Hope has returned to Westwood with Bob Chesney now running UCLA’s football program, and the early signs point to a coach who could drag the Bruins out of the mud. Chesney arrives with a strong recent track record from James Madison, where he kept things rolling after Curt Cignetti left for Indiana. In two seasons with the Dukes, Chesney went 21-6 (.770), and last year’s 12-2 team even worked its way into the College Football Playoff picture.
That kind of stability is exactly what UCLA has been missing. The Bruins have been wandering for a while, and Deshaun Foster’s brief tenure was the low point.
Athletic director Martin Jarmond moved on after Foster opened his second season 0-3. Foster finished 5-10 overall, and the job proved too much for a coach without the experience or readiness for it.
Chesney inherits a program that has only reached two bowl games in the last eight seasons, winning one of them. Since joining the Big Ten, UCLA has gone 6-12 in conference play. There’s plenty of rebuilding ahead in Westwood, but the mood around the program has clearly shifted.
The numbers offer a little more reason for optimism. UCLA’s 2026 record was 3-9, with a 3-6 mark in the Big Ten that left it tied for 11th.
The Bruins finished with an OFEI of 71, a DFEI of 93 and a SFEI of 12. On the recruiting front, their 2026 high school class ranked 65th, while the incoming transfer class came in at 25th.
Advanced projections see some progress coming. Per Mike Regalado of Bruin247, “SP+ (Connelly's per-play efficiency metric) projects UCLA to finish with 6.0 wins overall.
The Bruins rank 10th in the Big Ten in projected conference wins with 3.9. They are given a 62.0 percent chance to win six games, but only 0.1 percent chance to win 11 games.
"Overall, this is another indication that Bob Chesney has the program moving in the right direction. We recently reported on the Bruins' win total odds from BetMGM which projected the Bruins with 6.5 wins, closely aligning with the SP+ projection."
Chesney also landed a decent transfer class and kept a high percentage of the 2025 production in place. The biggest name in that group is quarterback Nico Iamaleava, who was almost single-handedly responsible for the few bright spots UCLA had last season. Of course, returning production only matters if the players actually improve, especially when they’re coming off a 3-9 year.
Iamaleava believes Chesney has already earned that trust.
"Coach Chesney is a winner," Iamaleava said. "Everywhere he's been, he's been a winner. That winning mentality makes guys buy in and want to play for him."
The new coach has also made a strong impression on the people watching him up close. During a spring practice session that included local high school coaches, Whittier’s Lorenzo Hernandez came away struck by how organized and detailed the operation looked.
"I was watching the defensive drills where they were able to run a blitz package against a skeleton offensive unit, and that was one of the things that caught my eye," Hernandez said. "You could just tell that coach Chesney is so in tune with everything.
The athletes were always moving. The guys standing around and setting up were the [graduate assistants] and the equipment managers.
They had two offenses set up back to back and the defenses would run a blitz and then turn around and line up against the other skeleton offense. No time was wasted, and there were no wasted movements.
Chesney really maximized his team's time."
As for the matchup with USC, Lincoln Riley has gone 3-1 against UCLA as the Trojans’ head coach. Last season’s game was competitive for only about a half, though the four meetings have mostly been tight enough to keep the rivalry feeling alive. The late-season setting adds another wrinkle, and Chesney’s presence gives UCLA a more credible future than it has had in a while.
Still, USC looks like it will have the upper hand when the teams meet in the Arroyo Seco on Nov. 28.
If everything goes according to plan, the Trojans will need that win to lock up their first trip to the College Football Playoff, while UCLA will be eager to spoil the party. Chesney may well rebuild the Bruins into a real threat over time, but this season USC should have enough to finish the regular season with a victory.
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