# Bob Chesney: Grow Where You’re Planted — Building a Winning Culture

An episode of [On The Line with Jim Pyne](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6794668286), 22 Sep 2026, 33 min.

Audio: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2632213/episodes/19844501-bob-chesney-grow-where-you-re-planted-building-a-winning-culture.mp3

UCLA head coach Bob Chesney joins Jim Pyne on On The Line to talk about the journey that took him from Division III football to leading one of college football’s most recognizable programs. Chesney shares the lessons he learned growing up in a football family, working his way through the coaching ranks, and building winning programs at Salve Regina, Assumption, Holy Cross and JMU before taking over at UCLA. They discuss his four pillars for success—attention to detail, positive attitude, urgency and relentlessness—along with building trust, creating competition, developing players and why he believes there is no job too small. Chesney also explains his philosophy that failure doesn’t define you, it refines you, and shares the simple advice from his mother that has stayed with him throughout his career: “Grow where you’re planted.” A great conversation about leadership, relationships, preparation and the process behind building a winning culture. 🎙️ On The Line with Jim Pyne Support the show Connect with Jim Pyne Thanks for listening to On the Line with Jim Pyne. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow the show, leave a rating and review, and share it with a friend. Your support helps us bring you more conversations with the leaders, innovators, and game changers shaping sports, business, and entertainment. Follow Jim on LinkedIn and social media for updates on future episodes, behind-the-scenes content, and exclusive clips. New episodes released often!

## Transcript

[0:00] SPEAKER_01: Welcome to On the Line with Jim Pine.
[0:02] SPEAKER_01: I'm Jim Pine.
[0:03] SPEAKER_01: This episode is brought to you by PLS Aviation.
[0:06] SPEAKER_01: Private Aviation perfectly executed.
[0:09] SPEAKER_01: Now let's get on the line.
[0:10] SPEAKER_01: Today on the line we have a proven winner, the current head coach at UCLA.
[0:14] SPEAKER_01: He's been a head coach for over 16 years, 15 winning seasons.
[0:17] SPEAKER_01: He's on a fast track right now, doing a great job, and really a really superstar coach who his players love.
[0:23] SPEAKER_01: Coach Bob Chesney, coach, welcome to the show.
[0:26] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, thanks for having me, man.
[0:27] SPEAKER_00: Really appreciate it.
[0:28] SPEAKER_00: Just finished our last day of football camp right now.
[0:31] SPEAKER_00: So you know these guys will have off the rest of today and tomorrow, and then we're right back in the game week.
[0:36] SPEAKER_00: So excited to watch some football this, you know, today and tomorrow as well, you know?
[0:40] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, love this time of year.
[0:42] SPEAKER_01: I have two sons playing.
[0:43] SPEAKER_01: You know, I got step kids, I got all these kids everywhere, people and nephews playing football.
[0:47] SPEAKER_01: So looking forward to it.
[0:48] SPEAKER_01: It's a great time of year.
[0:49] SPEAKER_00: Heck yeah.
[0:50] SPEAKER_00: Heck yeah.
[0:51] SPEAKER_01: So, coach, go take it back.
[0:52] SPEAKER_01: So, your dad was a high school coach, I believe.
[0:55] SPEAKER_01: Your grandfather was an offensive line coach.
[0:57] SPEAKER_01: You might have an uncle that was a receiver coach, right?
[0:59] SPEAKER_01: Back when you were in high school.
[1:00] SPEAKER_01: That's an awesome deal, right?
[1:01] SPEAKER_01: I mean, to have that family around there.
[1:03] SPEAKER_01: And I read where you said, like, that's just a way of life.
[1:06] SPEAKER_01: That's the way it always was for you growing up.
[1:08] SPEAKER_01: Is that is that kind of how it was for you?
[1:10] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, definitely.
[1:11] SPEAKER_00: I think that was really it.
[1:12] SPEAKER_00: You didn't really know any other way.
[1:14] SPEAKER_00: You know, you're really built your whole year around that football team.
[1:17] SPEAKER_00: You know, if you were maybe a vacation once uh you know for a week at some point over the summers, but it was right back as quick as you can to to get back to that team.
[1:25] SPEAKER_00: So it was an all-year thing from lifting weights to running to doing all the things you do.
