Bob Chesney talked of his 'alignment' with UCLA at Big Ten Media Day

New UCLA Bruins head coach Bob Chesney appeared at his first Big Ten Conference Media Day on Wednesday and the new lead man for the program was as advertised. Chesney’s calmness was a stark contrast to how the last UCLA head coach handled his first Media Day.

>Chesney proved his coaching ability at James Madison, leading the program to the College Football Playoffs and now Chesney looks to restore a UCLA football program that has been lost for too long. After last year’s 3-9 nightmare, UCLA has a largely new roster that Chesney largely composed from the transfer portal.

>“We have 45 transfers and a bunch of other first-year freshmen, and I really do love the response they’ve had to exactly what we’re trying to instill at this moment in time.” Chesney said.

>Another key that Chesney hit on was alignment with the university. Chesney expressed his appreciation that the university has lived up to their end of the deal, with the new head coach seeming quite pleased with his decision to come to Westwood.

>“I’d also like to say, within the administration here at UCLA. Just the commitment that they said they would have for this program, they’ve also lived out,” Chesney said. “One of the words and things that I think leads to the most amount of success, is the word alignment. When you have that within your athletic department, from the chancellor all the way down, you have a chance to be really good. I believe that’s going to happen here in the very near future.”

>Community and alignment 💯@CoachBobChesney#4suppic.twitter.com/Rw7VSlxPb9

— UCLA Football (@UCLAFootball) July 29, 2026We’ll see how near that “very near future” truly is in the coming months. Chesney has generated a ton of momentum for the program but the team will have to back it up on the field this fall.

>This article originally appeared on UCLA Wire: Bob Chesney talked of his 'alignment' with UCLA at Big Ten Media Day