A UCLA coaching search that is the longest ongoing in-season quest has identified its top target and moved toward trying to finalize the hire, numerous sources tell FootballScoop.
After firing DeShaun Foster three games and 10 losses into his 15-game tenure, UCLA has focused its search efforts across the past several days on James Madison coach Bob Chesney. The Bruins also recently had multiple conversations with San Diego State head coach Sean Lewis, sources told FootballScoop.
But numerous industry sources — agents, coaches, administrators — have told FootballScoop this week that Chesney is the target of the Bruins’s nearly 10-week search.
Sources shared that UCLA has provided terms to Chesney and his reps; multiple sources said that the Bruins are discussing a formal offer in the “$6 to $7 million a year” range.
Chesney is earning at least $833,000 this season at James Madison, with a chance to push that number above $900,000 pending various performance incentives; additionally, while realistic that Chesney has been consistently targeted by UCLA for multiple weeks and also spoke multiple times with Penn State as a potential replacement for the fired James Franklin, sources tell FootballScoop that James Madison also has indicated a willingness to be aggressive with a new deal for Chesney, if the ascending coach elects to stick around the Harrisonburg, Virginia, program for another campaign.
But sources also tell FootballScoop that Dukes officials are very well aware of the situation and that retaining Chesney beyond this season is unlikely; they’re taking a proactive approach if JMU has its second coaching search in two years and third in the past seven.
Chesney’s original, five-year pact with JMU had a staggered buyout-clause if Chesney elected to depart for another program that was tiered based on the conference affiliation of his next job; departing for UCLA would leave the Bruins on the hook for approximately $1.25 million to buy out Chesney’s contract, per a review of the terms.
Still, UCLA has put together a package that it believes gives it a realistic opportunity to secure the services of Chesney, a Pennsylvania native who’s become one of Football Bowls Subdivision’s hottest commodities in recent years.
Chesney won 29 games across his final three seasons at Holy Cross, guiding that school to record success, and has transitioned to the FBS level with 20 wins (and chances for more) through his first 25 games atop the JMU program.
The Dukes completed a perfect season in Sun Belt Conference play with Saturday’s dominant, 59-10 win at Coastal Carolina; they’ve already clinched a spot in the SBC Championship next weekend, when they will face Gerad Parker’s upstart Troy Trojans, eight-game winners after dismissing Southern Miss, 28-18, on the road Saturday.
Key also, James Madison remains very much in content for the Group of Six berth in the College Football Playoff.
Tulane is the CFP’s No. 24 team and presently sits in the best position to secure the bid, but the Green Wave need to close out Saturday’s game at Charlotte — they lead 14-0 in the second quarter — and then win the AAC title-game the following week to complete the process.
UCLA is tied at 7-all with cross-city rival USC, 7-7, in the second quarter at the time of this story. The Bruins, at 3-8, are trying to avoid just the program’s second nine-loss season since 1941.
