Happy Friday -- even you, Arizona State. World didn't end Thursday.

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To the notes.

Jockston from SEC country writes: UCLA is good on offense, but it can't play defense, so it can't win a championship because defense wins championships. When does Pac-12 figure this out?

Ted Miller: Wait. Defense wins championships? Why didn't anybody ever mention that before?

UCLA didn't distinguish itself defensively against Arizona State, a very good offensive team, but its defense wasn't as bad -- and, yes, it feels strange typing this -- as 626 yards surrendered suggests.

It was a strange game. UCLA scored so fast that Arizona State got a lot more possessions than is normal. The Bruins nearly scored a point (62) per play (58), while the Sun Devils scored 27 points in 105 plays. The Bruins averaged 10 yards per play, which is good, while the Sun Devils averaged 6.0 yards per play, which is middling.

Middling? Well, for example, Alabama yielded 5.7 yards per play in a 33-23 win over West Virginia. Against that same Mountaineers offense, Oklahoma yielded 6.3 yards per play in a 45-33 victory.

How strange was the UCLA-ASU game? The Bruins scored a decisive 21 points in the third quarter while losing the time-of-possession "battle" 11:51 to 2:57.

As for the defense, scoring is what matters most, and UCLA pretty much held the Sun Devils to just 10 points over the final three quarters (ASU scored a touchdown 26 seconds into the second quarter). If you had told Jim Mora before the game that the Sun Devils would score 27 points, I'm pretty sure he would have given you a high five. Or maybe hit the floor to do the famous Mora breakdance "windmill" he likes to do when he's really happy.

What do we know? from Tatooine writes: Was the UCLA offense really good or was the ASU D really bad? ASU may have been slightly better with [QB Taylor Kelly] ... but not much (minus-14 points?). ASU hasn't really played anyone until now and they barely beat Colorado.

Ted Miller: We can't know how Arizona State would have done against UCLA with Taylor Kelly at QB because of this pesky thing called the "space-time continuum."

As for "Was the UCLA offense really good or was the ASU D really bad?" it's a little of both. Before the season, we thought the Bruins offense would be pretty darn good, and it's trending that way after some early struggles as the O-line improves. And, before the season, we thought the Sun Devils defense would struggle to replace nine quality starters.

It also is true that Arizona State fans probably got caught up in their preseason optimism, which often refuses to acknowledge obvious weaknesses. When the Pac-12 blog wrote about the Sun Devils' defensive questions, the mailbag was glutted with angry missives such as, "Do some research -- we've got loads of quality young players!" or "We've got these great JC transfers!" or "You hate Arizona State."

The obvious preseason question for Arizona State is likely to continue as the obvious season issue: Can the high-powered offense outscore foes because the defense is going to struggle?

Understand: Arizona State isn't going to be an easy out. The UCLA game was, to use Todd Graham's descriptive term, a "catastrophe." I don't think we'll another one of those this season.

Thomas from Charlston, N.C., writes: Last week's Cal vs. Arizona amazing game ended at nearly 2 a.m. on the East Coast. Last night's UCLA vs. ASU game ended after 1 a.m. East Coast time. It is no wonder that the Pac-12 gets no respect as its teams are playing when only the Pacific states are watching. I thought Larry Scott was going to have Pac-12 kick off times earlier this season, and going forward? It appears the commish didn't do anything. Could you shine light on this?

Ted Miller: See, Apollo, the narcissist, leads his chariot across the sky from east to west, meaning the sun comes up earlier in the east and sets later in the west. That causes it to be 9 a.m. in Bristol, Connecticut, when it's an ungodly 6 a.m. in north Scottsdale, at which point my bosses -- sunny and caffeinated -- are calling to tell me to do stuff with a complete lack of concern about where Apollo and his chariot might be in the western sky.

The UCLA-ASU game Thursday wasn't going to be scheduled for 4 p.m. PT so it could be a nice prime-time event for fans in Atlanta or Miami. Why? Largely because the game was being played on the West Coast, where a 4 p.m. kickoff would have taken place just as Lumbergh would have stopped by Joe Bruins' or Sandy Sun Devils' desk and noted they'd forgotten to put the new cover sheet on the TPS reports, and that they'd have to redo, like, 3,454 of them. Now.

The Pac-12 signed a $3 billion TV contract with ESPN and Fox, which means the TV times are typically going to be what is optimal for the networks.

