This sure does feel like a different UCLA Bruins football program. UCLA has matched their 2025 win total just three weeks into the season and it’s only just the beginning of the Bob Chesney era in Westwood.
UCLA’s defense has forced turnovers and locked down San Diego State while the Bruin rushing attack has been among the best in the country. UCLA is ranked No. 5 in the nationwith 286.7 yards on the ground per game, being led by QB Nico Iamaleava and RB Wayne Knight.
Can UCLA keep this up once they’re facing non-Purdue Big Ten Conference teams? Who knows but there’s a sense of excitement for UCLA football that hasn’t existed in recent years. Everyone’s taking notice too, including Trojans Wire writer Matt Zemek.
“Bob Chesney's UCLA finds a different
kind of way to win each week. This team isn't playing the same kind of game every Saturday. UCLA can win ugly, it can win pretty, it can win in the mud with defense, it can win a high-scoring shootout,” Zemek wrote. “What also emerges for UCLA and how Bob Chesney is making the product better: rushing touchdowns. UCLA had only eight all of last season. The Bruins have already exceeded that total as of September 20. It shows that Chesney's commitment to physical football is creating real results, the kind of impact which can't be ignored or denied.”
Regardless of how the rest of the season unfolds for the Bruins, the opening act of Chesney with UCLA has been a sign of hope for the program.
“Talk is cheap. Results are what matter. UCLA is hardly a perfect team or a polished product, but this team and this offense are not being caught flat-footed. If they struggle for a period of time, they figure things out,” Zemek wrote. “They don't get stuck for the full 60 minutes - maybe 35 or 40, but not the whole way. Coaches are managing to get the Bruins unstuck in various ways and in different kinds of situations. It's the kind of response a coach loves to see from his players. Bob Chesney's impact continues to be real and impossible to ignore in Westwood.”
This article originally appeared on UCLA Wire: UCLA football has found different ways to win to begin the season
