with our Gannett partner, The Arizona Republic, we will be providing a weekly series throughout the summer, previewing the Arizona Wildcats football team.

The Republic sent a photographer to Tucson three times in the spring to capture the pictures needed for its slick presentation of the preview, which you can find here at azcentral.com. You can also read about those other guys all summer in the ASU preview.

At TucsonCitizen.com, we can’t offer the cool look of the preview that you’ll find on azcentral.com, but we’ll give you the text and some of the photography.

Here is the third part: The offensive line. Look for updates every Friday.

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