Is this the REVIVAL of UCLA Football?

Added: 2026-05-07

[00:00:00]At one point last year, the UCLA football program looked dead and hopeless. They were sitting at 0 and4 on the season and had been blown out by Utah and New Mexico at home while also losing to UNLV on the road leading to the firing a head coach to Shaun Foster.

[00:00:18]It looked like the only hope to secure a win on the season was going to come against Northwestern, a game they would drop 17 to 14. The program was in trouble and an 0 and12 season looked like a real possibility.

[00:00:32]But then they would pull off the unthinkable. They would upset number seven Penn State at home and went on a little winning streak. While they would finish the season 3 and nine, they would make a home run hiring in James Madison head coach Bob Chznney, who has quickly turned around this program heading into 2026.

[00:00:50]The motivation for this video comes with the Bruins currently having the fourth ranked recruiting class for the 2027 cycle at the time of recording. 6 months ago, that looked impossible. Is this the revival of UCLA football? But before we get into this, if you enjoy college football content like this, make sure to leave a like and subscribe. Also, let me know how well you think UCLA will do this season and what other programs you want me to talk about in the comment section below.

[00:01:17]Heading into the 2025 season, I said this about UCLA and spoke about the first part of the season in my last video on them. Heading into the 2025 season, UCLA needed to replace 42 seniors, including quarterback Ethan Garbers. Foster brought in a dozen new staff members, including general manager Ki Darlington. UCLA thought they struck gold when they added former Tennessee quarterback Nicoyava.

[00:01:41]When Nico showed up at practice, the athletic described it as the energy immediately changing. Terington explained, "You saw a reaction from everybody. It was almost like everybody backs straightened up. Oh, shoot. Nico's here. Being a local guy, there are so many people on the team that already knew who he was. There was excitement.

[00:01:59]While we have a real guy on campus that can be a real differencemaker for us, UCLA felt like an ideal fit. That all starts with being close to his family, again, he told the athletic, but also the connection he felt with Foster and the staff. I really believe in what coach Foss has going. He said, I think he's building something special here and I want to be a part of it. The college football world would basically see a trade between Tennessee and UCLA with appstate transfer Joey Aguilar leaving UCLA to go to Tennessee and Nico coming to UCLA.

[00:02:30]According to The Athletic, Foster wasn't sold on Agular, but believed in Nico.

[00:02:34]Man, that was the wrong take. It was no secret that Bruins had been slow in the NIL space. sources familiar with the Bruins NIL situation told the athletic that UCLA's NIL budget last year was 8 to10 million likely putting the Bruins in the bottom half of the power four programs Foster thought he was able to generate money pointing to last season's three-game win streak as a turning point IVA transfer sparked 14 more commitments through the transfer portal as well as some highly touted high school recruits said there was so much interest in playing with Imam Alyava the discount had started happening like if their price point was at six and they were able to offer $400,000. They were willing to do it. We lost out on probably three wide receivers because the schools we were competing with came back and doubled the money. For once, there seemed to be some excitement around UCLA football. Expectations were for them to make a bowl game at the very least with the influx of talent. I felt like they were still pretty bad personally though heading into the season. The excitement wouldn't last long as disaster would hit almost immediately. During the season opener, they would be embarrassed by Utah 43-10 at home. Then they would lose to UNLV 23 to 20 in Vegas. But the low point though would come against New Mexico when they were not just beaten but destroyed by the Lobos 35 to 10 in an empty Rose Bowl stadium. Was an embarrassment and would lead to the firing of Foster's head coach. UCLA said in a statement knowing they messed up saying he was named to this role at a challenging time of the year on the cusp of a move to a new conference and he embraced it putting his heart into the program moving forward. His legacy and love for this university are firmly established. They are now staring down a possible 0 and12 season with their best chance of winning coming against Northwestern this past weekend. A game they would go on to lose. UCLA's schedule is not easy to close out the season and it's hard to pick out a game they can win. They host Penn State next week before having a 9:00 a.m. Pacific kickoff against Michigan State in East Lansing. They then host Maryland before traveling to Bloomington to play Indiana. They close out the season hosting Nebraska and Washington and travel to Ohio State and USC. Looking at their schedule, I don't see them winning a game. This program is a disaster. They don't have a stadium on campus, and although I love the Rose Bowl, it's hard to think fans will buy in and show up with it being so far off campus and the product being put on the field. Nikico has regressed having thrown for 788 yards and four touchdowns and three interceptions this year. The school's alumni base just doesn't care about football. So although they have a decently rich alumni base, the school is second worst in football ticket revenue according to the 2024 financial reports obtained by the athletic Scott Doterman, the Bruins lost $200 million over the previous 5 years. It's hard to get excited for this program and think they will get a bigname hire. UCLA is a disaster and I bet some fans wish they could just cancel the remaind of the season. Things looked hopeless for this team as they stared down the barrel of what many expected to be a blowout as they were hosting number seven Penn State. Between an interim head coach, Nico struggling, and an angry Nitney Lions team coming in with playoff aspirations, this looked like it was going to be a disaster. Instead, UCLA would shock the college football world, jumping out to a 27-7 lead at half.