[1:29] SPEAKER_00: But, you know, just kind of growing up in that, you know, I got a chance to watch it firsthand, you know, over and over and over again for the first bunch of years of my life until I entered into high school and got a chance to actually become part of that team, which was, you know, a a pretty you know uh special moment.
[1:45] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no question.
[1:46] SPEAKER_01: I I remember back to my high school days.
[1:47] SPEAKER_01: It started off I was a ball boy for my older brother's team in the program, kind of enjoyed that, kind of lived it.
[1:53] SPEAKER_01: So you growing up around it, what what are some of the things your dad taught you or you saw your dad do that you still do today?
[2:00] SPEAKER_01: That you're like, hey, I my dad did that.
[2:02] SPEAKER_01: Um you you would probably say in the back of your head, like, I'm gonna do that when I'm a coach, and I'm gonna do that because my dad did it.
[2:07] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[2:08] SPEAKER_00: I think uh a couple things stand out, but the the one I say this this story many times, but I remember like it was yesterday, I'll never forget the you know, you're a young kid, I was probably five, six maybe, uh, and the practice is hot over the summer camp, that type of thing.
[2:21] SPEAKER_00: And I just remember him really getting on a couple guys pretty hard, one guy in particular.
[2:26] SPEAKER_00: And I remember coming back in the locker room and and literally them picking they used to pick me up and put me on top of the locker, and I'd hang out in the locker room with them after practice.
[2:34] SPEAKER_00: And I remember the one guy saying something along the lines of, you know, a lot of negative things to say about my father, you know, just because of how hard he was on my practice and and how much he pushed him and really just the the you know, the the guy was almost at his breaking point in a way.
[2:47] SPEAKER_00: And I remember my father, like probably two minutes later, walking down into the locker room and waving the kid over.
[2:53] SPEAKER_00: They went both went back into his office, which was a closet uh down by the right off the locker room.
[2:58] SPEAKER_00: And and uh the guy came out like you know, five minutes later with tears in his eyes, and he was like, forget about everything I just said about your dad.
[3:04] SPEAKER_00: He's the greatest male in my life.
[3:06] SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm so proud to be playing football for him.
[3:08] SPEAKER_00: Just thought that was a pretty cool moment where I watched a kid go from, you know, really, you know, immaturely not understanding what what he was trying to do and just taking it personal to all of a sudden very quickly him realizing he probably pushed him pretty hard and he wasn't ready for that just yet, and then came down and patched that relationship up really, really quickly.
[3:27] SPEAKER_00: And I think that takes some emotional intelligence.
[3:30] SPEAKER_00: That's a big part of this game that we don't always think about.
[3:32] SPEAKER_00: And uh I think it's important to just think how would you want your own son treated?
[3:35] SPEAKER_00: And that's what I try to do on a day-to-day basis, and that was one of the earliest examples of it in in my mind.
[3:41] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's great.
[3:42] SPEAKER_01: I mean, coach them hard, but love them hard too, right?
[3:44] SPEAKER_01: You gotta take care of the guys.
[3:45] SPEAKER_01: I get that in the locker room.
[3:47] SPEAKER_01: You you want hard coaching.
[3:48] SPEAKER_01: If you're a good player, you want you want even harder, you want want to be coached well, but you know, you also want to trust your coach and believe in him, and then he believes in you.
[3:56] SPEAKER_01: So I uh that's a great example by your dad.
[3:58] SPEAKER_01: And uh I guess you know, you know, early on to where you were at Norwich Academy.
[4:02] SPEAKER_01: I grew up in New England, I grew up in Massachusetts, I know you're a Northeast guy.
[4:06] SPEAKER_01: No, I know Norwich and you're up there.
[4:08] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I read something where you uh you were coaching the punters, the kickers, and you you read a book about it, right?
[4:13] SPEAKER_01: To kind of learn how to do it.
[4:14] SPEAKER_01: Because if I had to coach a punter, I wouldn't know what to do, but you kind of had to read about it then to teach them, right?
[4:20] SPEAKER_00: That's right.
[4:21] SPEAKER_00: And I and you know, it was one of those things that we put so much time in the offense and defensive sides of the ball, and then we got to the really the end of the week.
