Kevin Gemmell, ESPN Staff Writer 10y

Media days are here: Day 1

Welcome to Day 1 of Pac-12 media days! The Pac-12 blog will be updating you throughout the day on all of the fun happenings, tidbits and tweet-worthy sound bites -- and probably a few that aren’t tweet-worthy, but we will tweet them anyway.

Here is the schedule of events for today (all times PT):

  • 9 a.m. - Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott

  • 9:30 a.m. - ARIZONA - Coach Rich Rodriguez, WR Austin Hill, S Jared Tevis

  • 10:10 a.m. - CALIFORNIA - Coach Sonny Dykes, QB Jared Goff, CB Stefan McClure

  • 10:50 a.m. - USC - Coach Steve Sarkisian, QB Cody Kessler, DE Leonard Williams

  • 11:30 a.m. - OREGON - Coach Mark Helfrich, QB Marcus Mariota, LB Derrick Malone

  • 12:10 p.m. - WASHINGTON STATE - Coach Mike Leach, QB Connor Halliday, LB Darryl Monroe

  • 12:50 p.m. - UTAH - Coach Kyle Whittingham, WR Dres Anderson, DE Nate Orchard

Thursday's schedule:

  • 9 a.m. - Pac-12 Networks president Lydia Murphy-Stephans

  • 9:30 a.m. - ARIZONA STATE - Coach Todd Graham, QB Taylor Kelly, OL Jamil Douglas

  • 10:10 a.m. - OREGON STATE - Coach Mike Riley, QB Sean Mannion, LB Michael Doctor

  • 10:50 a.m. - UCLA - Coach Jim Mora, QB Brett Hundley, LB Eric Kendricks

  • 11:30 a.m. - WASHINGTON - Coach Chris Petersen, OT Ben Riva, OLB Hau'oli Kikaha

  • 12:10 p.m. - STANFORD - Coach David Shaw, QB Kevin Hogan, DB Jordan Richards

  • 12:50 p.m. - COLORADO - Coach Mike MacIntyre, WR Nelson Spruce, DT Juda Parker

Who are those guys?

Salem, Oregon, was in the news after Baylor coach Art Briles made a suggestion that people at Dairy Queens in Salem have now heard of quarterback Bryce Petty, whom Briles is peddling for the Heisman. Jake Trotter broke it down, along with an Instagram video from Petty, who boasted that Baylor has the most explosive offense in the country.

He’s right, by the way. The Bears scored 52.4 points per game last season, and Oregon was fourth nationally with 45.5.

Our own Chantel Jennings took a swing at calling Dairy Queens in Waco to see if they knew who Marcus Mariota was. She went oh-fer.

Perhaps it is the wrong venue. Besides Mariota, the Pac-12 has another Heisman hopeful quarterback in UCLA's Brett Hundley. And we most closely associate Southern California with In-N-Out. So the Pac-12 blog called the In-N-Out in Waco to see if anyone had heard of Hundley. Oh wait, there isn’t one. SoCal 1, Waco 0. (But one is coming soon to Killeen!)

No doubt Mariota and Hundley will be asked about the Heisman, and wacky media days questions are the norm. We are just wondering if Mariota or Hundley will send an Instagram or tweet back to Waco. Your move, fellas.

Stiff-arm predictions

Speaking of the Heisman, Athlon released its list of 10 Pac-12 players who should get consideration. Five on their list (Mariota, Hundley, Taylor Kelly, Sean Mannion and Connor Halliday) will be in attendance at media days.

Washington linebacker Shaq Thompson is the lone defensive player on the list, but the story also includes five defensive players who should be in the mix but won’t be. One of them is UCLA’s Myles Jack. Don't get us wrong. We love Jack. But as the Pac-12 blog has already noted, we know who the real leader of the UCLA defense is.

Rock the vote

One of the big storylines today will be the release of the preseason prediction. Pac-12 media members are invited to cast their vote on what they think will happen at the end of the season. You can see how the #4Pac voted. (Yeah, that is what we're calling ourselves now. Thoughts?)

A few more ballots from other media members:

  • Jon Wilner, San Jose Mercury News

  • Ryan Kartje, Orange County Register

  • Doug Haller, The Arizona Republic

  • Jack Wang, InsideSoCal.com

  • Christian Caple, The News Tribune

A lot of folks are thinking we’re going to see Oregon-UCLA in the Pac-12 championship game. The Pac-12 blog agrees.

Graham confident

Anyone want to take a guess at the over/under for times Todd Graham is asked about his defense at media days? Probably the same number of times Rich Rodriguez will be asked about quarterbacks.

But just because the Sun Devils lose nine starters on that side of the ball doesn’t mean Graham isn’t confident, as he tells Doug Haller.

The Sun Devils ranked seventh in the conference last season in scoring defense, yielding 26.6 points per game.

National view

Finally, Tim Sullivan of the (Louisville) Courier-Journal offered some thoughts on the impact of paying college athletes, in light of Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby’s comments Monday. Looking forward to what Larry Scott has to say on the subject.

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