{"id":99517,"date":"2026-10-11T18:56:34","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T01:56:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=99517"},"modified":"2026-10-11T19:12:02","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T02:12:02","slug":"bruin-beat-oct-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=99517","title":{"rendered":"The Bruin Beat: 10\/11\/2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By Alex A. Gonzalez <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When UCLA announced on December 6th last year that Bob Chesney would be its 20th head coach, there was a lot of optimism and skepticism. Chesney spent the previous two seasons at James Madison University with a 21-6 record. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

And that’s where the skepticism came from. Fans in Westwood didn’t have a large enough sample size to start believing in someone who hasn’t done it yet on the big stage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the college football season is six weeks old and after defeating an Oregon team previously ranked No. 2, that skepticism has disappeared. The win in Eugene not only kept the Bruins perfect but it was also their first win at Autzen Stadium since 2004.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also propelled the Bruins from ranked 21st in the nation to No. 12. They even jumped cross-town rival USC, which also won its road game Saturday night against Penn State.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So how did the Bruins get here?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For starters, with the move from JMU to UCLA, Chesney saw 11 players transfer from Harrisonburg, Virginia to Westwood. Of the 11 transfers the most notable is running back Wayne Knight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also known as the Dark Knight<\/em> among his teammates, Knight is ranked 5th in the Big Ten with 548 rushing yards and is the only tailback to have double-digit rushing touchdowns with 10. For context the Bruins had eight as a team in 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continuing with that thought, this time last year, UCLA had just fired DeShaun Foster after a pitiful 0-3 start and barely won their third game by week 7. That season however produced probably the biggest upset in the last 10 years: a 42-37 Rose Bowl win over No. 7 Penn State. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another difference in this year’s Bruins squad is how they use the offensive line. On average at least ten different players will take snaps between the tackles. When asked about the philosophy Offensive Line and Run Game Coordinator Chris Smith said, \u201cFresh Legs. Absolutely it does matter”. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those fresh legs have produced the third-best rushing attack as a team with 1,266 yards through seven weeks. They also lead the Big Ten in both touchdowns (19) and yards per game (253.2). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Defensively the Bruins are in the top half of the conference statistically but lead the Big Ten in interceptions (10), forced fumbles (7), and fumble recoveries (9). Jalen Woods and Sammy Omosigho trade spots as team leaders in tackles but the duo are the third and fourth best tacklers in the Big Ten. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How far can UCLA go in 2026<\/strong>? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With seven games remaining five will be played at the Rose Bowl, including the finale against USC. Next Saturday the Bruins will get another big test when they host Wisconsin. However they have to go on the road to play Michigan on November 21. Other than that UCLA should have favorable matchups for the rest of the season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Could the Bruins make an appearance in the College Football Playoffs? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Absolutely. Indiana and Ohio State aren’t on the schedule and the only roadblocks that could derail an appearance are Wisconsin and USC. They could lose either one and still make a spot. They can\u2019t lose both because if they do, they’re playing their bowl game in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only time will tell but until then get an Eight Clapp going; this team is more fun to watch than the previous ones. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Alex A. Gonzalez When UCLA announced on December 6th last year that Bob Chesney would be its 20th head coach, there was a lot of optimism and skepticism. Chesney spent the previous two seasons at James Madison University with a 21-6 record. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[871],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-college"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=99517"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99525,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99517\/revisions\/99525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=99517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=99517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=99517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}