The UCLA Bruins are looking for a new head coach after firing DeShaun Foster earlier in the year. The Bruins’ season was an overall disappointment, despite bringing in quarterback Nico Iamaleava from Tennessee.
James Madison’s Bob Chesney is a top person of interest for the UCLA head coaching job, sources tell @CBSSports.
Has led JMU to a 11-1 start to this season. pic.twitter.com/pysNj6K0Ie
— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) November 30, 2025
According to reports by CBS Sports, UCLA thinks it has found the man to lead its football program forward in the future. None other than James Madison’s Bob Chesney, who, since arriving in Harrisonburg in 2024, has led the Dukes to two winning seasons. Chesney’s buyout is said to be around $1.25 million. This year, he led them to an impressive 11-1 regular season mark, and a Sun Belt title is still in the cards for them later on if they beat Troy.
Greg McElroy Thinks Bob Chesney is The Man to Take Forward the UCLA Bruins
One person believes that in this season, in which the revolving door of head coaches has been extremely busy, UCLA’s head coach search is the easiest out there. In the most recent episode of “Always College Football”, ESPN’s Greg McElroy said that for him, the Bruins should clearly go after James Madison’s Bob Chesney:
“The interim head coach right now is Tim Skipper, and Tim Skipper by the way did a pretty dang good job in a short period of time. However, things have started to fall off a little bit as the season has gone along,” McElroy said. “This is an obvious search for me. This is a very obvious hire for me…I’m going out and hiring Bob Chesney from James Madison. This is the guy that you absolutely have to find who can do more with less.”
A good question, if this happens, will be what this would mean for Nico Iamaleava. The Bruins made a significant investment to bring him over from Knoxville, and would suspect that even with DeShaun Foster’s departure, the signal-caller would have to have a part to play in any future for UCLA.
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