There were several hot coaching candidates this cycle who were in play for a number of jobs.
Lane Kiffin was certainly one of them. New Florida coach Jon Sumrall was another. Alex Golesh very nearly wound up at another SEC school before getting hired at Auburn.
But of all those out there, none might have been more intriguing to a wide swath of athletic directors than James Madison head coach Bob Chesney.
Part of this is because of his stellar track record. He’s only 48 years old, but is 129–51 overall in charge of a program and a remarkable 20–5 with the Dukes the past two seasons. He’s playing for the Sun Belt title on Friday night at home and has an outside shot at the College Football Playoff.
What really made Chesney of interest is the parallel path he has been on to his successor in Harrisonburg, Va.: Curt Cignetti. Both are Pennsylvania natives who have worked their way up the coaching ladder from small schools to the big time. Each has a bit of an edge to their personality and both are excellent at unearthing talent where others don’t even bother to look.
Mostly though, they win. That’s certainly what UCLA is banking on after sources confirmed to Sports Illustrated on Monday the school is closing in on a five-year deal with Chesney to bring him to Westwood.
While it’s a big step up from the Group of 6 ranks in the Sun Belt to a Power 2 gig on the opposite end of the country, where he has never worked, the Bruins are hoping Chesney is their West Coast Cignetti who can finally harness their incredible location, fantastic weather and enviable position as part of one of the top leagues.
Will it all work out? Many have tried and just about all have failed. But it’s a bet the school brass is willing to take in order to make the powder blue and gold relevant again on the football field.
What it means for UCLA
There have been seven Bruins head coaches since Terry Donahue retired in 1995. They’ve all had flashes of success before being consumed by a job that is much better on paper than in practice. Alums Karl Dorrell, Rick Neuheisel and even DeShaun Foster were hired because they knew of the limitations at a football-second school but failed to figure out ways to fully escape them. The program backed into hiring Jim Mora and saw some modest success before backsliding and never turned the corner in a way they expected after making a big splash to hire Chip Kelly.
In hiring Chesney, UCLA is going off script. It is getting a proven head coach but one who has never worked out West. Chesney is an up-and-comer from the Group of 6 ranks who knows how to run a program on limited resources. UCLA is also attempting to mitigate some of its biggest hurdles (including, it seems, playing all the way out at the Rose Bowl) by providing a clearer path to winning instead of telling the new guy to work around things.
Will it all work out or will the job consume him and pull Chesney backward in his coaching trajectory? Who knows at a place like UCLA and in a conference like the Big Ten. But it’s a bet worth taking at this point for a school that is trying to become much more serious about winning in Los Angeles.
What it means for Bob Chesney
It’s possible Chesney could have stayed at James Madison and made another run at the playoff next year given the resources the Dukes were willing to invest for 2026. Instead he decided to leave his comfort zone of the northeast to take a chance on his acumen translating from purple to powder blue.
That’s understandable for Chesney, especially as it looked increasingly like he wouldn’t land at Penn State or any of the other Power 4 programs along the East Coast. One never knows just how often these kinds of opportunities will come along and there’s no question that taking the UCLA gig comes with a lot less pressure to win than other places he was talking to on the coaching carousel. There will be a sense of patience in Westwood for both a subpar season as well as some time allowed for building up the roster. He likely wouldn’t have gotten that in some other spots.
As a result, this is a great opportunity to make a big jump up. After all, if Cignetti can take Indiana to the playoff in back-to-back years, it’s possible to win at a place like UCLA with much greater access to talent and in a much better place to live, just a stone’s throw from the Pacific Ocean.
Final Grade: B+
The only thing that could hold this back from being a slam dunk for the Bruins is that there’s always a slight bit of the unknown for smaller school guys translating to the power leagues—especially without any regional ties. Chesney has proven to be a great coach though and UCLA fans should be thrilled they landed him to buoy hopes that he follows Cignetti’s path some more and will make their program relevant on the national stage.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Grading Bob Chesney to UCLA: Bruins Bet Big to Find Next Curt Cignetti.
