Frustrated

UCLA football fans are accustomed to watching the Bruins struggle, so it took some time to believe new coach Bob Chesney really could back up his inspirational messages.

After a big road win against longtime nemesis Oregon, video posted online showed Chesney delivering a fiery speech to his team in the tunnel before facing the Ducks. He relayed the story of Hernán Cortes telling his crew to burn boats behind them so that there was no way out but forward. The Bruins, he said, had to burn the boats and fight through the Ducks.

“His speech before the Oregon game — where he talked about burning boats — that just fires you up. It makes me want to run through a wall,” said Brian Jacobsen, a 1987 UCLA graduate.

Jacobsen, 62, brought his family to Eugene to watch UCLA defeat Oregon for the first time since 2004 because he felt this team was special.

A fan with a UCLA themed Star Wars storm trooper mask dances during the Bruins’ win over Wisconsin at Rose Bowl on Saturday.

(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)

UCLA fan Luis Flores, 54, grew up watching the Bruins and said he can’t recall feeling this excited about the team.

“It’s the culture and the way the coaches have these kids going the right direction. Where they are disciplined, they believe in [Bob] and they believe in the Bruins,” Flores said.

Jacobsen and Flores were among the 36,045 fans at the Rose Bowl Saturday during UCLA’s 17-7 win over Wisconsin. The Chesney train is picking up steam, but the Rose Bowl was still far from sold out Saturday.

Joel Fierberg, music director of the UCLA Alumni Band, has seen the football program’s highs and lows during his 30 years leading the band.

“There have been some up-and-down years, but I am excited for what’s been happening,” Fierberg said.

Fierberg values fans who have stayed with the Bruins through thick and thin, especially now that the program has given them wins to celebrate.

“There are a lot of fans, including a lot of my band [members], who are here every week regardless,” Fierberg said. “It’s always exciting for them, having lived through the difficult times, to have something to be excited about.”

UCLA fans haven’t seen this kind of dominance since the Bruins opened the 2022 season 6-0.

Jeremiah Calvillo, 15, said he remembers the Chip Kelly era, but he couldn’t be more excited about what this UCLA team has done for him.

“[Chesney] is a very good coach who is leading this program to better things,” Calvillo said.

UCLA running back Anthony Woods and quarterback Ty Dieffenbach celebrate after scoring a touchdown in the fourth quarter against Wisconsin at the Rose Bowl on Saturday.

(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)

UCLA alum Garry Sakson enjoys seeing all the praise the Bruins have received on social media after beating Oregon in Eugene. Sakson attended as many games as possible during the Kelly era at UCLA.

“The mindset this team has is different,” Sakson said. “With Chesney, it’s the way he acts and carries himself.”

Fans are cautious about discussing UCLA’s chances of making the College Football Playoff, despite the Bruins becoming the last undefeated team in the Big Ten and SEC. That superstitious approach shows how quickly Chesney has raised expectations.

“I’m very optimistic about Chesney in his first year, but talking about the playoffs already is wild. Still, it’s amazing that we’re even in this position,” said 2009 UCLA alum Tim Dawson.

Dawson was a freshman when the Bruins started the 2005 season 8-0 and finished 10-2, during coach Karl Dorrell’s third year.

That season, the Bruins were known for their high-scoring offense and their ability to pull wins out, until they fell to Arizona in Week 9.

This season, the Bruins have a potent rushing game, a dynamic new starting quarterback and defense that has delivered explosive plays. Dawson said this feels different than the 2005 team because the defense is strong.

The players are proud of how quickly they shifted from going 3-9 last season to a 6-0 start.

Fans watch UCLA face Wisconsin at the Rose Bowl on Saturday.

(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)

“Think the progress that we made from January, when we all arrived, till now is just out of this world,“ UCLA wide receiver Landon Ellis said. “It’ll be hard to look back into history and find teams that have turned it around this fast. So if you’re not all the way in, I don’t know what you are doing,”

Chesney said a bruising win over Wisconsin that shows UCLA can hold its own against brawny Big Ten terms should win over more fans unaccustomed to success.

