In Reply to: Chesney just promised us a Big10 championship posted by Dr.Bruin on January 31, 2026 at 16:01:05
New UCLA football coach Bob Chesney spent the last week running some of the same motivational plays that vaulted Indiana coach Curt Cignetti to a national title.
Like Cignetti, Chesney won big at James Madison before earning a head coaching job at a Big Ten school nobody expected to contend for a conference title, much less a national championship.
Cignetti famously stated: “I win. Google me” during a new introducing him as the Hoosiers’ new head football coach. He followed it up by setting championship expectations at a school that held the record for most losses in NCAA history.
During a Wooden Athletic Fund fundraiser last week, Chesney told donors: “When we as a staff talk to these recruits, we want UCLA to be considered the greatest place in the world to play football. Period. That’s it. The greatest place in the world to play football. Which means the greatest place in the world to then watch a football game. And it’s the greatest place in the world to be connected with the players and the coaches and the community within it. It really does take a village, and there’s never been a time in the history of sports you that you can affect that team. Let’s go be great and make this the greatest place in the world to play football.”
Chesney followed it up by firing up a broader audience during a UCLA men’s basketball game at Pauley Pavilion on Saturday.
“It’s an honor to be here. I’d like to introduce you to our staff, the best staff in the world. ... I’ve been here about a month now. Looking around, there’s nothing average that I see about UCLA. There is nothing average. And I did not come here to be average. This is the team of the future. That future starts now. Go Bruins.”