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LOS ANGELES – For a man who has spent nearly his entire life in the Northeast, Bob Chesney fits the California lifestyle pretty well.
The proof: He loves In-N-Out — he’ll take a double-double with no onions or tomatoes. And yes, he says it’s better than Whataburger.
“We’re in California,” he told USA TODAY Sports. “In-N-Out, clearly one, in my opinion.”
Just another thing Chesney seems to be doing right in Los Angeles.
For the first time in a long time, there’s anticipation for UCLA football, and it’s all thanks to its new coach. In just a few months, he has revived a program from the grave and instilled belief it will turn into something special.
There’s always eagerness when someone new takes over a team. Yet, there’s something different about how the Chesney era kicked off in Westwood. Wherever he’s been, success has followed, giving UCLA sensible hope he is the guy to bring glory back to the mighty Bruins.
The rise of Bob Chesney
Nick Smith can tell you first hand about how it all started.
In 2013, Smith was the athletic director for Division II Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts, where the football program had just two winning seasons in the past 17 years. He knew he needed a spark, and while he was on the hunt, he kept hearing about this coach from Division III Salve Regina in Rhode Island: Chesney.
Intrigued, Smith contacted Chesney to have him visit Assumption.
“It took about five minutes for me to know that was who I was going to hire,” Smith said. “I knew it. I knew it right from the start.”
What really stood out to Smith was Chesney instilled belief in his team, and like the interview process, it happened pretty early. In his second game, Assumption beat conference foe Bentley on the road, its first win there in 20 years.
Smith tried to celebrate with his coach. The problem? Chesney was already focused on the next contest.
“He’s always thinking about what’s next,” Smith said. “I certainly appreciated that about him, and found that certainly inspiring and motivating to try to make sure that we’re in the moment, but we’re already projecting forward.”
Assumption had five straight winning seasons under Chesney, the first time in program history, went 44-16 in that span and reached its first NCAA tournament quarterfinal appearance in 2017. At the end of the 2017 season, Chesney moved to the Division I level at FCS Holy Cross, where Smith just so happened to take a position in the athletic department.
With the Crusaders, Chesney had his first losing season in Year 1 before he was back to winning, taking Holy Cross to four straight FCS playoff appearances, including a 12-1 season in 2022 with the program’s first quarterfinal appearance.
There wasn’t much change to the Chesney recipe, but Smith noted it was at Holy Cross where he saw him become more of a CEO, ensuring he had a hand in every facet of the program and really crafting his own unique team style.
From the very beginning of their partnership, Smith knew it was only a matter of time before Chesney continued to climb up the ladder. That rise reached the FBS level with James Madison in 2024, going 9-4 in Year 1 with the Dukes before he took them to their first College Football Playoff appearance last season.
“Every piece of me was confident that he would be where he is today,” Smith said. “I knew that probably from the first time I met him.”
‘I can see why he’s won a lot’
Chesney’s personal perception of UCLA is far different from the national one.
For seemingly decades, UCLA has been viewed as a relic of the sport. Its glory days over with a university that prioritized academics, basketball and pretty much every Olympic sport before football, turning an iconic stadium in the Rose Bowl into a wasteland of despair. Even former coaches lamented how hard UCLA made it to succeed.
But from the jump, Chesney said the Bruins showed the willingness to win. UCLA flexed its Rolodex of athletics alumni, including Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who helped lure Chesney in the middle of taking his team to back-to-back World Series victories.
“I was like, damn, these people are some really heavy hitters,” Chesney said. “It was just very exciting for me to think about exactly what we’re about to do here, and the vision I have matches the vision they have. The energy I have matches the energy they have.”
Thus kick-started the spring and summer of Chesney. The coach excelled in getting a roster together. For those with him at James Madison, it was easy to come to the Golden State.
