Unflinching in his belief that he could elevate UCLA to win at the highest level, Bob Chesney sounded a brazen, fearless tone Tuesday during his introduction as the Bruins’ football coach.
“We don’t need to be the other school in town,” Chesney said inside the Luskin Center on campus, “we need to be the school in this town and I promise you that will happen very soon.”
Chesney said the success he’s had in two seasons at James Madison, which will open the College Football Playoff against Oregon on Dec. 20, could translate to his new job after agreeing to a five-year, $33.75-million contract that will pay him an annual salary of $6.75 million.
“Those same dreams,” Chesney said of what he’s done with the Dukes, “are the exact dreams we will have here.”
Bob Myers, the former Golden State Warriors general manager who served on the search committee, said UCLA had committed to providing him with resources that would rank in “the top third, maybe top quartile” of the Big Ten in a bid to give Chesney what he needed to compete with conference heavyweights.
The challenge is a big one. UCLA has not won a conference championship since 1998 and is coming off back-to-back losing seasons, including a 3-9 record under predecessor DeShaun Foster and interim coach Tim Skipper. None of that could dissuade Chesney from becoming the first sitting head coach to abandon his job to join the Bruins since Pepper Rodgers made a similar move in 1971.
“I believe in the power of UCLA,” Chesney said.
Chesney met with his new players earlier in the day, impressing them with his vision and exuberance.
“He has a lot of energy and cares about this place,” freshman linebacker Scott Taylor said, “and that’s what a lot of people want to see.”
Mixing humor with personal anecdotes in his remarks, Chesney joked that he was country singer Kenny Chesney’s first cousin and that the other Chesney would be at every game. He said his first coaching salary was $5,000. When it came to his coaching tree, Chesney said he had learned from many but wanted to embrace his own style.
“I don’t want to be anyone else,” he said. “I want to be me.”
Chesney said he also believed in accountability and would personally conduct class checks. What’s his style? Chesney said he embraced toughness and competitiveness. He also said he believed he could replicate his success at lower levels after having won at the Division III, Division II and Football Championship Subdivision levels before arriving at James Madison.
“There is zero doubt,” Chesney said, “that we can win here at UCLA.”
Check back soon for updates on this developing news story.
The eight remaining candidates met with UCLA’s search committee on Zoom, each answering the same set of questions.
When those conversations ended, Martin Jarmond, the athletic director who was presiding over the Bruins’ quest to find their next great football coach, asked everyone on the committee to prioritize which candidates needed to be seen in person.
Everyone’s list included the same name: Bob Chesney.
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The James Madison coach had already wowed the committee by then, according to multiple people with knowledge of the search who spoke with The Times on condition of anonymity because of the private nature of the process.
Chesney’s experience building programs into winners, established track record of success at multiple levels, ability to develop talent and appreciation for everything UCLA had to offer were all selling points that made him an attractive candidate early in a search lasting 2½ months.
Along the way, Chesney and the six-person committee nurtured a relationship based on shared values and mutual respect, according to those familiar with the process, making him feel prioritized when other potential suitors emerged as part of a coaching carousel that threatened to spin out of control as new openings materialized seemingly by the day.
After Jarmond and Erin Adkins, the executive senior associate athletic director who was also part of the search committee, flew to see Chesney last month in Virginia, the coach and his suitors came to the same conclusion — they were a perfect match. Chesney agreed to become the Bruins’ new coach on Dec. 1, accepting a five-year deal.
On Tuesday morning on campus inside the Luskin Center, UCLA will introduce a coach whose hiring might be the coup of the carousel.
“We owe UCLA students, alumni, supporters and fans a football program built to succeed in the modern age of college sports, and hiring coach Chesney will do just that,” search committee member Bob Myers said. “We not only believe in him as a head coach, but also as a person. His character and values were a huge factor in our decision. Coach Chesney exudes all the qualities you want in someone charged with leading our student-athletes at UCLA.”