[00:05:48]While Penn State would come back in the second half, UCLA would pull off the miraculous win, 42 to 37. I think the funniest part about the result of this game was the fact that I had just released my video on UCLA, most likely going 0 and2 just days before the upset.

[00:06:04]That Penn State win would spark a three-game win streak with them beating Michigan State on the road and Maryland at home before going on a five-game losing streak to finish the year. The only game that was close was their game against Nebraska where they fell to the Corn Huskers 28 to21. While the season ended with them going 3-9, the three-game win streak injected hope back into the program and even had people talking about them possibly making a bowl game at the time. Nico finished the season throwing for 1,928 yards, 13 touchdowns, and seven interceptions, whilst rushing for 505 yards, and four touchdowns on the ground. He actually led the team in rushing with former Wisconsin and Michigan State running back Jaylen Burgerer, finishing second in rushing with 364 yards and two touchdowns. There was a lot of work that needed to go into this roster this offseason on both sides of the ball.

[00:06:53]They averaged 18.2 2 points per game on offense, which ranked 126th in the nation, while the defense allowed 33.4 points per game, which ranked 127th.

[00:07:03]Nico would choose to return for his senior year, which was a major boost and did not look like a reality at one point of the season, but then they would make their biggest decision in the offseason.

[00:07:13]They hired former James Madison head coach Bob Chznney. Chzn grew up in Colmont, Pennsylvania, and played defensive back at Dickinson College. He started his coaching career as a grat assistant at Norwich before being named the defensive coordinator at Delaware Valley. He then coached at Kings and John's Hopkins. While at Johns Hopkins, he worked his way up from a special teams coach and defensive back coach to eventually their assistant head coach and the defensive coordinator. This led to his first head coaching job at South Virginia, a division three program that was coming off eight consecutive losing seasons. Under Chznney, they never had a losing season going 23 and nine overall and nine and two in his last season where they won their division. This led to him being hired by Assumption, a division 2 program that had two winning seasons over their previous 17 seasons.

[00:08:00]Chzn continued winning, leading them to five consecutive winning seasons, the division 2 playoffs twice, and two 11-2 seasons in 2015 and 2017. That 2017 season also saw them make it all the way to the quarterfinals of the division 2 playoffs. He finished his time at Assumption going 44-6 and 31-7 during his last three seasons. In December of 2017, he was named the head coach of Holy Cross, where he experienced his first and only losing season in his career as a head coach so far. Following that 2018 season where they went 5-6, the Crusaders would win five straight Patriot League titles and made four appearances in the FCS playoffs, making it to the quarterfinals in 2022.

[00:08:41]He went 44 and 21 and 28-4 while in Patriot League play while at Holy Cross where they became the first team in the Patriot League history to win five straight conference titles. Their 11-0 regular season in 2022 was the first undefeated regular season since 1991.

