CHICAGO — There’s a new dawn in Westwood.
When Bob Chesney walked onto the stage at Wednesday’s Big Ten Football Media Day, he made it clear that his first season as UCLA’s head coach should come with high expectations both on and off the gridiron.
While ESPN has projected the Bruins to win around 5 games – almost double the 3-9 record the squad recorded in 2025 – Chesney understood that his team would not be defined by arbitrary numbers.
“I’m not really interested in putting artificial limits on ourselves or making promises on outcomes that have to be earned,” Chesney said. “I know what we will do is attack every single day with urgency and relentlessness and do the work, and that’s the most important thing that we can do – is go about it on a day-to-day basis. We’re not going to win on Saturdays because of only what we do on those Saturdays, and our players understand that.”
And the players behind him have all bought into this mindset.
Joining Chesney in Chicago were rising redshirt juniors quarterback Nico Iamaleava and defensive back Cole Martin as well as rising senior linebacker Sammy Omosigho. The head honcho’s commitment to stability has positively impacted all three players just one year removed from the Bruins losing their top three coaches within a month.
At the end of the 2025 campaign, questions arose as to whether Iamaleava would enter the transfer portal for his third team in as many years.
[Related: Quarterback Nico Iamaleava to return to UCLA football for 2026 season]
But Chesney said after meeting with the starting play caller, it was clear Iamaleava wanted to stay with the program, with the quarterback going so far as to say he never wanted to enter the portal again.
“When Coach Ches first stepped in the building, you could already feel the winning culture he brought behind him,” Iamaleava said. “He’s been a winner at all the other places he’s been at before. So us continuing to buy into his process and what he has for us and trusting in him, we’ll be just fine.”
Entering his second season with the Bruins, Iamaleava has embraced his role as the squad’s leader, with Chesney saying that he was unanimously voted onto the team’s leadership council. Iamaleava also said he has grown closer with many of his new teammates, including the offensive linemen, with whom he regularly spends time outside of practice.
All offseason, the Bruins have worked to improve cohesion and camaraderie, bringing the players closer than ever before, Martin said.
And Chesney has been at the forefront of that, making sure he sets examples for his own expectations. Omosigho said the coach often lifts alongside the players, showing his consistent energy and involvement.
“We’ve come so close together,” Martin said. “We’ve done things that we haven’t done in a while over at UCLA. … We walk around the whole locker room, and we bond with everyone in the locker room. We didn’t have that last year. Being able to just be a tight-knit team and a team that is willing to put their best foot forward, it makes everyone want to shine, and it’s exciting to see that come to light.”
Martin, who initially entered the transfer portal after last season before deciding to stay in Westwood, is one of just seven returning projected starters, three of whom make up UCLA’s secondary. This past summer, Chesney brought in a conference-leading 42 transfers.
[Related: UCLA football dwindles in numbers, defensive backs slotted for transfer portal]
Between 10 transfers, both top coordinators, the special teams coach and the director of athletic performance, there was a densely populated migration from Harrisonburg, Virginia to the West Coast.
That consistency has played a big role in setting the groundwork for a revamped program while also creating a new identity in Westwood.
“The continuity part is really reassuring to me and sets me at ease just a little bit better,” Chesney said. “But again, it goes back to foundational things. The offense may not look exactly the same, and the defense may not either, but the foundational ways of a program being built – being connected, being disciplined and every single day seeking growth – is what we need to be really, really good at. And our guys understand that.”
Omosigho, who is coming to UCLA after three years with Oklahoma, is one of many incoming Bruins who have bought into Chesney’s culture.
After just three starts in 37 games with the Sooners, Omosigho appears poised to make an immediate impact as the Bruins’ starting Mike linebacker.
“He’s (Chesney) implemented a great standard,” Omosigho said. “The only way we can deviate the standard is literally going up because they have cut out the room for going down. We’ve held each other accountable, from the coaches to the players, and it’s building a good, competitive, growing, natural environment in the facility.”
Although the college football season does not start for another month, the Chesney train appears to be full steam ahead.
Entering UCLA’s first matchup against California on Sept. 5, the head honcho has made his intentions clear.
“I’m hoping to make sure that our statement is that we’re a very connected, disciplined team that continues to grow on a day-to-day basis over and over again,” Chesney said. “It’s often that first game is more about you than it is about your opponent. A lot of those games are lost more than they’re won early in the season. So us being able to make sure that we’re buttoned up, we’ve tested everything in fire and put ourselves in a position that we feel we can be successful come Saturday.”
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