The buzz around Chesney only intensified Sunday when James Madison was selected for the College Football Playoff, dramatically increasing his profile. UCLA has agreed to allow Chesney to coach the 12th-seeded Dukes (12-1) through a CFP run that starts Dec. 20 when they face fifth-seeded Oregon (11-1) at Autzen Stadium, the Bruins undoubtedly getting free air time during the TNT broadcast when their new coach is mentioned. The committee was firmly behind Chesney participating in the playoff, celebrating his team’s selection.
The process leading to Chesney’s hiring started as most coaching searches do, with a firing. The dismissal of coach DeShaun Foster on Sept. 14 after an 0-3 start — giving him a 5-10 record over a little more than one season — left the Bruins with a need to recalibrate their approach in picking a successor.
Martin Jarmond
(Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times)
Jarmond identified three principal guidelines for the search while meeting with UCLA chancellor Julio Frenk. There needed to be alignment among everyone involved in the process about what they wanted in their new coach, ample investment to allow that coach to compete in the Big Ten and nationally, and ultimately the identification of a strong leader who embodied the school’s core values.
Jarmond was open to any candidate, including NFL coaches and college coordinators, but eventually came to prioritize sitting head coaches who had gone through the recent transformative changes in college sports involving the transfer portal, roster management and the name, image and likeness space. There was also a strong preference for someone who had experience turning around a program, building it into a sustained winner.
A search committee that included Jarmond, Adkins, Myers, sports executive Casey Wasserman, Washington Commanders general manager Adam Peters and former Bruins linebacker Eric Kendricks cast a wide net, starting with a list of 40 possible candidates. The committee gathered preliminary background information on those coaches and met regularly via phone calls and in person, with Peters often joining via Zoom because he was based on the East Coast.
Peters offered intelligence based on his extensive network of NFL personnel who regularly visited college campuses and observed coaches. Myers and Wasserman provided insights based on their vast experience as top-level sports executives. Kendricks, who has spent a decade playing in the NFL, queried candidates on playing style, practice habits, accountability measures and coaching philosophy.
As the committee continued to gather information and assess possible fit, it halved the list of candidates to 20, then narrowed it further to 12 and then eight, which included seven sitting college head coaches and one college coordinator. After the round of Zoom calls, the committee identified six candidates it wanted to remain in contention. Jarmond and Adkins flew to see four candidates in person, keeping two others in the running for possible future meetings.
After every interview and in-person meeting, the committee members always asked themselves the same things: Did this candidate possess the qualities they were seeking and could he fulfill their vision for winning?
Chesney, 48, kept checking every box from early in the process. On his Zoom with the committee, Chesney detailed his plan for winning with the Bruins and gave examples of experiences at other schools that revealed his appreciation for what it took to succeed at a highly rigorous academic institution. His resume was just as impressive as his answers.
Chesney’s 132-51 record included success at the Division III, Division II, Football Championship Subdivision and Football Bowl Subdivision levels. Part of that success included dramatic turnarounds. Assumption, which had gone 3-7 under previous coach Corey Bailey in 2012, enjoyed a steady rise under Chesney, going from 6-5 in Year 1 to 7-4 in Year 2 to 11-2 in Year 3.
It was a similar story at Holy Cross, which had gone 4-7 the year before Chesney’s arrival. By Chesney’s second season, the Crusaders started a four-year run of making the FCS playoffs, reaching a quarterfinal in 2022.
While coach Curt Cignetti already had James Madison rolling, the Dukes going 11-2 and reaching the Armed Forces Bowl in 2023, Chesney has now managed in only two years to take the program somewhere his predecessor couldn’t — the CFP.
It’s that sort of sustained success that left UCLA’s search committee with no qualms about Chesney not having won at the Power Four level. Given Chesney’s track record, the committee believed that all he needed to win big at college football’s highest level was an opportunity.