[00:08:57]Their quarterfinal appearance was the deepest playoff run in almost four decades. This led to him being named James Madison's head coach, taking over a program that saw massive roster depletion after Kirk Signetti took the Indiana head coaching job. Chzn just kept winning, going 9-4 in 2024 and 12-2 in 2025, where they made the college football playoff. UCLA needed an experienced head coach after the disaster that was the Foster era, and they brought in a program builder who found a ton of success at four different programs across three levels of college football, three of which were not known as winners before his arrival. He currently has a record of 132 and 52 as head coach. The hiring of Chznney was viewed as a home run hire by many, but he was taking on a massive rebuild due to their 2025 results and their 8-6 overall record in Big 10 play. like Sig did for Indiana leading to a national title. Chzn followed the same blueprint of bringing in a handful of James Madison players like running back Wayne Knight who rushed for 1,373 yards and nine touchdowns last year as well as wide receiver Landon Ellis who had 36 receptions for 624 yards and five touchdowns for the Dukes last year.

[00:10:06]ESPN's M Olsen wrote, "Chz is a coaching upgrade and brings in a staff that knows how to develop players. He stocked UCLA's roster with several of James Madison's best players including West Knight Nickel DJ Barksdale, offensive lineman Riley Roel and Carter Sweezy, key defenders Aiden Goa and Drew Spignati, and productive wide receiver Landon Ellis. They also brought in linebacker Sammy Omo from Oklahoma, wide receiver Brian Row from South Carolina, and Samage Morgan from Michigan. In total, they brought in 61 new players, but expectations to compete for a college football playoff spot, with some making them the sexy pick this year as an underdog may be unrealistic expectations. They play Cal, who will have a brand new head coach as well. San Diego State, and Nevada at a conference while hosting Purdue, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Illinois, and USC in Big 10 play while going on the road to take on Maryland, Oregon, Minnesota, and Michigan. When it comes to Big 10 standards, it's not a brutal schedule, but they will be playing a ton of teams whose backs are against the wall heading into the season. While they avoid Ohio State and Indiana, which is wild to put the Hooers in this category this year, they play their two toughest games on the road in Oregon and Michigan. If they drop one more game, they are out of the playoff race most likely. They have so many wild cards on their schedule and have a wild card of a roster themselves.

[00:11:29]Chznney has a SIG blueprint, the followup, but on the flip side will be constantly compared to him while he is at UCLA. A bowl game is a more realistic expectation for year one of the Chznney era and is kind of viewed as the bare minimum. As Andrew Ferguson Jr. wrote for UCLA Bruins on SI, but even when taking all of these positives into account, there are still too many ifs surrounding UCLA to expect immediate elite success. Right now, UCLA should absolutely be capable of reaching and winning a bowl game, but expecting much more than that could be asking too much too soon. Quarterback depth is a concern behind Nico. They did bring in his brother last year, who was a four-star recruit coming out of high school, while also having Ty Defin, a three-star recruit from the 2026 cycle, and Colton Camino, who was a three-star recruit in the 2025 cycle. But none of those quarterbacks have any collegiate experience. An eco injury could be a death sentence their first season under Chznney. That being said, there's a lot of excitement around this program as you look towards the future. At the time of recording, they currently have the fourth best recruiting class in the nation with 17 commits, seven of which are four-star recruits. So, the foundation is being built if they keep that going.

[00:12:40]The positive momentum on the recruiting trail was my motivation to do this video. There's not been this level of excitement or hope around this program for a while. A once dead in the water program has life and hope back, which is insane to say after the way last year went. I cannot wait to see what Chzn is able to build at UCLA. What do you think? How well does UCLA do this year?

[00:13:01]Let me know in the comment section below. If you enjoyed this video, make sure to check out one of my other videos YouTube thinks you will love right here.

[00:13:07]Thank you so much for watching and as always, remember to embrace the grind.