[4:28] SPEAKER_00: Back there, back then, like your first job in D3, you weren't there all summer long because the kids aren't there all summer long.
[4:33] SPEAKER_00: So ultimately, you were back home trying to make a couple dollars to sustain your$5,000 a year salary, and that's ultimately what I was doing.
[4:41] SPEAKER_00: So I was back home working.
[4:42] SPEAKER_00: I finally you went a week before camp started and just started clinicking about everything about the offense and defense and individual drills and practice plans and all the things that came with it because camp was a week away.
[4:53] SPEAKER_00: And we went through five days of it and we got to the last day, and I remember one of the coaches saying, Hey, we didn't go over special teams at all.
[4:58] SPEAKER_00: And I remember the head coach saying, Oh, shoot, that's right, hand out the assignments and we'll talk about it later.
[5:03] SPEAKER_00: And I remember getting my assignment of punters and kickers, and I remember thinking, I've never coached the punters and kickers.
[5:09] SPEAKER_00: And uh, I remember the head coach saying, Well, nobody really knows how to coach those guys.
[5:13] SPEAKER_00: Just, you know, just ask them what their kicking coach did and go figure it out.
[5:16] SPEAKER_00: And I was like, I don't know if that's a good enough answer for me because I want to do it at an elite level if I can.
[5:21] SPEAKER_00: So I ended up, you know, getting this book.
[5:23] SPEAKER_00: It was by Renner, was the guy's name.
[5:26] SPEAKER_00: I can't remember his first name, but something Renner.
[5:28] SPEAKER_00: And I still have the book today.
[5:29] SPEAKER_00: And I would go every morning or at night before I went to bed, I'd write down a couple notes.
[5:33] SPEAKER_00: I'd I'd read as much as I could process, and I'd write a couple notes about it, and I'd go in the morning and I would practice.
[5:38] SPEAKER_00: And I did that for field goals, I did that for you know kickoffs, and I also did it for punting.
[5:42] SPEAKER_00: And that was all part of what I felt like my responsibility was.
[5:45] SPEAKER_00: And and even though there weren't great answers, the internet was, it was 2000, so the internet wasn't quite what it is today.
[5:51] SPEAKER_00: So you really had to just find different ways to do it, and it wasn't accessible and at your fingertips like some of the clinics and things are now.
[5:58] SPEAKER_00: So I had to buy a book and and read about it and made sure that I gave those guys everything I had and was was educated enough in that topic before I tried to just fake it or not give it the due attention.
[6:08] SPEAKER_00: It was it was needed.
[6:10] SPEAKER_01: No, I love that.
[6:11] SPEAKER_01: That's great.
[6:11] SPEAKER_01: That shows the attention to detail and the just you know that that thorough thing.
[6:15] SPEAKER_01: That's that's awesome.
[6:15] SPEAKER_01: It says a lot about you, and it obviously explains to, in my opinion, a lot of your success.
[6:19] SPEAKER_01: You're you're that type of guy.
[6:20] SPEAKER_01: I guess coach back, you know, Salvador, Regina, Assumption College.
[6:24] SPEAKER_01: I know those schools growing in growing up in Massachusetts, and a lot of friends that went to those schools.
[6:28] SPEAKER_01: Great schools, but small schools.
[6:29] SPEAKER_01: You know, you played at Dickinson Division III, then you worked your way up Division II.
[6:33] SPEAKER_01: Obviously, that everyone knows Holy Cross, JMU, then UCLA we're at now.
[6:37] SPEAKER_01: So, but go back to those days.
[6:39] SPEAKER_01: I I consider, you know, I've been in football a long time.
[6:42] SPEAKER_01: You know, those jobs in a lot of ways were probably harder than what you're doing now because of the you know, there's there's programs, but there's no resources, there's not a lot of resources around it.
[6:52] SPEAKER_01: I was I would make the argument that the programs, you as the head coach, you're gonna set the whole thing because everyone's might have a weight room, a little weight room, you got a field, you got what you have, but talk to me about like back then and stuff you did then that you you know resonates now today that you still do, and and how that has helped you today.
[7:10] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, I think for me, when I first became a head coach, there were two other assistant coaches with me, uh, and that was it, right?
[7:18] SPEAKER_00: So we had two other full-time jobs and myself.
