Bob Chesney Making Recruiting Noise at UCLA

Maybe the most impressive, and surprising, part of this eight-man class, is that all eight commitments play their high school football deep in UCLA’s recruiting territory. When Coach Chesney was hired, there was some concern regarding his lack of West Coast experience. This was warranted, considering his previous head coaching experience had been in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Virginia.

But he has quickly proven that this shouldn’t have caused any concern, with his eight commitments coming from California (6), New Mexico (1) and Nevada (1).

There has been an obvious priority made by Coach Chesney and his staff to recruit locally. The new staff is emphasizing a “SoCal Empire” strategy, specifically targeting the Trinity League and local Los Angeles and Orange County schools.

This has produced immediate results and has put the Bruins in position for additional recruiting success.

Just a few of the additional local recruits that UCLA has positioned itself very nicely for include four-star safety Gavin Williams (LaVerne, Ca.), four-star cornerback Duvay Williams (Inglewood, Ca.), three-star running back Duece Jones-Drew (Concord, Ca.), who is the son of former UCLA and NFL star Maurice Jones-Drew, four-star offensive lineman Lincoln Mageo (Oceanside, Ca.), four-star cornerback JuJu Johnson (Long Beach, Ca.) and three-star quarterback Dane Weber (Temecula, Ca.).

The program and university have a great deal to sell to recruits, and Coach Chesney has done an impressive job getting this message across during his first few months on campus.  Time will tell if this translates to the playing field, but for now, everything is coming up roses in Los Angeles.