That said, there has been an effort to reduce the late kickoffs. This weekend, the only 7:30 PT kick is Oregon State at USC, which figures to get plenty of eyeballs -- East and West -- on ESPN.

Frank from Tucson writes: I saw some criticism from various folks on Twitter, both prior to and following ASU's defeat yesterday, of Todd Graham's declaration that his team was of a "championship caliber." What is the Pac-12 blog's opinion of coaches such as Graham who willingly place high expectations on their teams, vs. others such as Rich Rod, who avoid stating expectations in favor of "just trying to figure out how to get a first down."

Ted Miller: I love this question, for this is very real.

You have coaches who believe in unmitigated, relentless optimism, which looks like irrational exuberance if actual play doesn't match preseason effervescing. Yes, Graham is that sort of coach. In the spring, he worked me over pretty good telling me he didn't expect much drop-off from his defense.

Then you have the grumps. Instead of pumping their team up, they work them over, telling them they're no good. Yes, Arizona's Rich Rodriguez is that sort of coach. He'll tell you he wants his guys to be "comfortable being uncomfortable." He also worked me over pretty good this summer trying to convince me his receivers actually weren't as talented as folks were writing -- "I haven't seen it!" he kept saying.

Does that mean Rich Rod is a player-hating ogre? No. See this video. It's just his management style, which has worked pretty darn well throughout his career.

And does this mean Graham is a soft pollyanna? Heck no. I've seen -- heard -- Graham get crusty, and he can let the spittle fly with every bit the fervency of Rodriguez.

By the way, there's also a third type: The straight-shooter. Utah's Kyle Whittingham pretty much tells you what he thinks of his depth chart -- "We're good here; we're questionable here; we're young but talented here; and we're really searching here" -- and his analysis, in my experience, tends to hold up when games begin.

My view is it's the media's job to know who they are dealing with and to keep in perspective what that coach is saying.

Kenny from Portland writes: Oregon State hasn't had dominating final scores, but they have dominated in three key statistical categories for their success: time of possession (average nearly 14 mins more than opponents), total yards (average 195 more yards per game than opponents), defensive third-down conversion (25 percent). These are old school, pre-2009 OSU football numbers. Grind out the games, boring offense, stout D. USC got shellacked by Boston College. And Stanford beat Stanford more than USC beat Stanford. I know OSU hasn't played any world-beaters yet, but aside from USC's starters, the depth isn't there for them, and I'm having a real hard time seeing OSU not coming out of L.A. with a win. Win the turnover battle and the game is ours. Am I being a crazy Beavers fan? This is as confident as I've been about a conference game in a long time.

Ted Miller: Oh, no, Kenny. You're not crazy. I can't understand why every Oregon State fan wouldn't be as confident. I mean, I remember back in 1960 when you guys last beat USC in Los Angeles. ... wait, I wasn't alive. So, no, don't remember that at all. But a 22-game losing streak against the Trojans in L.A. shouldn't rock your confidence.

We kid!

I liked the Beavers' chances better before wide receiver Victor Bolden got hurt, but this is definitely an intriguing matchup. We don't yet know either team. We don't know the Beavers because they haven't played anybody, and we don't know the Trojans because they've been a bit schizophrenic.

I like how the Beavers' defense matches up with the USC offense, but the bigger question might be how well the Beavers run the ball. If they can run the ball, life is going to be much easier for quarterback Sean Mannion.

Joel from San Francisco writes: I've noticed that the last three days of Pac-12 morning links include links to USC stories that require paid subscriptions (in these cases, the L.A. Times). Is it possible to link to free stories or pay my L.A. Times subscription fee?

Ted Miller: We try to link to good stories. Sometimes, those stories are behind a pay wall. What you should do is subscribe to newspapers that have stories in them you want to read.

I know everyone loves free stuff and the free info on the Internet. And many, for whatever reason, perversely seem to enjoy the demise of newspapers.

But I will tell you this: Without traditional newspapers, which attempt to provide quality, objective journalism, you will end up with just agenda observers -- folks with various types of filters and biases who don't aspire to be true journalists -- monopolizing the flow of information.

While fan sites and even in-house team coverage have their place, a real newspaper beat writer who aggressively covers the good and bad and holds programs accountable is irreplaceable.

I just hope you don't learn that when they are all gone.