Arizona's Mike Stoops has had plenty to yell about this season. Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE

Arizona Wildcats coach Mike Stoops says the situation is “pretty desperate right now.” Oregon State coach Mike Riley must feel the same way.

The Wildcats are on a four-game losing streak and have lost nine in a row to FBS teams. The Beavers are 0-4 and have dropped six consecutive games, dating to last season.

Arizona’s weaknesses, as Stoops has said, have been “exposed” by his team’s strength of schedule, playing against Top 10 teams and explosive offensives. Yeah, well, Oregon State has weaknesses, too, and it can’t blame everything on strength of schedule, having lost to lower-division Sacramento State.

It should be a real battle of weakness vs. weakness on Saturday in Corvallis.

Let’s take a look:

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NOTE: This is an Oregon State story from Gary Horowitz of the Salem (Ore.) Statesman Journal, one of our Gannett partners. Here is a link for more coverage of the Beavers from the newspaper.

Oregon State isn’t the only winless team in college football, but the Beavers have the dubious distinction of being the only team from one of the six Bowl Championship series automatic qualifying conferences without a victory.

Five schools from conferences whose champions do not automatically qualify —Miami (Ohio), UAB, New Mexico, Florida Atlantic and Western Kentucky — also are searching for their first win.

The Beavers, who were off Monday, return to practice today in preparation for Saturday’s matchup against Arizona.

OSU had a 13-0 lead last Saturday at Arizona State but lost 35-20, extending its losing streak to six games dating to last season’s USC game.

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NOTE: This is an Oregon State story from Gary Horowitz of the Salem (Ore.) Statesman Journal, one of our Gannett partners. Here is a link for more coverage of the Beavers from the newspaper.

Oregon State's Sean Mannion attempts one of his 66 passes last week at ASU. Photo by Matt Kartozian-US PRESSWIRE

In the aftermath of another defeat, two numbers have equal billing on the most-disconcerting list for Oregon State coach Mike Riley: 66 and 13.

Redshirt freshman quarterback Sean Mannion attempted a school-record 66 passes in Saturday’s 35-20 loss at No. 25 Arizona State, and the Beavers were penalized 13 times for 139 yards.

“I think they’re both surprising numbers. I don’t know if you pick one,” Riley said Sunday. “We don’t really want to be that 66-passing team. The penalties, I think probably almost half of them had to do with trying to handle their pass rush for that many passes.”

The previous school record for passes in one game was 64 by Erik Wilhelm in 1986 at Michigan.

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The Pac-10 games are wrapped up for the decade and not even a late surge could save Arizona from the bottom of the 10-year standings. Thanks, John Mackovic.

Arizona’s 4-20 conference record under Mackovic from 2001-03 was the second-worst three-year mark for any team in the Pac-10. Only Washington State in the past three years (4-23 playing a nine-game league schedule) was worse.

What Mackovic razed, Mike Stoops has raised. Perhaps the 2010s will be better for Arizona.

The chart below is the breakdown of how the Pac-10 fared this decade, with only this season’s bowl games to be played.

Pac-10 All-Decade standings

DECADE NOTES
Best travel pair: Not even USC could lift Los Angeles to this title. The Oregon-Oregon State pairing was the decade’s best with a combined 108 conference victories. The Los Angeles schools were next with 105.

Wither the Washingtons? The Washington schools had a combined 42 league victories in the first four years of the decade, then had a measly 22 in the next six seasons. That’s 1.8 conference wins per team for six long seasons. The last winning league record for a Washington school was WSU’s 6-2 mark in 2003.

Tough to stay on top: Only two of the seven teams that had winning conference records in the 1990s followed up with winning Pac-10 marks this decade — USC and Oregon.

TEAM NOTES
Arizona: The Wildcats are 14-8 in conference games dating to late in the 2007 season. Before that, Arizona was a miserable 16-48 in league games this decade.

Arizona State: Finished with a winning conference record just three times, and went only 2-18 in conference games in the state of California.

Cal: Conference record looks like better when starting with the Jeff Tedford era in 2002: 41-27.

Oregon: The Ducks were superb in the first two years of the decade and in the final two years, posting a 29-5 conference record in those four seasons. In the middle, Oregon was fairly average.