“I think this win changes things a little bit,” Chesney said. “We won games in different ways, whether it be the offense or defense, but I think [Saturday] was a tough, physical game of football that you got to have a lot of pride in. And I think this should be the one that gives them a lot of confidence to understand just exactly what we are doing.”

Widespread voter disillusionment and pocketbook anxieties set a volatile stage for the GOP weeks before election night.

Voter sentiment across the United States is increasingly negative towards US President Donald Trump’s domestic and foreign policies, according to a new Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll.

In the closing weeks before the November 3 US congressional midterm elections, 80 percent of Americans polled said the country needs substantial change or “complete and total upheaval” in how it is run, according to the survey of over 1,100 US adults released on Thursday.

Democrats and independents are much more likely than Republicans to want a total overhaul of the country’s direction, the survey found, but even Republican voters are still looking for some change. Slightly fewer than half, 45 percent, want substantial change, while 13 percent are seeking upheaval.

The results point to a pervasive appetite for legislative realignment that poses a risk to the Republican Party’s power as it looks to keep control of both houses of the US Congress.

Fuelled by soaring living costs, everyday economics is driving a majority of the electorate, with 85 percent of respondents saying the economy is one of the most significant issues in weighing their vote in the upcoming election. About eight in 10 registered voters disapprove of how Trump is handling the cost of living, and about three-quarters disapprove of his performance on the economy.

Only about one-third of registered voters overall have a “very” or “somewhat” favourable view of the Republican president, and a similar share approve of his performance as president.

More voters want Democrats to win control of Congress and have a more negative view of Republicans.

Immigration and crime rates are also top concerns for some voters, according to the survey results, with 45 percent of voters identifying them as top priorities, though the two issues are prioritised disproportionately by Republican voters who reference them more frequently than Democrats. Conversely, Democratic voters are more prone to name healthcare as their top priority.

Emerging cultural and technological concerns drew less immediate alarm across the board: 35 percent of voters ranked artificial intelligence as a substantial issue, while transgender issues sit significantly lower at 12 percent.

Healthcare is also considered a top issue for 69 percent of voters, while 64 percent cite the war on Iran as top-of-mind.

Despite their grievances, a majority of voters across both major American parties still value civic engagement.

About two-thirds of registered voters in the survey say it’s “extremely” important to vote in the upcoming election, while about two in 10 say it’s “very” important. Seventy-five percent of Democratic voters view it as “extremely” important, compared to roughly 60 percent of Republican respondents.

Melanie Marx bought Angel City season tickets before the team was a team. It had no players, no coach and no uniform. It was more a concept than a reality and Marx bought in.

“I’ve always had pride for this team.” she said. “This was the first team from the NWSL that I’ve been able to say that I’m a supporter for.”

Yet supporting Angel City, she says, has been as exhausting as it has been exciting. Once the most valuable women’s professional sports team in history, Angel City has had one winning season and made just one playoff appearance in its first four seasons.

Attendance declined more than 22%, high-profile players such as Alyssa Thompson, Christen Press, Ali Riley and Madison Hammond have either been transferred away, retired or been allowed to leave and the team hasn’t re-signed popular captain Sarah Gorden for next season. At the same time, it has gone through five coaches and three general managers/sporting directors in less than five years.

Angel City defender Gisele Thompson celebrates with teammates after scoring a goal.

(Lindsey Wasson / Associated Press)

That’s not exactly what Marx signed up for.

“I’m upset as a fan, of course, and I’m upset as a season-ticket holder,” she said. “But I’m also upset as a fan of these players and someone who’s been invested in this league of almost 10 years.”

“What keeps myself and others coming back week to week is because of the players themselves,” she added. “Because the results on the pitch haven’t always matched the ambitions of the supporters.”

During the past three months, that support has finally been rewarded. Following Sunday’s draw with first-place Gotham FC, the reigning NWSL champion, Angel City (12-8-7) heads into the league’s two-week international break riding a seven-game unbeaten streak and is in sixth place in the 16-team table, in position for another playoff berth.

