LOS ANGELES - UCLA’s first preseason practice under Bob Chesney opened with the kind of optimism that tends to show up on day one everywhere, but the new Bruins coach said this camp also has a harder edge to it.
“You’re excited to be back out here playing the game we love to play with the guys we love doing it with,” Chesney said. “We were focused not only on fundamentals but a little bit of scheme, a little bit of situation, and procedural discipline is something that we are constantly talking about. How much do I love being coached and accept that coaching to make myself get better?”
The Bruins are about a month away from their Sept. 5 season opener at Cal in Berkeley, and the early part of camp will stay close to home before the schedule shifts. UCLA practices at its Wasserman Football Center in Westwood for the next two days, then takes the field at Great Park in Irvine on Tuesday (Aug. 11).
For Chesney, that move is part of the point.
“I want to try and get away from here for a minute,” Chesney said. “Just feel for what it feels like to be on the road.
It has a little bit of a bowl game vibe to it, and it’s important to practice that. At the same time, I want to use it as our way to come together.”
He said the change of scenery and the game-like settings are ways to see how this team handles pressure before it heads north for the opener.
“Pay no attention to adversity that hasn’t been tested in fire,” Chesney said. “What we have to do is put them in situations where they’ve been tested in fire and know how they are going to react when the moment is on the line. That’s the most important thing we can do and that’s what the purpose of this camp is about.”
A big part of that evaluation centers on quarterback Nico Iamaleava, whom Chesney sees as a clear fit for the offense UCLA is installing. The redshirt junior threw for 1,928 yards and 13 touchdowns with seven interceptions last season, a year that also included UCLA’s 0-3 start and the firing of DeShaun Foster.
Iamaleava then helped the Bruins pull off an upset of then-No. 7 Penn State under interim coach Tim Skipper before Chesney arrived last December after going 21-6 in two seasons at James Madison.
Now Chesney and offensive coordinator Dean Kennedy, who joined him after working with him at James Madison, are building around Iamaleava’s mobility in a spread option attack. That fits the quarterback’s dual-threat profile, especially after he led UCLA with 505 rushing yards and four touchdown runs last season.
On Thursday, Chesney said Iamaleava already looks more settled in the offense and in his role as a leader.
“Nico’s just a lot more comfortable,” Chesney said. “He’s a lot more comfortable in his leadership, a lot more comfortable in his mastery of the playbook. He’s continued to grow day in and day out.”
Chesney said he did not single out any one player after the first practice, but he did point to a smoother transition overall now that the NCAA has removed the spring transfer portal, cutting down on the kind of roster churn that used to reshape teams between spring work and fall camp.
“Going from spring and this is the added benefit of not having that spring portal is you’re not replacing guys and counting on a bunch of guys to learn it all,” Chesney said. “We were able to do some things decently well at a high level because of the fact that we stuck together.”
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