Oregon State: It seems almost impossible to believe that this is the same program that went 13-65-1 during the 1990s. From one decade to the next, the Beavers went from having a 17.1 winning percentage to a 60.7 winning percentage.

Stanford: In a six-season span (2002-2007), the Cardinal won only 13 conference games.

UCLA: The Bruins have lost at least four conference games in every season except 2005, when they were 6-2. UCLA can still add to its bowl total as it will be invited to the EagleBank Bowl if Navy beats Army on Saturday, thereby eliminating the Black Knights from bowl eligibility.

USC: The Trojan Decade ended with a thud, but the streak of seven consecutive league titles and seven consecutive seasons with double-digit victories was utter dominance. Those 15 first-round picks are more than twice any other Pac-10 team.

Washington: The far-and-away Pac-10 King of the 1990s (58-21-1) would have tied for last this decade if it hadn’t defeated Cal on the last weekend of the regular season.

Washington State: From 2001 to 2003, no team had more than the Cougars’ 19 conference victories (USC did, too). Those memories will have to keep Wazzu warm; in the seven other seasons, WSU managed a mere 14 league wins.

If you see any corrections, send them to me at anthonygimino (at) gmail.com.

Vote for the top UA football stories of the decade at our sports network partner wildaboutazcats.com

Arizona kicks off its Pac-10 schedule Saturday at Oregon State (4:30 p.m.), so let’s get to it:

1. Oregon State is a bear to run against

Other than USC, no run defense in the Pac-10 has been better this decade than Oregon State’s. Coach Mike Riley’s team is 17th nationally against the run in the early season, allowing 78.3 yards per game. That’s typically in the neighborhood where Oregon State lives.

UA's Keola Antolin is stopped short of a first down late in last season's game against Oregon State. Taking over after a punt, the Beavers then drove for a field goal as time expired, winning 19-17/Tucson Citizen photo

Since Riley arrived in 2003, the Beavers have finished fourth, 22nd, 17th, 29th, first and 40 nationally in rushing defense. Oregon State had top 10 finishes in 2000 and 2002 under coach Dennis Erickson.

That all makes it sound like this was a good time for Arizona to give quarterback Nick Foles his first start. Unlike Matt Scott, he has a chance to make Oregon State respect the deep pass and pay for devoting extra personnel to clog the lanes for running backs Nic Grigsby and Keola Antolin.

“They have had a history of having a good defensive front, and it looks like another strength this year,” said Arizona offensive coordinator Sonny Dykes.

“They do a good job of getting their safeties down in the run game. Their scheme just makes it tough, and then they also have good personnel. When you put those two things together, it’s tough to run against.”

Arizona did OK last season, gaining 139 yards on the ground, including 114 from backup running back Keola Antolin. But over the entire decade, spanning nine games, Arizona has rushed for a grand total of 497 yards against the Beavers.

Arizona’s mileage might vary Saturday. If it doesn’t, the Wildcats are going to have a tough time winning.

Which brings us to …

2. What does Nick Foles have?

Is this a be-careful-what-you-wish-for moment? Arizona fans have favored a switch at quarterback from Matt Scott, but nobody really knows what Foles will do in a full-pressure situation on the road.

He had spring practice and all of fall camp to beat out Scott … and didn’t post enough evidence that he clearly was the better quarterback. In fact, the coaches were a bit disappointed in his performance in the spring.

What we do know is that he has a big arm. Accuracy? According to a 2006 story in the San Antonio Express-News (a feature worth reading, by the way) “his arm is so accurate that offensive lineman Andy Theodosis said when Foles is messing around in practice he’ll hit players who aren’t paying attention in the head —  from 50 yards away.”

And if he doesn’t show that kind of accuracy …

3. Watch for the backup quarterbacks

Arizona isn’t alone with a quarterback controversy … or competition … or whatever you want to call it. Oregon State fans have been grumbling about Sean Canfield, who has started the first three games while Lyle Moevao, last season’s starter, was recovering from shoulder surgery.

UA coach Mike Stoops said Scott likely will play in the first half against Oregon State, but who knows? The flow of the game can change the best of intentions — which happened when Arizona failed to put in Foles in the opener.

Meanwhile, Moevao should be available Saturday for the first time this season.

When — or if — the two head coaches decide to go to their backup QB could be a big factor.

Speaking of factors …

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