TUCSON, Ariz. -- Rich Rodriguez thought and thought, almost like he wanted to forget. He couldn't remember the last time he faced a team much like Oklahoma State and that type of offense -- a spread offense, a strike-in-a-blink throwing and running team.
It surely wasn't last year he joked, having been in the studio as a football analyst.
"I won all those games; no pressure whatsoever,'' he joked.
Then it hit him. It's been about six years -- he was at West Virginia, and the opponent was Bobby Petrino-coached Louisville. Those games were shootouts, with Rodriguez going 1-1 against Louisville, the second game a 44-34 win in 2006 and the first a 46-44 loss in triple overtime in 2005.
"And they had a physical element to their running game, which is something Oklahoma State has," Rodriguez said. "People don't realize they have great running backs and a have a physical element. Their quarterback can throw it around, but their running game can really hurt you."
If Saturday night's game is a similarly high-scoring, back-and-forth affair, Arizona will consider itself fortunate. Oklahoma State could be the best team the Cats will face this season after USC and Oregon.
Whether it be by the pass or the run, the Arizona defense knows what it's up against given what happened last season, when UA went to Oklahoma State and was down 7-0 just over 3 minutes into the game and 14-0 about 12 minutes in.
By halftime, UA was down 21-0, as the Cowboys scored on their first three possessions.
Game over.
Arizona's loss in the Alamo Bowl against Oklahoma State the year before might as well have been the prototype for the second game; UA lost that one 36-10. That game also was over by halftime, with the Cowboys leading 23-7.
The combined score for the last two meetings: 73-24.
"The last four or five years, they've had a great offense," said UA junior linebacker Jake Fischer. "They always have playmakers. We're going to have our hands full."
Last year, Fischer witnessed the one-sided game from the sidelines, having to sit out the season with a knee injury.
"The worst thing was that we played a lot of things good," he said, "but they were a little tougher and they got the better of us. There's no other way to put it."
The Cowboys have a decided size advantage on the lines and are seemingly stronger than the Wildcats. Rodriguez admitted that Oklahoma State's offensive line is "huge" and that his defensive line will have to "play with great leverage.''
Because there are "no magic pills" to get bigger or stronger, it's likely that every game will be like that.
Rodriguez also knows that in order to get to be a program like Oklahoma State's, you have to beat a program like Oklahoma State's. And that program has been pretty good over the last few years. Since 2008, the Cowboys are the sixth-winningest team in the country, posting 42 victories. Since 2008, they've gone 33-7, and over the last three seasons, they've gone 24-3.
Oklahoma State goes into Saturday night's game ranked 18th in the country. Arizona hasn't been in the polls since the final week of 2010.
But that seems so long ago. There's a new coach. New system. And renewed energy.
"I told our team, 'There's not a lot of people who talk about Arizona football in certain circles, and if you want to become more relevant, the best way to do it is to beat a ranked team,'" Rodriguez said.
"It's a great challenge but also a great opportunity. I'm sure they're just like us, worrying about themselves first, fixing whatever they've got to fix. They probably don't have as much to fix, judging by their game, as we do, judging by our game, but it's a really good team coming in and a great opportunity for us."
Could be a game to remember or one to forget.
