Chesney unveils strong coaching staff, signals new era for UCLA football

Bob Chesney wasted no time bringing familiar faces to the West Coast. First, it was offensive coordinator Dean Kennedy, who spent two seasons with the now-UCLA head coach at Holy Cross and the past two years at James Madison, where he led the 11th-highest scoring offense in the FBS. [Related: Five Things: Analyzing coaching shakeups, roster changes and key returnees for UCLA football] Then came defensive coordinator Colin Hitschler, a product of Luke Fickell – his mentor at Cincinnati and Wisconsin – who spent 2025 in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and the year prior at Alabama as the co-defensive coordinator. In 2025, the Dukes’ defense ranked fifth in the FBS in yards allowed...