Cal’s opener against UCLA on Saturday night in Berkeley comes with a fresh face on the sideline, a new-look roster, and at least one big defensive name who appears set to take the field.
Kade Nix of UCLA Bruins on SI said linebacker Trent Hendrick is expected to play after being added to UCLA’s roster two weeks ago. Hendrick, the 2025 Sun Belt defensive player of the year, was ruled eligible for a fifth season after a court decision tied to his participation in an NFL rookie camp this summer.
“It looks like he is going to play. He is eligible because he only took part in a mini-camp tryout and not an official NFL training camp.
“He will play against Cal. I don’t know exactly how much he’ll play. I don’t think we’ll see him in the starting lineup.”
UCLA also enters the season with Bob Chesney in charge, and Nix described the change as a major reset for the program.
“It’s kind of just like a breath of fresh air. Chesney’s a proven winner.
He comes from a lot of programs that have had success. And he’s bringing over a plethora of guys from James Madison, so it’s a completely different team from what we saw last year.
“I think a lot of people, especially Bruins fans, kind of fell in love with him watching that Oregon game last year [against Chesney’s James Madison team in the college Football Playoff] where James Madison kind of fought on until the end. It was kind of fun to see that offense and what he can bring to UCLA.”
For UCLA fans, the opener has a little extra juice. Nix said the matchup matters because it has the feel of a rivalry game that got disrupted by conference realignment.
“For fans it’s really important because it’s not the rivalry with USC maybe, but it’s one that’s kind of been taken away because of conference realignment. So it’s kind of fun to have these kind of games in Week 1, because a lot of power conference teams are going to get FCS schools or lower-level schools to start off with in Week 1, and the Bruins get a road game that’s going to be tester to start the season.”
The biggest question for UCLA, though, is simple: can the offense be better than it was a year ago? The Bruins averaged 18.2 points per game last season, and Nix didn’t sugarcoat how rough that stretch was.
“I think they have to. Looking at that offense last year, it was pretty abysmal. One of the good things about having an offense that bad last year is that there’s really nowhere to go but up.”
He pointed to the transfer additions as the reason for optimism, especially in the run game, where UCLA struggled badly last season. James Madison transfer running back Wayne Knight is one of the names Nix highlighted.
“It’s going to be a completely different team in terms of talent.”
Asked to identify the top UCLA players on each side of the ball, Nix named Knight, James Madison transfer wide receiver Landon Ellis, and South Carolina transfer wide receiver Brian Roe on offense. On defense, he singled out James Madison transfer defensive lineman Sahir West, who had 5.5 tackles for loss, including three sacks, in the Sun Belt championship game against Troy, along with Hendrick.
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