Who Is Bob Chesney? The Coach Betting He Can Make UCLA Football Matter Again

Bob Chesney begins his first season as UCLA’s head football coach in 2026, arriving in Westwood with a career built on turning around programs at nearly every level of college football and a mandate to restore relevance to a Bruins program that has struggled to fill seats or wins column in recent years.

Athletic director Martin Jarmond announced Chesney’s hiring on Dec. 6, 2025, making him the 20th head coach in UCLA football history and, notably, the first sitting head coach UCLA has hired directly from another program since Pepper Rodgers in 1971. The hire came just one day after Chesney’s James Madison team beat Troy for the Sun Belt Conference championship, capping an 11-1 season that had the Dukes ranked No. 19 nationally and bound for the College Football Playoff.

Who Is Bob Chesney?

Chesney, 48, grew up in Kulpmont, Pennsylvania, and played defensive back at Dickinson College, a Division III school, where he was a four-year letter winner and two-time All-Centennial Conference selection before graduating in 2000. He brings more than 25 years of collegiate coaching experience to UCLA, including 16 seasons as a head coach, a career coaching record of 132-51 (.721), and eight conference championships won across multiple programs.

The Long Climb to Power Four Football

Chesney’s coaching path is unusual for a Power Four hire, rising through nearly every tier of college football before reaching UCLA. He began as an assistant, holding stops at Norwich University (2000-01), Delaware Valley College (2002), King’s College (2003-04), and Johns Hopkins (2005-09), before landing his first head-coaching job at Division III Salve Regina, where he oversaw a significant program turnaround from 2010-12, going 23-9 and reaching the New England Football Conference championship game in his final season. He then moved to Division II Assumption College, continuing to build on his track record of program turnarounds.

Chesney’s biggest breakthrough came at Holy Cross, where he served as head coach from 2018 to 2023 and led the Crusaders to a program-record five consecutive Patriot League championships and four playoff appearances, earning Patriot League Coach of the Year honors three times along the way, including an undefeated season in 2022. He capped his rise with two seasons at James Madison from 2024 to 2025, going 21-6 overall and finishing with an unbeaten 8-0 Sun Belt mark in 2025 the program’s first Sun Belt championship and an 11-1 record that sent the Dukes to the College Football Playoff, setting up his hire at UCLA.

Why UCLA Made the Hire

UCLA fired previous head coach DeShaun Foster early in the 2025 season following an 0-3 start, a stretch marked by widely circulated social media jokes about sparse attendance at Bruins home games.

Interim coach Tim Skipper finished the season 3-6, and UCLA’s leadership turned to Chesney specifically for his track record of rapid turnarounds. “Bob Chesney has built programs into consistent winners at every stop in his career, and he’s ready to do it at UCLA,” Jarmond said in the announcement. UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk added that Chesney’s approach to developing student-athletes “aligns closely with our Bruin values.”

In January 2026, Chesney announced the hiring of 10 assistant coaches and two coordinators. Seven of those hires followed him from James Madison, while two running backs coach AJ Steward and nickels coach Gabe Lynn were retained from UCLA’s previous staff, and three additional coaches with California ties joined the program for the first time.

What Success Would Look Like

Chesney has been direct about his ambitions in Westwood, telling reporters in the months following his hire that he believes UCLA can win immediately and become the state’s “premier program,” a notably bold claim given the Bruins’ struggles in recent seasons. His base salary and full contract terms have not been widely publicized, though UCLA signed him to a five-year deal..

UCLA’s 2026 season under Chesney began this month, marking the first real test of whether his program-building formula proven at the Division III, Division II, FCS and Group of Five levels can translate to the Power Four, where competition, resources and expectations are considerably higher than anywhere he has previously coached.