“You want to play for him, you want to run through a wall for him,” said defensive lineman and reigning Sun Belt Freshman of the Year Sahir West. “It was a no-brainer to come here and rather go to a place that didn’t really truly know me, that didn’t truly know me as a person, as a man. So I came here and followed the greatness that coach Chesney has.”
But what was really surprising was how much Chesney was able to get to stay. That included quarterback Nico Iamaleava, who said his coach is “somebody I wanted to be around.” Plenty of players on last season’s team contemplated finding a new home, but they wanted to see what this new guy was about.
Much like those that met him for the first time, they were wowed. Offensive lineman Julian Armella said Chesney and his staff instantly helped form a brotherhood with those new and old, something that wasn’t felt last season, all while getting them to collectively understand the standard he was setting.
“When he first came in, he was saying that we’re going to win. There’s no debate about it,” said running back Jaivian Thomas. “That’s one thing that stood out to me. It’s not can we win? Or how can we win? It’s that we’re going to win.”
“I can see why he’s won a lot,” Iamaleava added.
The winning already started off the field. Chesney has been a breath of fresh air for UCLA faithful, openly engaging with the fanbase, other Bruins sports and community. Whether it’s supporting the women’s basketball national title run or appearing at an elementary school or a food pantry, Chesney has been out and about to garner support.
He’s moving around so much there’s a running joke there’s clones of Chesney doing all this work, ensuring there’s no days off.
“His gas tank never runs empty, ever,” Smith said. “He has such charisma, such energy, and he is fueled by relationships. He’s fueled by the job that he has.”
Can Bob Chesney really turn UCLA into a winner?
All the excitement a former James Madison coach is generating at a Big Ten school sounds awfully familiar doesn’t it?
Given the unprecedented turnaround at Indiana, it’s hard to not compare new coaches to Curt Cignetti — especially when Chesney came from the same school.
He hasn’t dropped a “Google me”-esque line, but he’s said and done all the right things that make you think the Bruins could be good in a hurry. The schedule certainly allows it, the easiest of its Big Ten tenure so far with UCLA’s only real tests coming at Oregon, at Michigan and the crosstown showdown with Southern Cal.
Could UCLA really become a College Football Playoff contender in Year 1? That may be jumping the gun, and not something Chesney is concerning himself with. He’s not boldly claiming the Bruins will be title contenders in the next couple of months, or even in the coming years.
“If you’re talking about wins and losses only, as far as how we built this program, I like where we’re at right now,” he said. “I think that we’ve established this winning mentality. We’ve eliminated a lot of the things that the losing teams do.”
While Chesney has made great strides to get more interest in the program, he admits winning will be the best way to get people in the stands.
UCLA averaged 37,282 people in 2025, not even half of 89,000-plus capacity and lowest since moving to the Rose Bowl in 1982. It’s been a long issue for the Bruins, and it’s not just Chesney that’s out to make the stadium feel alive again; the players share the same vision.
“Fans will just have to come and see because it’s gonna be a new era,” West said. “We coming to change and we coming to bring dominance back to what it was in the Terry Donahue days.”
From top to bottom, it’s easy to see why there’s intrigue on what Chesney can do at UCLA. Several coaches have tried to get the Bruins back to relevance, and while there have been glimpses, none of it has been able to stick. Most of that can be blamed on the administration, but it has shown a willingness to change and give Chesney what he needs to make it work.
There’s not only pressure to succeed in the biggest revenue sport in college athletics, but to do it at a winning institution. Since December, UCLA has won three national titles in men’s water polo, beach volleyball and women’s basketball. Just about every sport has recent success — except for football.
Smith noted what has helped Chesney at every stop is he’s a “ferocious competitor,” and no matter the situation he comes into, “he will find a way to be successful.” With charisma and a relentless spirit, everything is set up for Chesney to do the same at UCLA.
All that’s left is to queue up those celebratory double-doubles.
“We’re one good football team away from being the most dominant athletic department in the country,” Chesney said. “We get this football thing right, the sky’s the limit.”