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The Arizona Wildcats begin the 2009 football season this Saturday at Arizona Stadium against Central Michigan.

By Arizona Athletics
September 3, 2009

The University of Arizona Wildcats begin the 2009 football season this Saturday at Arizona Stadium against Central Michigan.

Arizona head coach Mike Stoops' puts an unbeaten string of five home openers on the line in Saturday's match-up, where the Wildcats will face one of the nation's most prolific yardage producers in CMU quarterback Dan LeFevour.

The Cats' offense will be under new leadership (either sophomore Matt Scott or sophomore Nick Foles) against a Chippewas defensive unit that hopes to improve from its last-place rating in MAC total defense a year ago.

The game marks the first in the post-Willie Tuitama era for the UA's offense. Tuitama ended his career (40 games) with 9,211 passing yards, best in school history.

The Wildcats have posted a 7-2 mark in their last nine home games, with the two losses coming by a combined nine points to No. 6 USC and No. 21 Oregon State in 2008.

In fact, during the nine-game span that dates back to the end of the 2007 season, Arizona has outscored opponents 327-155 in Arizona Stadium, or by an average score of 36-17.

Stoops' staff has two new faces in 2009, running backs and tight ends coach Seth Littrell and inside receivers coach Garret Chachere. The former came from Texas Tech and the Mike Leach spread system, while the latter arrived from Memphis with some recent special teams and an offense-defense hybrid background.

Arizona has several players on early watch lists with several more likely to come. Rob Gronkowski is on the John Mackey Award, Rotary Lombardi and Maxwell Award watch lists, respectively. Center Colin Baxter is on the Rimington Trophy list, running back Nic Grigsby is a candidate for the Doak Walker Award and punter Keenyn Crier will return to the Ray Guy Award list. Defensive linemen Earl Mitchell and Brooks Reed also have been named on the initial Rotary Lombardi lists. Senior corner Devin Ross is expected to be mentioned as a Jim Thorpe Award candidate. Senior Chris Gronkowski has been nominated for the National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame 2009 Scholar-Athlete Award.

Arizona should play a variety of newcomers in 2009 including transfers, redshirts and true freshmen. Early-season possibilities include redshirt junior offensive tackle Phillip Garcia, redshirt freshman offensive tackle Trace Biskin, sophomore transfer quarterback Nick Foles, redshirt freshman running back Greg Nwoko, true freshman H-back Taimi Tutogi and junior transfer receiver Travis Cobb, among others.

Senior defenders Earl Mitchell and Cam Nelson will join classmate Terrell Turner and junior Colin Baxter as this year's team of captains. Each was voted to the team by fellow teammates and approved by the coaching staff. A balance of experience and talent across various positions is clearly evident in the group, as the players have a combined 95 starts. Mitchell, Nelson and Baxter started every game of the 2008 season, while Turner started all but one at wide receiver.