[7:21] SPEAKER_00: So I was on defense, and I put the other two guys on offense, and then I was in charge of uh special teams, I was in charge of recruiting, I was in charge of actually softball game management then as well.
[7:32] SPEAKER_00: So setting up the fence and raking the field and figuring out if we could play the game or not.
[7:36] SPEAKER_00: In the Northeast, it seemed like it rained every day.
[7:38] SPEAKER_00: Could we get this field dry or not?
[7:39] SPEAKER_00: I had to go do that in the mornings on top of being the head football coach, as well as the work study commute uh the work study coordinator for all of athletics.
[7:47] SPEAKER_00: So every time there was a lacrosse game or a basketball game or and you had student workers working it, they submitted their hours to me and I submitted that after getting their I-9s at first and their IDs copied.
[7:57] SPEAKER_00: And it was ridiculous when it came down to it.
[7:59] SPEAKER_00: But I what it taught me, I was actually doing some of the inventory for the uh you know equipment.
[8:04] SPEAKER_00: Uh, there's moments where I was, you know, doing laundry.
[8:07] SPEAKER_00: There were, you know, you were packing the bus yourself with food that you found or bought yourself or got from the cafeteria.
[8:14] SPEAKER_00: You know, those were all things that you just had to do and you had to figure out a way to make it the greatest you could make it.
[8:19] SPEAKER_00: And I remember buying blank sweatshirts, putting logos on them, and and working out a deal with the the provider of those things so that we can make a couple bucks to pay our assistant coaches.
[8:28] SPEAKER_00: And it was just wild times.
[8:29] SPEAKER_00: My wife would be, you know, selling t-shirts and sweatshirts and walking around the stands doing 50-50s, and it was just a different deal.
[8:36] SPEAKER_00: So, what I say all that because what it taught me, you know, every step of the way was that there just is no job too small.
[8:41] SPEAKER_00: And whatever you're gonna do, you should be trying to do it to the best of your ability and making it feel, you know, if I'm at D3, I don't want it to feel like D3 or have excuses that, hey, this is only D3.
[8:51] SPEAKER_00: So because of that, this is okay or that's okay.
[8:53] SPEAKER_00: For me, it was how do I make this the greatest, you know, possible possible place for these guys to be playing football on a day-to-day basis?
[9:00] SPEAKER_00: And I want to take care of every little thing that you possibly could.
[9:04] SPEAKER_00: Uh so that's what I probably realized more than anything and understood and carried with me, which now today, you know, puts you in a position where you're not worried about travel anymore, you're not worried about you know what our guys are gonna have for breakfast or lunch or dinner.
[9:17] SPEAKER_00: But what you can do is really respect those people a lot and let you know you've done their job so you understand how hard it is, how thankless it is, you know, and how people sometimes just want to be waited on or served.
[9:27] SPEAKER_00: And that's not what our people are here to do.
[9:29] SPEAKER_00: We're all part of this one team.
[9:31] SPEAKER_00: And I think my younger days were uh spent doing those jobs, so it gave me a different appreciation, respect, and then just all ultimately the human element.
[9:39] SPEAKER_00: When you're at the D3 level, you gotta get people doing things they never thought they could do themselves and believing in themselves more than that.
[9:46] SPEAKER_00: And to me, I wanted to make sure that not only were we doing that on the field, we were doing that off the field, not only with my team, but with maybe the women's basketball team or men's basketball team or whatever we could cross over and be involved in.
[9:56] SPEAKER_00: I wanted to do that.
[9:57] SPEAKER_00: So that was ultimately how a lot of my life was was spent.
[10:00] SPEAKER_00: Was it wasn't just about X's and O's on our football team, it was about everything else.
[10:05] SPEAKER_00: And I think to this day, you know, respecting people, understanding they're all part of this team, caring about them, you know, and and ultimately realizing there's no job too small, we should appreciate it all is a lot of what I carried.
[10:17] SPEAKER_01: No, that's great because I I can see it and know it, and I've talked to guys that played for you and stuff.
[10:22] SPEAKER_01: I mean, you appreciate the people, right?
[10:24] SPEAKER_01: We've all been in those buildings around things.
[10:26] SPEAKER_01: I'm UCLA, a beautiful facility, you got staff on staff, people to do a lot of things, but you appreciate a guy, hey, do the travel, do this.
