The intensity at UCLA’s opening spring practice was palpable. From the players doing jumping jacks and chanting “U-C-L-A! Fight!” in rhythm with the exercise, to the hollering that erupted when the team circled up at midfield following the stretching portion of practice, the feeling traveled well beyond the fences surrounding Spaulding Field.
In his first spring practice as UCLA head coach, even Bob Chesney got in on the action, barking out instructions — sometimes profanely — during various drills, marking a far cry from the practices of last season.
“Unbelievable. Unbelievable,” Chesney said of his players’ attitude. “We’ve been going for January, February, March, three months, basically, before we’re really, really playing football. And I thought they were just hungry to be out here.”
Chesney was not surprised by the energy on the field, and laid out what he was looking for in the practice as this part of the season gets going.
“You leave day one, and you know there’s going to be intensity and excitement around it,” Chesney said. “The question is, was it clean? Did the fundamentals that we worked on all throughout the winter carry over or not? And I think that, while I watch it out here, the things that don’t take skill, the things that don’t take, you know, great genetics, were the things I wanted to focus on today more than anything … it’s just really a day of, you know, now you have helmets on. It’s going to be a little bit more out of control in ways. But can you control, and live on that line? And I thought our guys did a good job of that.”
Even before practice opened with the energy and attitude that Chesney hoped for, the Bruins received a boost for the football team on Wednesday when alumnus Angelo Mazzone III announced a $10 million donation, focusing on an endowment for the head coaching position.
In addition to his monetary contributions, Mazzone has also played a role in helping Chesney understand the history of the program.
“What he had to say about the previous coaches and their coaching styles and the way they did things, that was important for me to have an idea of the successful guys that have come through here,” Chesney said. “And then I want to try to emulate some of that. I got to be my own self, obviously, and our coaches got to be their own self, but we just gotta take it to a different level.”
As is common in this era of college football, UCLA’s roster features plenty of turnover that goes much further than the coaching staff. With 112 players in total, 55 of them are new, including 43 transfers. The last few months have been about integrating players into a new system and environment in Westwood, and now they are hoping that translates on the field.
Chesney praised the character of his team, saying that he wants it to go beyond the sport.
“We don’t have any bad guys, that are bad students, that are bad teammates,” he said. “We have really good guys doing that. So they have a chance to be great at football. If they could get that good-to-great, they could be elite at football. If they get that great-to-elite, they could be unstoppable. And I think that’s what I’m looking for, and I watch that growth happen within this team just about on a daily basis.”
The Bruins are still very early into Chesney’s tenure, but he feels like the spring is beginning the right way. Now, the focus shifts to carrying that energy through.
“It’s day one, so you expect that,” Chesney said. “It’s like everybody talks about, what about day five, six, seven, eight, you know? Right in the middle of that. You get to nine, 10, 11, you’re on the other side of it. I want every day, [we] keep doing this. None of that, right? So I thought today was a good start.”