UCLA plans to support its new coach with enhanced resources, making a significant commitment to grow its assistant coach salary pool alongside additional investment in front-office, recruiting and strength and conditioning personnel as well as a restructured NIL operation.
Jarmond and Adkins flew to Virginia on Sunday so that they could accompany Chesney on his flight to Southern California on Monday ahead of his introduction a day later. Chesney will return to James Madison on Wednesday, continuing preparations to take his team somewhere the Bruins hope he can lead them.
Feeling like winners already, the Bruins are about to unveil the coach who seems to have all the answers..
A brand-new NIL
Chesney is going to have some new resources at his disposal.
As part of an aggressive restructuring, UCLA has transitioned its name, image and likeness efforts for football to the same third-party media and branding agency that handles the school’s other teams.
Champion of Westwood will assist Chesney in an effort to elevate his team’s NIL endeavors in the same way it has for men’s basketball — through its Men of Westwood arm — as well as women’s basketball, softball and other teams on campus.
Working with NIL agency Article 41, which has staff on campus to help athletes build their brands through content creation and social media strategies, Champion of Westwood is striving to create new opportunities for football players as part of an all-inclusive approach.
“Everyone is committed to being very symbiotic on this, which I think will lead to success,” said Ken Graiwer, the UCLA alumnus who runs Champion of Westwood. “Supporting NIL is supporting the program.”
As part of a new subscriber model in which payments can be made on a one-time or recurring basis, Champion of Westwood is offering benefits such as exclusive merchandise and player video updates directly from the locker room after a game.
Among its corporate sponsors, Champion of Westwood has partnered with Paige, the same apparel company that outfitted Dodgers stars Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts.
“They were looking for the next generation of top athletes,” Graiwer said of Paige identifying UCLA as a client. “These are the great kinds of things that we’re doing.”
Champion of Westwood has also assembled a new advisory board that includes former UCLA quarterback Cory Paus, mega donor Michael Price and other heavyweights in the financial and entertainment sectors who can help facilitate introductions between players and individuals or companies interested in engaging them for NIL deals.
Olympic sport of the week: Men’s water polo
The UCLA men’s water polo team after winning the national championship.
(UCLA Athletics)
It was the sort of ending the cross-town rivalry deserved.
In another back-and-forth battle, Frederico Jucá Carsalade made sure the UCLA men’s water polo team came out on top with a goal as time expired Sunday at Stanford’s Avery Aquatic Center, lifting the Bruins to an 11-10 victory over USC in the national championship game.
USC’s Jack Martin had tied the score with 2:03 left before Carsalade’s goal gave UCLA its 125th NCAA title in school history and its second consecutive championship in men’s water polo. Carsalade finished with two goals and Ryder Dodd scored three, including back-to-back goals that pushed the Bruins into a 10-9 lead before the Trojans rallied.
It was payback after USC had won two of the three previous meetings between the teams this season. The victory gave UCLA coach Adam Wright his 10th NCAA title with the Bruins — six as head coach of the men’s water polo team, two as a player for the Bruins, one as head coach of the women’s water polo team and another as an assistant coach with the women’s team.
Opinion time
What is your level of happiness with the Bob Chesney hire?
We asked, “How optimistic are you for UCLA football in 2026?”
After 612 votes, the results:
They will qualify for a lower-tier bowl game, 47.1% They will show some fight, but struggle to a losing record, 23.5% It’s going to be another long season, 14.6% They will make a quality bowl game, 10.7% The Bruins will be in College Football Playoff contention, 4.1%
Do you have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future UCLA newsletter? Email me at ben.bolch@latimes.com, and follow me on X @latbbolch. To order an autographed copy of my book, “100 Things UCLA Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die,” send me an email. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
Co-workers would walk into the office of Khary Darlington, the team’s general manager, to give him one wretched update after another.
This player’s out. That player’s out. A parent just called crying and confused.
“I mean,” Darlington said, “it literally felt like walking through a landmine field.”
