The only Heisman Trophy winner in UCLA history has seen this all before.
A new coach. A program that had been in the dumps. Only a handful of wins in each of the previous few seasons.
The situation involving the current Bruins also presented itself going into Gary Beban’s sophomore season.
Everything turned out just fine that year. The 1965 team went on to upset top-ranked Michigan State in the Rose Bowl, earning it the nickname “The Miracle Bruins” from Sports Illustrated.
Cancoach Bob Chesney’s Bruinsdo something similar?
Beban told The California Post in an exclusive interview that he was encouraged based on the team’s first scrimmage of the spring Saturday, which was closed to the media.
“There is a sense of spirit here that seemed to be missing before,” Beban said. “What I saw today and the direction and the underpinnings of the philosophies, I think those are the right components — I think they have the right attitude and the skill sets, and they’ve had the experience of winning.”
While Chesney’s most recent success came at the Group of Five level —the coach and his staff guided James Madisonto the College Football Playoff before taking the UCLA job in December — Beban said it was something that could translate to the Big Ten.
“Winning is a formula at any level, and I’m convinced that the lower-level [philosophies] can win at the higher level,” said Beban, who was back on campus fora reunion of UCLA quarterbacks as part of a charity fundraiser. “I think that the right parts are here; now it’s a matter of the players putting it together.”
Part of that involves leadership.
Source: California Post – Breaking California News, Photos & Videos