[10:32] SPEAKER_01: You're you probably think back to hey, when I was at Assumption, I had to do that, and you're thinking of his job, and he's probably got it easier today than you.
[10:39] SPEAKER_01: He's got AI, he's got all this stuff.
[10:40] SPEAKER_01: You're like, hey, I gotta do this, do the make the phone calls or whatever.
[10:44] SPEAKER_01: So that's a big, big, big bonus.
[10:46] SPEAKER_01: I guess, coach, who you know, you took over Salve, Assumption, Holy Cross stuff, but uh, you could list all the statistics.
[10:53] SPEAKER_01: A lot of those programs hadn't been winning.
[10:56] SPEAKER_01: You know, and you got there, you started the winning, you won every place you've been at.
[11:00] SPEAKER_01: What are the key things you look at when you're taking over a struggling program?
[11:03] SPEAKER_01: And what are the key things you do when you at any level you take a struggling program over?
[11:08] SPEAKER_00: Struggling program or not, I think you know, the probably top thing I want to do is just get a layout of land.
[11:13] SPEAKER_00: Like what what is exactly going on here?
[11:15] SPEAKER_00: Because it's the first time you have a chance to open up the hood and figure out what exactly this engine's made of, so to speak.
[11:21] SPEAKER_00: And and ultimately for me, getting a chance to spend some time with the players on a one-on-one basis, the coaches, whoever it might be.
[11:28] SPEAKER_00: And I I like to just figure out what do they think they're doing well, like what do they think is allowing them to win games.
[11:34] SPEAKER_00: And what do they think they're doing that is having them lose games?
[11:37] SPEAKER_00: And I think when we could identify behaviors and and patterns, you know, we could stay away from certain behaviors and predict the patterns that might show up later.
[11:45] SPEAKER_00: And and if it's, you know, I think if it's predictable, it's preventable.
[11:48] SPEAKER_00: So those are things that we talk a lot about here as a program.
[11:52] SPEAKER_00: But I like to get a first feel because the worst thing you do is walk in on day one, you know, they love this one thing that they do as a team and they think this is paramount to their success, and you burn it down immediately.
[12:02] SPEAKER_00: And then things they hate, you hold on to and do exactly the same way they were done before.
[12:06] SPEAKER_00: So I think first getting a lay of the land and and being open and willing to listen and willing to just move a little bit and not just be stuck in my ways necessarily.
[12:16] SPEAKER_00: And there's things that are non-negotiables that will never waver from, but there's a lot of other things that could go one way or the other, and you could decide one way or the other.
[12:23] SPEAKER_00: And I think for me, them feeling like, hey, I love this coach, please hang on to him.
[12:27] SPEAKER_00: I love this thing that we do, please keep doing it.
[12:30] SPEAKER_00: These are our favorite, you know, whatever it might be.
[12:32] SPEAKER_00: Please make sure that we're doing that.
[12:34] SPEAKER_00: Uh, and you get all that information and a day later walk in and are doing the things that they wanted to do, some of them, and throwing away things they didn't want to do.
[12:43] SPEAKER_00: I think you automatically gain trust very, very quickly, which is a hard thing to gain.
[12:47] SPEAKER_00: And I think when you act put it into actionable items and actually go through and have the follow-through to act to do them, I think it shows a whole lot more than any words, you know, certainly could do.
[12:59] SPEAKER_00: So I think that's probably the biggest exercise of uh the beginning of any time I show up somewhere is just trying to build trust as quick as you can.
[13:06] SPEAKER_00: But that's not through words and just time alone.
[13:09] SPEAKER_00: It's through actionable items that they also you know see uh that brings the the alignment a little bit closer together.
[13:16] SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, no, that's right.
[13:17] SPEAKER_01: Trust is everything.
[13:17] SPEAKER_01: You know, it's buildings, organizations as a team, guys that come from all walks of life.
[13:21] SPEAKER_01: You know, you go you want to meet them where they're at, you know, build some trust.
[13:24] SPEAKER_01: You've got to work them hard.
[13:26] SPEAKER_01: Here's a couple of things I talked to with a couple of former players.
[13:28] SPEAKER_01: You know, you you you have you're big on process, right?