Once they had answered every call and met with athletic department administrators and the remaining coaches to devise a framework for a recruiting process that had just become infinitely more complicated, Darlington and assistant general manager Steven Price started writing on a whiteboard inside the Wasserman Football Center.
Across three columns, the longtime former NFL scouts detailed a plan for the retention of committed high school prospects, the rebuilding of the recruiting class and the ways they would implement changes.
As he glanced at that same whiteboard late last week, some 2½ months later, Darlington beamed.
“I’m looking at the implementation column,” he said, “and it’s nothing but red check marks. That means we completed that task.”
From Broderick Turner: Former Lakers center Elden Campbell, who played 8 ½ seasons of his 15-year NBA career with the Los Angeles team he watched while growing up here and attending Morningside High, has died. He was 57.
The cause of death is not known.
Former Lakers teammates and friends offered their condolences Tuesday.
The 6-foot-11 Campbell, who was drafted by the Lakers in the first round out of Clemson in 1990, averaged 10.3 points and 5.9 rebounds over his career. He won an NBA championship with the Detroit Pistons in 2004, getting his title with a win over the Lakers.
It appeared as if coach Sean McVay was committed to fully incorporating the 2021 second-round draft pick into a receiver corps that included Puka Nacua and new arrival Davante Adams, a three-time All-Pro.
But Atwell had only four catches before he suffered a hamstring injury that landed him on injured reserve in late October, and the Rams did not activate him for Sunday’s game, a 31-28 defeat by the Carolina Panthers.
Xavier Smith, who also returns punts, filled the speedy receiver role and caught three passes for 82 yards, including one for 51 yards.
McVay indicated after the game that the decision to not activate Atwell was a roster management issue influenced heavily by personnel groupings and special teams needs that affect the 48-player game-day limit.
From Anthony Solorzano: The USC women’s basketball team earned a commanding 79-33 win over Saint Mary’s at Galen Center on Tuesday night.
A small, but enthusiastic crowd cheered for the defense any time the Trojans forced a turnover. USC (6-2) held the Gaels (5-4) to under 30% shooting in the paint and 15% from the three-point line.
As the Trojans prepare to face No. 5 Washington at home on Sunday to begin conference play, senior Londynn Jones scored 17 points against Saint Mary’s while going four of five from the free-throw line. Sophomore Kennedy Smith added 15 points and five rebounds. The home team led by as many as 26 points in the first half and held Saint Mary’s to four points in the second quarter.
Chad Baker-Mazara scored 25 points and Jacob Cofie added 17 as No. 24 USC defeated Oregon 82-77 on Tuesday night in a Big Ten Conference opener for both teams.
USC, which entered the AP Top 25 on Monday for the first time in more than two years, improved to 8-0 to continue its best start since the 2021-22 season.
Playing without leading scorer Rodney Rice due to an injury, the Trojans pulled away in the final two minutes. USC shot 50.9% from the field, including eight of 21 on three-pointers.
From Kevin Baxter: For organizers of the 2026 World Cup, Friday’s tournament draw is a like the bell lap of a long-distance race, the moment when the slow slog turns into a sprint.
“This is going to be huge,” said Kathryn Schloessman, president and chief executive officer of the Los Angeles Sports and Entertainment Commission. “This is going to be a big deal.”
Schloessman has been preparing for that big deal for most of the last eight years. Together with the local host committee and civic leaders, she helped secure eight games for SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, set up fanfests throughout the region, organized public transportation, found training centers for visiting teams and worked to establish a legacy program that will ensure the tournament’s influence continues well beyond the final match.
Anthony Beauvillier scored the tiebreaking goal early in the third period and Logan Thompson made 24 saves in the Washington Capitals’ fifth straight victory, 3-1 over the Kings on Tuesday night.
Tom Wilson scored his 16th goal and Alex Ovechkin had two assists for the Capitals, whose 8-1-0 surge since mid-November has moved them into a first-place tie atop the Metropolitan Division with Carolina, which has two games in hand.
