Bob Chesney’s Plan to Turn UCLA Around Is Already Firing on All Cylinders

Bob Chesney took the UCLA job in the middle of running another team toward a championship. He found out on a Sunday night, with his James Madison squad about to host its Sun Belt title game and a likely playoff run still ahead. Then the work doubled.

Chesney told Rich the three-hour time difference actually helped. He would push through the Pacific day, look up at 10 or 11 at night, and realize he still had a couple of hours of East Coast oxygen to keep building UCLA. Step one was hiring a general manager and standing up the recruiting department. Step two was triaging a roster he had already scouted from the outside, including who was in the portal and who was about to be.

The transfer portal opened the same day school started, which meant Chesney was bringing in new players while still trying to read the players already in the building. "You're just trying to peck away at it every single day," he said, "because you only got one shot at doing that."

The work has shown up in the rankings. 247Sports currently has UCLA with the fourth-best recruiting class. Rich asked Chesney what his pitch sounds like. Chesney pushed back on the framing.

"We're not selling anything. We're presenting things," he said. The presentation, by his telling, is UCLA itself. Number one public school in the country. Eight percent acceptance rate. Multiple national championships across the athletic department this year. Olympic athletes. First-round draft picks. "You're really surrounded by greatness," Chesney said. The football program's job, he added, is to put itself back on that map.

One of the first calls he got after taking the job came from women's basketball head coach Cori Close, who was on the brink of winning a national title. They traded texts, quotes, and clips back and forth. After the title, Close came out to UCLA's spring game and called plays alongside men's water polo coach Adam Wright, a 12-time national champion in his sport. Chesney's staff handed them a Madden-style call sheet. Close drew up a flea flicker. Wright ran a reverse out of an eye formation that ended in a throwback to the quarterback. Wright's side won.

Rich asked who Chesney leans on as he steps into the Big Ten. The answer was a long list. Brian Kelly during Kelly's Notre Dame years, where Chesney spent three or four days a year for three or four years studying sports science, GPS player loads, nutrition, and bloodwork. Bill Belichick, indirectly, through women's lacrosse coach Amanda Belichick at Holy Cross. Brett Veach, the Chiefs general manager, who grew up in the same small Pennsylvania coal-mining town as Chesney.

When Rich asked what UCLA fans should expect, Chesney landed on the same point twice. "Embracing the idea that we can be the best," he said. "Embracing the idea that to be fourth in recruiting, why not be third or second or find a way to be first."

The close was simpler. Disciplined, physical football. High standards. Coach them hard every day. "That's what all those best teams do," Chesney said.