[13:31] SPEAKER_01: You have your pillars, I guess, urgency, attention to detail, positive attitude, right?
[13:35] SPEAKER_01: Is that still kind of what you talked to some Holy Cross guys?
[13:39] SPEAKER_01: Those are some of the things.
[13:39] SPEAKER_01: Talk to me about those, Coach.
[13:41] SPEAKER_01: What what what does that mean to you?
[13:42] SPEAKER_01: I know what that kind of means, but someone listening, some business guy, whatever, what talk to me about that.
[13:47] SPEAKER_00: Well, I just think if you were to take uh the most successful person in your life, you know, that you watched growing up and thought, man, that person's really successful, I I would think that without me knowing them, I would imagine that they possess those qualities, that they paid attention to all the little things, right?
[14:03] SPEAKER_00: They really knew that there were no little things, that everything amounts to something.
[14:06] SPEAKER_00: They probably stayed positive in moments where it didn't go their way.
[14:10] SPEAKER_00: You know, I've been coaching now for 26 years.
[14:13] SPEAKER_00: It didn't always go my way, you know, and I spent a lot more years than probably anybody, you know, that that's at this level, at the D3 level, and just, you know, kept fighting through it and kept trying to make sure that I was never gonna give up on this and I was gonna stay positive regardless of the circumstances I was in.
[14:27] SPEAKER_00: And then the the third one is if you're gonna do it, you're gonna do it with everything you got.
[14:30] SPEAKER_00: So that's the urgency piece.
[14:32] SPEAKER_00: And then the final piece of that is relentlessness.
[14:34] SPEAKER_00: That regardless of how it goes, I'm gonna continue to attack it every single day.
[14:38] SPEAKER_00: So attention to detail, positive attitude, urgency, and relentlessness, those four things to me are really what I wanted our guys to understand as a football program, is what I believed would lead us to success.
[14:50] SPEAKER_00: But it's really not, you know, as much as it has to do with football, it has nothing to do with football as well.
[14:54] SPEAKER_00: Because I think years from now, when you look back on it, and I started this antidote with, you know, a little bit of you know, who was the most successful person in your life, but I bet you they possess those things.
[15:04] SPEAKER_00: And I want to make sure that I'm affecting these guys more than just in the year or two that we spend together, but you know, ultimately for the rest of their life.
[15:11] SPEAKER_00: And I think again, that's the that is the recipe for successful people in my mind, and that's what I want to make sure that we talk about every single day.
[15:20] SPEAKER_01: Sure.
[15:20] SPEAKER_01: No, and I talked to one of your former players who's played for a couple other guys since, and one thing he said too, I said, Well, compare him to those guys.
[15:28] SPEAKER_01: He says, you know, everybody in coaching and football talks about attention to detail and all that stuff.
[15:33] SPEAKER_01: He goes, but but coach Chesney, he Chesney says, he he does it.
[15:37] SPEAKER_01: Like if you didn't have your helmet the right place in the locker, your cleats on top, if you said you left something a mess, they took a picture of it, they showed it in team meeting, and it was attention to detail.
[15:47] SPEAKER_01: I've been around a lot of football too.
[15:49] SPEAKER_01: People preach it, but then they live it.
[15:50] SPEAKER_01: I can tell you're a detailed guy, or your hair looks good, you came off 10, you got it, the whole everything's good.
[15:56] SPEAKER_01: I get it though.
[15:56] SPEAKER_01: That that detail is what is a there's a fine line between winning and losing.
[16:00] SPEAKER_01: So I wanted to get your take on that.
[16:02] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for sure.
[16:03] SPEAKER_00: And that's what we still do today.
[16:04] SPEAKER_00: Still do today.
[16:05] SPEAKER_00: Well, receivers are in charge of the locker room today.
[16:07] SPEAKER_00: When I go down there, when we're done, practice is over, I'll go down.
[16:10] SPEAKER_00: And if everything is not off the ground and everything off the benches in the in the locker room, you know, they're gonna come back and and finish cleaning the locker room like they should, regardless of where how far away they went, they're all come back as a group.
[16:21] SPEAKER_00: And I think that's important for us to be able to do is that we gotta make sure that we have accountability within this organization.
[16:27] SPEAKER_00: And yeah, it all matters to me.