The team has lost just twice in 16 games under interim coach Leif Gunnar Smerud. Its 12 victories with three games to play is already a franchise record for a single season, as are its 45 goals. After posting a substantial negative goal differential in its first four seasons, Angel City’s plus-16 mark this year in best in the league.

And in the current international break, the team had a record nine players called up to various national teams. It’s one of the most dramatic turnarounds in NWSL history, one that may have saved at least a portion of the team’s most loyal fan base.

“My renewal for next year just recently came up and I was on a bit of knife’s edge deciding whether I want to go ahead,” said Michael Jaeger, an attorney who has had multiple Angel City season tickets in section 133 since the first season. “There have been consistent problems throughout.

“I really want the team to succeed. Given the recent successes, I did go ahead and re-up for next year because I’m feeling optimistic.”

Optimistic but not necessarily confident.

“I am not feeling like ‘OK, this is what I’ve been waiting for. The team’s really turned a corner,’” Jaeger said. “That to me would be success on the field, plus a decision about Sarah Gorden, plus [a] permanent head coach who we know is at least going to have one or more seasons to have things play out.

“So I don’t think we’re there yet. I like the current trend but because not a lot has necessarily changed about the front office, I’m not ready to say ‘OK, we’re fully on the right track.’”

Angel City has only itself to blame for that lack of trust. When the team launched with a massive ownership group that included Hollywood A-listers, former U.S. women’s national team stars and sports luminaries including Serena Williams and Billie Jean King, it promised to ignite a revolution in women’s sports.

Angel City FC fans chant during a match against the San Diego Wave at BMO Stadium on May 9.

(Luiza Moraes / Getty Images)

“We’re not just building a soccer club. We want to build an organization that has impact,” said Julie Uhrman, one of its team’s three founding owners.

And while Angel City has done real, meaningful work in the community, providing millions of meals to the hungry, funneling millions of dollars into community programs and taking a courageous stand against ICE raids across Southern California, as a soccer team it hasn’t delivered on its promises.

The loyal fans blame the front office, which has waived nearly six dozens players and five managers, including interim coaches, through its revolving doors since the first season. Mark Parsons, who won six trophies as manager with the Portland Thorns, was hired 20 months ago to stabilize things but his highly touted global search for a coach ended with Alexander Straus spending just a year with the club — going 7-15-5 in parts of two seasons — while Parsons unsettled the roster by making more than 40 transactions.

“There’s just a lack of trust in the front office frankly,” said Nadia Johnson, who attended games every season but didn’t buy season tickets until this year. “We’re still doing these chaotic things, which is really frustrating as a fan.”

And the chaos may not be ending anytime soon. Despite his success, Smerud has not publicly been guaranteed anything beyond this season; officially, the team is still searching for a new manager.

Gorden, the captain and anchor of the defense, is out of contract at the end of the season as is veteran Claire Emslie. Meanwhile Sydney Leroux, 36, who has played one minute the past two seasons as she deals with mental health issues, is signed through 2027.

At the same time, Parsons has built the league’s youngest roster around players whose performances are bigger than their names. Goalkeeper Angelina Anderson, 25, is third in the league with nine clean sheets and 12 wins. Brazilian Maiara Niehues, 22, already has a franchise-record nine goals while Evelyn Shores, 21, has tied the single-season record with seven assists and defender Gisele Thompson, Alyssa’s sister, leads all outfield players with 2,420 minutes.

“I am excited about how diverse our team is and really how they’ve grown,” season ticket-holder Johnson said. “It’s playoff crunch time and so it’s always exciting, especially when your team is in it. So I’m excited to see where they go.”

But after four seasons of mediocrity and worse, however, she’s learned to keep her fingers crossed.

“I’m not confident if we get a rough patch next year what decisions will be made in terms of trying to repair that,” she said. “So yeah, that’s where I’m at.”