Aliaksei Protas added an empty-net goal for Washington, which opened a California trip featuring three games in four nights by sweeping its season series with the Kings.
1946 — Army halfback Glenn Davis is named the Heisman Trophy winner.
1950 — Tom Fears of the Rams has 18 receptions against Green Bay.
1950 — Cloyce Box of the Detroit Lions has 302 yards receiving and scores four touchdowns against the Baltimore Colts.
1956 — Wilt Chamberlain scores 52 points in his collegiate debut with Kansas.
1957 — Texas A&M halfback John David Crow is named the Heisman Trophy winner.
1972 — Bobby Howfield of the New York Jets kicks six field goals against New Orleans.
1973 — Dick Anderson of the Miami Dolphins intercepts four passes, returning two for touchdowns, against Pittsburgh.
1979 — USC halfback Charles White is named the Heisman Trophy winner.
1982 — Tommy Hearns wins the WBC welterweight title with a 15-round decision over Wilfred Benitez in New Orleans.
1994 — Sixth-ranked Florida beats undefeated and third-ranked Alabama 24-23 in the first SEC Championship game played in Atlanta.
1999 — Marshall beats Western Michigan 34-30 on the last play of the MAC Championship game. Down 30-27 with four seconds left in the game, Chad Pennington throws his 100th career touchdown pass to Eric Pinkerton as time expires to give the Thundedring Herd their third consecutive MAC title.
2000 — The 200-yard rushing games by Mike Anderson, Corey Dillon, Warrick Dunn and Curtis Martin mark the first time in NFL history that four runners have 200 yards on the same day. Its never happened three times in a single day. Anderson rushes for an NFL rookie record 251 yards and four touchdowns in Denver’s 38-23 victory over New Orleans.
2004 — Bode Miller wins his fourth race of the season in the downhill at Beaver Creek, Colo., and Daron Rahlves is second to give the United States its first 1-2 finish on the World Cup circuit. The last time U.S. men went 1-2 in any elite international race was 1984, when Phil Mahre won the Olympic slalom in Sarajevo and twin brother Steve took the silver medal.
2005 — USC wins its 34th consecutive game and 16th straight against a ranked opponent, beating No. 11 UCLA 66-19. The 16 victories against Associated Press ranked teams is one better than Oklahoma, which won 15 from 1973-76.
2014 — The Philadelphia 76ers avoid tying the record for the worst start to a season in NBA history, ending their 0-17 skid with an 85-77 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves.
2015 — Aaron Rodgers throws a 61-yard touchdown pass to Richard Rodgers with no time left to give the Green Bay Packers a 27-23 comeback victory over the Detroit Lions. Detroit went ahead 17-0 after its first three drives and capped the opening possession of the third quarter with a field goal to go ahead 20-0.
2017 — Tom Brady continues his career-long dominance of the Buffalo Bills completing 21 of 30 for 258 yards and an interception in New England’s 23-3 victory. He improves to 27-3 against Buffalo and breaks Brett Favre’s record for wins by a quarterback against any one opponent.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
Operating out of a different playbook than it used nearly two years ago, when it made a vastly underwhelming hire, UCLA has snagged one of the most promising football coaches on the market.
Ending a pursuit that had become increasingly hard to keep quiet in recent weeks, the Bruins are set to hire James Madison coach Bob Chesney on a five-year contract in a move first reported by ESPN’s Pete Thamel. As part of the arrangement, Chesney is expected to remain with his current team through a possible College Football Playoff appearance with the Dukes.
The move represents a dramatic shift for a program in desperate need of a turnaround, the Bruins going with an up-and-coming coach who has won big everywhere he’s been as part of his own storybook rise. UCLA athletic department officials would not confirm the imminent hire that’s expected to be announced after James Madison plays Troy in the Sun Belt Conference championship game on Friday.
