"Everybody counted us out": UCLA Football Is Playing With Something to Prove Under Bob Chesney

LOS ANGELES – UCLA football is looking ahead to a new direction under head coach Bob Chesney and after a 2025 season that was rife with disappointment, the Bruins from last season are eager to correct everything that awry and prove everyone rooting against them wrong in the process. 

Last season began as a disaster after four straight losses to teams that the Bruins by all account should have beaten, with the final straw for then-head coach DeShaun Foster being a 35-10 loss to New Mexico State on Sep. 12, 2025 that snowballed into the eventual firings of Foster and both the offensive and defensive coordinators. 

A surprise upset of Penn State led to a three-game win streak midseason, but the Bruins eventually ended 3-9 on the season and 3-6 in conference play. 

The new direction that Chesney has taken the team in and a robust transfer class has renewed hope in the program, but senior quarterback Nico Iamaleava has found an extra drive in the idea that the Bruins have been forgotten after how off-track last season was.

"I think everybody counted us out, man," Iamaleava said during UCLA's media day. "Last year wasn't a great year for us, so I think we're not on anybody's radar. So I think that fuels us and really playing for each other is going to be the main thing for us."

Seniors looking to impress

For Iamaleava, the pressure is on to correct the errors from last season considering it's his senior year and his last chance to restore UCLA to it's former glory as a program. 

He's not alone in that. 60 players on UCLA's roster this season are either seniors or fifth-years looking at their last chances at making an impression as Bruins, but based on how the team's culture has been transformed in just a few months, the expectations within the team to make those impressions are high. 

"I think every single senior especially, and we're pretty senior-heavy, I think that we all have an extremely high chip on our shoulder," senior kicker Mateen Bhaghani said. "Me personally, I know I do have a chip on my shoulder because this is my last year and I really want to put it all on the line… So we're really trying to make it a special year and I think that we have the right group of boys to do it." 

That chip on the Bruins' shoulders extends past just the players who were around for the disappointment of the team last season; that sentiment has extended into the new players that have transferred in as well, of which there have been many. 

Darwin Walker – The Sporting Tribune

#9 Nico Iamaleava of UCLA walks towards the huddle during an NCAA football game against Penn State on October 4, 2025 in Pasadena, CA.

Even new players feel the drive

Senior tight end Josh Phifer, who was one of several players that transferred to UCLA from James Madison University to follow Chesney, feels a certain level excitement at not just being at UCLA, but coming into the program at a time where it's trying to recover it's identity and repair it's reputation. So even if he wasn't on the roster last season to feel the sting of their defeats, he's eager to be a part of their new rise.

"I really like that I can come in and try to rebuild this place," Phifer said. "I hope in five years… when UCLA wins a national championship, I can come back and be like 'I was a part of what fostered that growth and that culture.'"

A national championship is obviously a lofty goal and one that Phifer wasn't making any promises about for this season, but that process does start with correcting course one season at a time, which UCLA can start doing now.

With new life breathed into the program, the Bruins, especially their seniors, are looking to redefine their own legacies and restore that of their program's and that process begins Sep. 5 against Cal to kick off the 2026 season.