JMU coach Bob Chesney will get a taste of the big time against Oregon
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James Madison head coach Bob Chesney has been successful wherever he’s coached, culminating in a College Football Playoff appearance where he will take his Dukes team into Autzen to face the OregonDucks.
This will be first trip of two to Eugene for Chesney as he is set to take over UCLA next season, and the Bruins are scheduled to come to Oregon in 2026. Chesney has coached at Division III Salve Regina in Rhode Island, Division II Assumption, Holy Cross in the Patriot League and James Madison before heading to the bright lights of Los Angeles.
It’s going to be a big change for Chesney, but in his UCLA introductory press conference, Chesney said he’s ready for the challenge.
“Success looks like winning. That’s what it looks like on a day-to-day basis,” he said. “For us, it is what we do in this program. Every single thing we do has winners and losers every single day. There will not be a day that goes by that we just kind of get by. That’s, I think, really important. And that was, I think, the underlying theme in everything we’ve done up to this point in time. We don’t walk on the field on Saturdays, not having been there before, in almost every situational aspect you can imagine. Pressure on music playing at practice, right behind the quarterbacks. Those are all things that we have to do to prepare ourselves for game day.”
UCLA has had much success of late, and that job is going to be a challenge, especially with USC right next door and playing in the Big Ten as a whole. Chesney will be the Bruins’ fourth head coach in four seasons after Chip Kelly left after the 2023 season. They then hired DeShaun Foster before firing him in the middle of last season and letting Tim Skipper finish out the 2025 campaign.
It’s not difficult to figure out why UCLA hired Chesney. He is 132-51 overall, including 23-9 at Salve Regina, 44-16 at Assumption with three playoff appearances, 44-21 at Holy Cross, and finally 21-5 in his two seasons at James Madison.
To UCLA’s credit, they are allowing Chesney to coach JMU in the 2025 playoffs. The Bruins could have easily said no, but unlike in other situations, such as Ole Miss, Bruin Athletic Director Martin Jarmond sees things a little differently.
“It was easy for me. You want to attract someone that’s loyal, and that’s committed, and that has a purpose,” Jarmond said. That aligns with our true Bruin values. To have someone that will leave in that kind of situation, that you’re doing something special, when you sat in those young men’s homes and said we’re going to compete and win a championship. I didn’t feel that was right. I want a guy that will want to stay with his team, and we were going to support that.”
Oregon hopes Chesney’s time at James Madison is about to run out and make him the full-time UCLA coach sooner rather than later with a home playoff win on Saturday, Dec. 20.
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This article originally appeared on Ducks Wire: JMU coach Bob Chesney gets Big Ten preview with playoff game vs Ducks
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