UCLA’s offseason has been anything but quiet, but the Bruins may have used the chaos to reshape the roster in a way that actually gives them a chance to matter in the Big Ten.
New head coach Bob Chesney has brought a wave of familiar talent with him from James Madison, and the biggest name in that group is running back Wayne Knight. Knight piled up 1,373 yards and nine touchdowns last season, earned Second Team All-American honors in the Sun Belt, and now steps into a UCLA backfield that was led in rushing yards last fall by quarterback Nico Iamaleava. Pair Knight with Iamaleava, and the Bruins should have a far more dangerous ground game than they did a year ago.
The upgrades up front are just as important. Chesney brought two offensive line starters from James Madison to Los Angeles, with Riley Robell moving in as the lead center and Carter Sweazie shifting to right guard.
Eugene Brooks is also expected to be a major presence in the middle of the line. On the edges, UCLA has Jordan Davis from South Alabama at left tackle and Hall Schmidt from Boise State at right tackle.
That combination gives the Bruins a front that looks dramatically better than the one they rolled out last season. UCLA went from one of the worst offensive lines in college football to a group loaded with veterans and former all-conference players. For Iamaleava, the message is pretty clear: the excuses are gone.
The defense needed help forcing turnovers, and UCLA went out and tried to fix that too. The Bruins added nickel DJ Barksdale from James Madison, safety Tao Johnson from Utah and cornerback Scooter Jackson from Utah Tech, who combined for six interceptions. They’ll join returning defensive backs Cole Martin at safety and Rodrick Pleasant at cornerback, giving UCLA more options in the secondary and a better shot at creating takeaways.
The bigger unknown is who emerges beyond Mikey Matthews in the passing game. Landon Ellis, who was James Madison’s leading receiver a year ago, is in the mix, along with Leland Smith from San Jose State and Brian Rowe Jr. That group has to give the offense enough reliable targets, especially with a quarterback who still has plenty to prove.
And that’s the heart of it for UCLA: this is a make-or-break year for Iamaleava. He has pro-level talent, but it hasn’t fully come together yet.
Now he gets his first season under Chesney and offensive coordinator Dean Kennedy, and it may be the best system he’s had for his skill set. Kennedy, for his part, has never coached a quarterback as gifted as Iamaleava.
That’s why the Bruins feel hard to pin down. They could follow the kind of rapid turnaround Indiana made, or they could run into the kind of growing pains North Carolina did.
Right now, the most realistic ceiling seems to be a bowl game. With so many new starters on both sides of the ball, UCLA’s continuity still has to be proven.
But there’s enough here to believe the Bruins might be more interesting than expected.
In Other News...
UCLA Begins Bob Chesney Era With One Huge Fall Camp Test
UCLA opens fall camp on Aug. 6 at the Wasserman Football Center, kicking off a nearly monthlong stretch that will take the Bruins through practices in both Irvine and Westwood before camp wraps Aug. 28. For Bob Chesney, it is the first training camp of his UCLA tenure, and the early weeks will be the first real chance to see how quickly his program can take shape after he arrived with a sizable group of players and staff from James Madison.
The challenge is bigger than installing a system and getting through the workload. With the season opener against Cal set for Sept. 5, UCLA is racing the calendar while trying to build chemistry, settle roles and get comfortable in a new coaching structure all at once. Fall camp usually answers a lot of questions, but for the Bruins, the more interesting one is how many of those answers Chesney can get before the team heads into September. [Read more 🡒]
South Carolina Looks Built For Another Dawn Staley Title Run
UCLAs national championship glow comes with a reminder that title windows in womens college basketball can close fast. Even after raising a trophy, the Bruins are staring at a roster reset, with major pieces from that team moving on and the program needing to keep its standard intact while the sports biggest contenders reload around it. The broader 2027 outlook makes that challenge even sharper, because the teams chasing UCLA are hardly standing still.
The Bruins still have reasons to feel good about the talent pipeline, and the next wave is already part of the conversation as the program tries to bridge one era to the next. Sienna Betts, Addy Brown and Elina Aarnisaro are among the names being tracked as the foundation of what comes next, and how quickly that group settles in may say a lot about whether UCLA can stay in the hunt while South Carolina, UConn, Texas and the rest keep stockpiling contenders. [Read more 🡒]