Behind Enemy Lines: Will Bob Chesney make the playoff at UCLA?

We continue our August Behind Enemy Lines series with UCLA Wire and its editor, Dylan McNeill. In this article, we explore the question of whether Bob Chesney will ever make the College Football Playoff at UCLA. He did so at James Madison. Can he do it in Westwood and the Big Ten? "A College Football Playoff appearance is the eventual goal for Bob Chesney and the UCLA Bruins but at the moment, they’re just so far removed from the CFP," McNeill told us. "If Chesney sticks around UCLA long enough then he’ll eventually coach his way to the playoffs, even if it takes 5+ years. The Big Ten Conference is no cake walk, and Chesney certainly won’t luck his way into the CFP but if he can sustain the program’s momentum then an eventual CFP appearance will be within reach. USC knows how challenging it can be to go from a talented team to a CFP team, Chesney will have to prove he can make that jump with UCLA." The shadow of Curt Cignetti looms over Bob Chesney. Cignetti left James Madison and, in his first year at Indiana - a school with a much smaller and less impressive football history than UCLA - made the College Football Playoff. Now Chesney is relocating from James Madison to a Big Ten school. Is he ready to be the next Cignetti, or will he crash and burn - or, as a third scenario, will he fit between those two extremes? We're all about to find out. Contact/Follow @TrojansWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of USC Trojans news, notes and opinion. This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: Behind Enemy Lines: Will Bob Chesney make the playoff at UCLA?