[16:29] SPEAKER_00: And I think that is something we're gonna practice if we're gonna preach it, we better be able to practice it at the same point in time.
[16:34] SPEAKER_00: And I think our guys understand, you know, what's expected of them.
[16:37] SPEAKER_00: The standards are clear, we don't leave anything up to doubt.
[16:40] SPEAKER_00: You know, we we are up to chance, we define everything, and then you gotta decide if you want to be all in or all out.
[16:45] SPEAKER_00: But there's no in-between either.
[16:46] SPEAKER_00: So it's either I'm all in and I'm gonna follow these standards.
[16:49] SPEAKER_00: I care about the team, and I want to do what you know we do together as a collective group, held to collective standards, or I don't.
[16:56] SPEAKER_00: And if you don't, then you probably gotta move on.
[16:59] SPEAKER_01: Sure, no, I get it.
[17:00] SPEAKER_01: That that's a that's a big differentiator and reasonable why you've been a winner, in my opinion, for looking from afar.
[17:06] SPEAKER_01: I I get it, the details.
[17:08] SPEAKER_01: A lot of people preach it, but people don't live it, right?
[17:10] SPEAKER_01: Another thing was competition.
[17:12] SPEAKER_01: One of one of your former players said, Hey, he's about competition in practice every day, all the time, is competition.
[17:19] SPEAKER_01: And he mentioned off-season, in-season.
[17:21] SPEAKER_01: What are some of the things and what what's your belief in that, Coach?
[17:24] SPEAKER_01: Obviously, you're in competitive sport, the world's competitive, but that's something too.
[17:28] SPEAKER_01: I I think I've been places practices, hey, we have a light day, there's no competition, it's kind of a a loose thing, but go ahead with what you think about what that means to you.
[17:37] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there's very few light days here.
[17:39] SPEAKER_00: Like all of them have some sort of competitiveness uh involved in them.
[17:43] SPEAKER_00: Almost everything we do has a scoreboard attached to it, and we're gonna keep score.
[17:47] SPEAKER_00: There's gonna be winners and there's gonna be learners, and we're not gonna put ourselves in a spot where we just are kind of going through the motions.
[17:52] SPEAKER_00: We're not gonna spend our time, we're gonna invest our time, and there's a big difference.
[17:55] SPEAKER_00: And I think that competition piece, the purpose of it ultimately is to put us in position where we could have these micro successes, right?
[18:03] SPEAKER_00: And also these failures that are gonna realize we're gonna realize they do not define us.
[18:08] SPEAKER_00: Those failures help refine us and help us become the person that we should become.
[18:12] SPEAKER_00: But those little successes, I don't believe, you know, you're a successful businessman and I don't believe you could have success if you don't have some sort of confidence.
[18:19] SPEAKER_00: I don't believe you could have confidence though, unless you have some sort of success.
[18:23] SPEAKER_00: So you're kind of stuck in this catch 22 if you don't have either of them.
[18:27] SPEAKER_00: So I gotta create an environment where there's constant competition going on, constant ability to succeed or fail, and put our guys in a position that they can get immediate feedback right away and they could self-identify with exactly where they are and change their path, you know, on a day-to-day basis.
[18:43] SPEAKER_00: So that's what we try to do is I want them to win, and that little success breeds more confidence, which then breeds more success, which breeds more confidence.
[18:49] SPEAKER_00: Because if you just wait till game day, it's a little bit too late in my mind, right?
[18:53] SPEAKER_00: So I want to know where the what their their psychological and mental makeup is long before that ball ever goes on the T and we get into some crucial situations.
[19:02] SPEAKER_00: I want to know who they are and and what they're made of.
[19:04] SPEAKER_01: Sure, absolutely.
[19:05] SPEAKER_01: Coach, you grew up in Pennsylvania, you're primarily coached in the Northeast.
[19:09] SPEAKER_01: I I know that area well.
[19:10] SPEAKER_01: California's different, it's it's the West Coast, you know, you got the tan going.
[19:14] SPEAKER_01: I think you're uh adapting well out there.
[19:16] SPEAKER_01: But how how's that been for you?
[19:18] SPEAKER_01: And how's that for recruiting too?
