LOS ANGELES — The sun shines almost every day in America's largest college football city, but there never seems to be enough for both of its power conference programs at the same time. In the recent history of the USC-UCLA rivalry, there is almost always a gray cloud hovering somewhere.
Against significant odds given what's happened the last two seasons, UCLA has managed to blow it out of Westwood. It's largely thanks to new coach Bob Chesney, the relentlessly positive and perfectly coiffed 49-year-old who won at a bunch of small schools in the Northeast you've never heard of before taking James Madison to the College Football Playoff last season. Before even coaching a game, he has managed to convince UCLA's administration, its boosters and most importantly its players that he can do the exact same thing on the West Coast.
"When you do your research on him, you see that he's a winner," said senior linebacker Jalen Woods, who has played for the same number of head coaches (three) as UCLA won games last season. "It's not his first rodeo."
It's not quite the same vibe across town, where the patina of endless possibility has eroded over the last 4 1/2 years into a new and urgent reality for Lincoln Riley.
When Southern Cal pulled off a middle-of-the-night shocker to lure him out of Oklahoma at the end of the 2021 season, administrators believed — and with good reason — that they had imported a national championship-level coach who would quickly usher in a long era of dominance on the West Coast.
#ucla #season #never
Against significant odds given what's happened the last two seasons, UCLA has managed to blow it out of Westwood. It's largely thanks to new coach Bob Chesney, the relentlessly positive and perfectly coiffed 49-year-old who won at a bunch of small schools in the Northeast you've never heard of before taking James Madison to the College Football Playoff last season. Before even coaching a game, he has managed to convince UCLA's administration, its boosters and most importantly its players that he can do the exact same thing on the West Coast.
"When you do your research on him, you see that he's a winner," said senior linebacker Jalen Woods, who has played for the same number of head coaches (three) as UCLA won games last season. "It's not his first rodeo."
It's not quite the same vibe across town, where the patina of endless possibility has eroded over the last 4 1/2 years into a new and urgent reality for Lincoln Riley.
When Southern Cal pulled off a middle-of-the-night shocker to lure him out of Oklahoma at the end of the 2021 season, administrators believed — and with good reason — that they had imported a national championship-level coach who would quickly usher in a long era of dominance on the West Coast.
#ucla #season #never
2 months ago
