Bob Chesney made his preseason intentions clear on Thursday.
He wants to throw his players into the fire.
UCLA‘s first-year coach strategically scheduled his fall camp practices to keep guys in the heat, put players in adverse situations to see how they would react and, since his hire, has centered the program on competition and grading.
His next step?
Hosting a week of preseason camp at the Great Park Sports Complex in Irvine to emulate the process of being on the road, giving the team a taste of what it feels like to be in a bowl game — something UCLA has not experienced since the 2023 season.
Chesney has emphasized the importance of top-down alignment throughout his time as head coach, but as the pads come on with the season opener on the horizon, he is focused on the connectivity on the field, and if what transpires at Spaulding Field can travel to Irvine in an unfamiliar environment.
“This was a big part of it, was us continuing to build connectivity, reteach our systems and then continue to develop on a day-to-day basis,” Chesney said after camp Tuesday. “And that’s ultimately what camp is about. Being away, sharing a hotel with everybody, being in an outside area. It helps quite a bit.”
The former James Madison coach said that the team had several options to pick from, with his staff looking at places with junior college and high school fields and the proximity of a hotel that could house his team.
But, ultimately, he settled on Great Park — the training grounds home to the U.S. men’s national team during the 2026 World Cup — for his first taste of an off-campus preseason camp.
While the week of practice is testing the players’ ability to connect and execute in a different environment, it also gives the team an opportunity to cultivate and develop relationships off the field — another tenet of Chesney’s coaching philosophy.
And the Bruins will get that opportunity Wednesday, an off day, for players to not only rest, but also to focus on each other.
“They get to sleep in a little bit tomorrow, and then we head down to the beach and have a cookout out there — Newport Rib Company is sponsoring it — and then after that we are hanging out together down there,” Chesney said. “When that’s done, come back, hang out by the pool. There’s no meetings. There’s nothing tomorrow. It’s truly a day off, so there’ll be a lot of time to get a chance to spend together.”
A week in Irvine also gave Chesney the opportunity to connect with alumni in the Southern California area, hosting them at practice Tuesday and giving them a small taste of what the Chesney-era Bruins lookand feel like.
“We came down to an alumni event earlier at one of our alum’s houses over here in Newport Beach, and it was unbelievable. The amount of people down in this area that are supportive of this program is great,” Chesney said. “So for us to be able to be down here, open it up for them, I don’t know how many there were here, but there were two flag football teams here as well.”
Chesney has continuously stressed the importance of engaging different groups, emphasizing the size of UCLA’s alumni base and needing the school’s football team to be present among different communities.
And while alumni watched from the sideline, the Bruins connected with youth football players on the field during, incorporating them into stretches, signing autographs and taking pictures.
Chesney’s vision of a familial culture was also reinforced by senior linebacker Wyatt Mosier, who received a grant Tuesday in honor of Nick Pasquale — a former Bruin walk-on wide receiver who died in 2013 — from the Pasquale family.
Mosier will wear No. 36 in honor of Pasquale this season.
“It was really great to see that they gave away this grant today to Wyatt Mosier in honor of Nick’s life,” Chesney said. “[Nick’s] brother AJ did that, and it was a pretty special moment for the whole team to see what it means to be a walk-on and fight through things, and eventually do what he did, and obviously his life will live on within this program.”
Clarifying Derek Carr’s role
Chesney said the newly appointed advisor to the head coach, former NFL quarterback Derek Carr, will not be at every practice but will be on the sideline for games.
“He’s got a newborn and a couple other young kids, so he’s got to juggle all that,” Chesney said. “This is sort of the perfect opportunity because he’s 15 minutes away from here [in Newport Beach], which is great. … So he’ll be around. He has access to film and all those things.”
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