After massive success at the Division III, Division II, Football Championship Subdivision and Football Bowl Subdivision levels, Chesney now takes on his greatest challenge — reviving a Big Ten team that hasn’t achieved anything of national significance in more than a quarter of a century.
Winning at the Power Four level is the only hole in Chesney’s résumé. Hugely successful stints at small college programs Salve Regina and Assumption led Chesney to Holy Cross, where he guided the Crusaders to five consecutive Patriot League championships and four appearances in the FCS playoffs, including their first trip to the quarterfinals in 40 years.
James Madison coach Bob Chesney watches his team play Washington State at Bridgeforth Stadium on Nov. 22.
(Brien Aho / Getty Images)
The joy ride picked up momentum when Chesney replaced Curt Cignetti at James Madison. After a debut 2024 season in which his team went 9-4, Chesney has guided the Dukes to a 11-1 record this season while going unbeaten in the Sun Belt Conference, putting them in contention for a College Football Playoff bid.
Chesney’s core philosophies include fostering a growth mindset and instilling confidence through competitions in which the celebrations are judged as closely as what happens on the field.
“To me,” Chesney said in a video for the Harbaugh Coaching Academy, “it’s that ability to celebrate little successes and then you watch someone just kind of sit up a little taller, swell up a little bit more with pride and then they want to build that confidence, they want to repeat that success.”
Having won over UCLA’s coaching search committee with an outgoing, charismatic personality, the 48-year-old Chesney now must go about using those same traits to woo donors and recruits. UCLA’s name, image and likeness endeavors are transitioning to new leadership and Chesney must play a huge role in landing the sort of money the Bruins will need to compete in the Big Ten. A native of Pennsylvania, he’ll also have to establish roots in new territory after having spent his entire life on the East Coast.
He starred as a second-team all-conference defensive back at Dickinson College, where he majored in religion. Chesney mostly coached on the defensive side of the ball in his early stints as an assistant, rising to defensive coordinator at Johns Hopkins. But his teams are known for being well-rounded — James Madison averages 37.8 points, ranking No. 10 nationally, while giving up 16 points, also ranking No. 10.
Chesney replaces DeShaun Foster, who was fired only three games into the season after having compiled a 5-10 record at his alma mater. The hiring of Chesney represented a vast departure from the strategy UCLA secured to select Foster, a position coach not on anyone else’s short list as a head coaching candidate.
Chesney is the first sitting head coach the Bruins have picked since convincing Pepper Rodgers to leave Kansas before the 1971 season. Rodgers compiled a 19-12-1 record over three seasons at UCLA before leaving for Georgia Tech, his alma mater.
Luring head coaches from other places has historically been a winning move for UCLA. Tommy Prothro left Oregon State to go 41-18-3 at UCLA — including a victory in the 1966 Rose Bowl — before landing a job with the Rams.
Red Sanders departed Vanderbilt — his alma mater — to embark on a golden era of football at UCLA, guiding the Bruins to a 66-19-1 record and a share of the Bruins’ only national championship, in 1954. One can only imagine how different the trajectory of UCLA football might have been had Sanders not died from a heart attack before the 1958 season.
Going with an established head coach in Chesney could have the extra benefit of providing cover for UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond after his failed hiring of Foster. The Bruins finished the season with a 3-9 record under interim coach Tim Skipper after a 29-10 loss to crosstown rival USC. Jarmond presided over a search committee that also included sports executive Casey Wasserman, former Golden State Warriors general manager Bob Myers, Washington Commanders general manager Adam Peters, UCLA executive senior associate athletic director Erin Adkins and former Bruins star linebacker Eric Kendricks.
As a reminder of what’s at stake for its long-suffering fan base, UCLA is approaching the 40-year anniversary of its last Rose Bowl game victory, over Iowa on Jan. 1, 1986. The Bruins have not appeared in a Rose Bowl game since 1999, at the end of a season in which they won their last conference championship.
If all goes well, the coach secured with a proven approach could lead to a return to happier days.
