LOS ANGELES — Whether we just met L.A.’s next great coach or just the latest, merely mortal UCLA football head man, I don’t know. I do know that the Bruins’ band played Bob Chesney onstage Tuesday for his introductory acceptance speech, as if hoping the 48-year-old Pennsylvanian’s list of thank-yous grows exponentially by the season and that he’ll stay as long as he likes, and that that’s a long time. Time, of course, is the only thing that will tell how Chesney’s Bruins will do at the box office. We’ll have to wait and see whether UCLA fans will be buying tickets for another of his successful sequels following his successful indie projects Salve Regina, Assumption, Holy Cross and, his latest hit, James Madison. Tune in to see whether the coach who can do a lot with a little can also do a lot with a lot, whether he can also deliver a crowd-pleasing big-budget blockbuster. We all can see the vision in little James Madison’s big-time College Football Playoff berth. And we heard it too when Chesney answered reporters’ questions at the Luskin Conference Center, delivering each line with sturdy confidence and the right amount of feeling: “There is zero doubt in my mind that we can win here at UCLA.” Chesney also talked about the importance of empathy, identified “listening” as his superpower and said “physical and mental and emotional toughness” would be a non-negotiable part of his program – as will be the type of support he expects from the university. Chesney sat beside Athletic Director Martin Jarmond, looking the part of a great L.A. coach too. If you asked a random shopper at your local Erewhon to guess what major reboot this man had just been cast for, “Mission Impossible?” would be a fair stab. Actually, Chesney’s job is to sell people on Mission Possible in Westwood and, well, wherever the Bruin football team plays its home games next season, either SoFi Stadium or the Rose Bowl, that’s to be determined. Wherever it is, Chesney’s new assignment is to make people pay attention, make them want to show up again. To figure it out. To win. If we’re talking sequels, “Cignetti II” would absolutely thrill the studio and stadium heads, considering what a smash Curt Cignetti has proved at Indiana since he left James Madison for a Big Ten Conference “basketball school.” Cignetti promptly led the Hoosiers to previously unfathomable success, a No. 1 ranking and the school’s first victory over Ohio State since 1967 and now who wouldn’t want to hire someone like him? Recycling another retread or making another call to someone in-house is so 2023. What’s in fashion now is to throw a lob to someone on his ascent, a proven head coach and program-builder. It might not end up being a slam dunk, but it might. “If we could get anything close to [Cignetti] …” said Bob Myers, former UCLA basketball player and general manager of the dynastic Golden State Warriors, and also a member of his alma mater’s high-profile “pro bono” casting committee. “It’s a great model where you might have asked that question, ‘Why isn’t Indiana football [good]?’ They hadn’t beaten Ohio State in 30 years, and if you were a student there or an alumni there you would say, ‘We can’t beat Ohio State.’ Well, they just did. So I believe UCLA has a better chance than a place like that.” No pressure. Actually, no, there is pressure. Lots of it. Much more than Chesney is used to: Unfamiliar turf, tougher travel, a massive market, a big-boy conference and fed-up fans – those of them who are holding on. KCBS-TV’s L.A. icon Jim Hill asked him about that pressure on Tuesday, and Chesney didn’t do what some coaches do and deny its existence, brush it off: Pressure? What pressure? We’re just playin’ a game. Instead Chesney did the thing that other coaches do and acknowledged it, claimed it as a “privilege.” Which of those approaches is the correct, I don’t know that either. But I know it can’t get much worse than it is now at UCLA, where the Bruins have been spinning their wheels for most of a decade, including nose-diving the past two seasons, going 3-9 – a relief because it wasn’t 0-12. Chesney is replacing DeShaun Foster, the former UCLA star running back was hired with no head coaching experience and then promptly fired in his second year after an 0-3 start this season gave him a 5-10 record. It so happens that all Chesney – a coach’s son who has never wanted to do anything but coach – has ever done is win. No matter the state of a program when he arrived, he has won. In 16 years as a head coach, he’s 132-51 – so far. His 12th-seeded Dukes earned a first-round College Football Playoff matchup with No. 5 Oregon on Dec. 20 in Chesney’s second and final season with James Madison. He’s a man on dual missions at the moment, both preparing his current team for the biggest game in program history while also preparing to live up to his own billing in L.A. But this is football, the total team game, and Chesney won’t break records or build contenders – or flop – on his own. “I don’t want to believe more in a place than a place believes in itself,” said the new guy, who will earn $33.75 million over five years here. “… I believe in the power of UCLA and I think that’s important for everyone here to understand. I, again, do not want to be the only one believing it. And I know we have a room full of people that do. And the plan that we will have in place will allow us to realize that.” And so “Bob asked the right questions,” Myers said. “‘What is our level of commitment? We’re in this conference, what can I expect, as far as resources, to compete in this conference?’” The answer, Myers said: “You’ll be in the top third to compete, maybe top quartile to compete with these schools, financially.” Chesney must have liked that tune. I know because he signed on to the project, ready for his closeup. Related Articles Bob Chesney speaks of UCLA football with conviction and promise Meet Bob Chesney, UCLA football’s new ‘ultimate type of competitor’ UCLA announces Bob Chesney as new football coach UCLA football’s National Signing Day caps an arduous 3 months Swanson: UCLA is the next stop on Bob Chesney’s revival tour ...read more read less