Chesney riding high on UCLA coaching carousel

Bruins are among the suitors interested in luring him away from James Madison.

- By BEN BoLcn

JAMES MADISON football coach Bob Chesney, 48, has the kind of personality that could galvanize a fan base.

(MIKE BUSCHER Associated Pres)

Every college football team with a coaching vacancy wants the next Curt Cignetti. Maybe UCLA can land him.

He's from the same school that Cignetti took to unprecedented heights before making Indiana a national power, and he’s doing similarly special things.

His name is Bob Chesney, and he was publicly identified by former Bruins coach Rick Neuheisel over the weekend as someone whom UCLA is targeting in a search that appears to be picking up considerable momentum.

If that’s true — and there’s no reason to believe it isn’t, based on Neuheisel’s connections and similar things heard by The Times from others close to the coaching search — then the Bruins might be among the Chesney suitors on the cusp of the coaching carousel.