Bob Chesney welcomed in as next head coach of UCLA Football: Can he be the one to build a program.

WESTWOOD — On Tuesday afternoon, Bob Chesney stood at the podium as the head football coach of the UCLA Bruins for the first time.

Chesney, 48, who's been hidden in the shadows as a program builder for the last 16 years, coaching at Salve Regina, Assumption, Holy Cross, and James Madison, will now have two new challenges. Being a first-time Power Four Conference coach and building a program at UCLA.

An overall coaching record of 132-51 suggests that Chesney has been a winner everywhere he's gone. At every level he's coached, his teams have been in the playoffs. In 2024, he took over for Curt Cignetti and led James Madison to a Raton Bowl Championship. This past season, he led them to their first Sun Belt Conference Championship and into the College Football playoff for the first time in school history as the 12 seed following a 12-1 record.

Now, he will look to turn around a UCLA team that has finished with a losing record for the second year in a row and that has been swept under the rug in the Big Ten.

"At JMU, we obviously have a huge task ahead of us right now. We're still playing in the 12-team playoff, and I could not be more proud to actualize those dreams and take that program to the level that those dreams become a reality," Chesney said. "Those same exact dreams are dreams that we will have here. And those are things that we know that we can do, and we will have the blueprint for doing."

When Chensey opened his presser, he said it takes three things from the people above you to do what you're asking for.

Do they understand? Do you care? and Willingness to work together were the three things he listed

"Those three things became very apparent as I spoke to (Athletic Director Martin Jarmond) in this process," Chesney said. "He understands what it takes, he cares, and he has a willingness to work together. More so than anywhere else I've ever been."

Jack Haslett -- The Sporting Tribune

UCLA atheltic director Martin Jarmond laughs while new football head coach Bob Chesney tells a story at the introductory press conference for Bob Chesney at Luskin Conference Center Tuesday, December 9, 2025 in Los Angeles.

In asking for those three things from above in order to find success, he also has two expectations from players.

Toughness and competitiveness.

"Our players will be asked to compete on a day-to-day basis," Chesney said. "With constant feedback coming back to them to allow them to succeed or fail." 

"As they succeed, they will realize that the leading cause of failure is mismanaged success. And the leading cause of success is well-managed failure."

If those five things can be accomplished by the players and the people working above him, Chesney said that the expectation of winning will be the new norm at UCLA.

It's been since 1998 that UCLA has played in one of the premier bowl games of New Year's Day, when they suffered a 38-31 loss to Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl. 

Some might argue that Terry Donahue was the last true coach at UCLA when he ended his career with a 233-151 win-loss record while leading them to five PAC-10 conference championships and 3 Rose Bowl victories.

Since then, the Bruins have only been to the Rose Bowl once, when Bob Toledo was the head coach from 1996-2002.

In 1998, UCLA made it to the Rose Bowl but lost 38-31 to Wisconsin.

Toldeo's tenure ended with them appearing in the Sun Bowl (2000) and Las Vegas Bowl (2002).

Since then, they have never been able to figure it out.

The last time UCLA finished a season ranked was in 2022 under Chip Kelly, when they finished the season ranked 21st in the country and ended it with a 37-35 loss to Pitt in the Sun Bowl.

After the 2023 season, Kelly left UCLA in February of 2024 to become an offensive coordinator at Ohio State. With the coaching carousel nearly already wrapped up, UCLA's options for who would coach the team were a shortlist.

The team elected to go with a beloved former player and current running backs coach at the time, Deshaun Foster, who had zero experience as a play caller.

Foster finished with a 5-10 record and was let go on September 15.

UCLA came together with a new head coach committee that featured Jarmond and Founder and CEO, Casey Wasserman, former UCLA basketball player and Golden State Warriors general manager/team president (2015-2022) Bob Myers, former UCLA linebacker Eric Kendricks, current Washington Commanders general manager Adam Peters, and UCLA Executive Senior Associate Athletics Director, Erin Adkins.

The one thing that this group was looking for was someone who could align with their vision and turn UCLA back into a competitive program.

For Chesney to turn UCLA back into a competitive program and establish his normacy, the first question he asks himself is, "Can they win?"

"To me, there is zero doubt in my mind here that we can win at UCLA."

Jack Haslett -- The Sporting Tribune

New UCLA football head coach Bob Chesney gestrues while speaking to the crowd at the introductory press conference for Bob Chesney at Luskin Conference Center Tuesday, December 9, 2025 in Los Angeles.

For UCLA, the question that they now have to ask themselves is, will the 20th football coach in school history be the one to build out the program?

"We wanted to find someone that had been around winning, and maybe had built a program," Former UCLA Basketball National Champion and former Golden State Warriors general manager/president Bob Myers said. "What stood out with Bob was that he had done it in a variety of places and had shown the ability to lead and win in places that are hard to win."