[19:20] SPEAKER_01: You know, California is different geography, five hours, six hours apart by a flight, you know, recruiting those kids versus the Northeast versus where you used to recruit before.
[19:29] SPEAKER_01: Talk to me about that.
[19:30] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[19:31] SPEAKER_00: Well, so you know, that's probably one of the bigger things is that uh, you know, I m most of my connections are from the East Coast where, you know, uh you can pick up the phone and and have some, you know, pretty good trust with these coaches immediately and have history with them, you know, over 20-some years out there allows you to just, you know, them know who you are, you know who they are.
[19:49] SPEAKER_00: And again, trust, I think, through time that you spent together.
[19:52] SPEAKER_00: You come out here and it's you're really starting from scratch.
[19:55] SPEAKER_00: So it was really important that we built a recruiting department and some of our assistant coaches that have West Coast ties and put ourselves in a good spot where we can have success and have connections naturally built in there.
[20:06] SPEAKER_00: But then it really came down to me putting myself in a position where I was willing to go out there.
[20:10] SPEAKER_00: And here's the thing about relationships.
[20:12] SPEAKER_00: You might know someone for 20 years and you only call them when you need them, right?
[20:15] SPEAKER_00: And I think for me, it's about how do I build a relationship that's real with a lot of these coaches and reach out to them every once in a while when I don't expect anything or want anything back, but just to keep a friendship and a connection so that they know that we're here for them as you know, high school football coaches.
[20:31] SPEAKER_00: So we had a big coaches clinic, 180 or 200 coaches I think showed up from three or four different states that was free.
[20:38] SPEAKER_00: So they all came over, hung out, and we did a clinic, then they watched a practice, uh, had a couple drinks after together out on the on the patio here.
[20:45] SPEAKER_00: So that was really, really cool.
[20:47] SPEAKER_00: But then I think about it, it's not necessarily, you know, the amount of time that you always spend together, but rather the quality of time, you know, that you end up spending together.
[20:57] SPEAKER_00: And I think that's what I try to make sure is that the the conversations are are meaningful conversations and that you know we're we're taking care of these guys and and they know that we're part of their village, you know, regardless of if their recruit comes here or not, we still want to make sure we're helping pay this, you know, pay this forward as far as being one of the bigger colleges in town here to make sure that they understand they got an ally here and could call on us at any time.
[21:21] SPEAKER_00: So different, right?
[21:22] SPEAKER_00: Different from the East Coast was just easier because of the time that was spent together.
[21:26] SPEAKER_00: But here I have to be very intentional and make sure the quality of that time was significant.
[21:30] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, and I read some of oh sorry, a little piece about your uh quarterback coach Dean Kennedy, whatever he, when he was getting a coach and he wrote 400 letters and only two guys responded, you responded handwritten right back to him.
[21:41] SPEAKER_01: I mean, great.
[21:42] SPEAKER_01: I mean, I I understand that.
[21:43] SPEAKER_01: I've uh had a similar circ circumstances in my past, and you remember those guys that responded.
[21:48] SPEAKER_01: Why did you respond, Coach?
[21:50] SPEAKER_01: And then he also did further I read or saw that you he he had a family charity that you donated to, too.
[21:55] SPEAKER_01: So that I mean, unbelievable thought, detail, and and now he's still with.
[22:05] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so ultimately I remember what it was like to be that coach.
[22:08] SPEAKER_00: You know, and to to back then you sent out letters.
[22:10] SPEAKER_00: There was no emails or anything.
[22:11] SPEAKER_00: You're sending out letters just like Dean did, but you'd send your resume around and trying to get out of Norwich.
[22:16] SPEAKER_00: I knew I'd be there for two years, but I was trying to find the next job, and it wasn't that easy to do.
[22:20] SPEAKER_00: And I sent, I remember sending the same thing, probably hundreds of letters.
[22:23] SPEAKER_00: And I remember saying to uh our one coach, Billy Burrell, who was there and in uh he was at Ruckers as a GA at one point and was the offensive coordinator and baseball coach.
[22:31] SPEAKER_00: And I said, I don't get why no one responds.
[22:33] SPEAKER_00: I said, Someday when I become a head coach, I'm gonna respond.
[22:35] SPEAKER_00: And he said, Okay, remember, remember you said that.
[22:37] SPEAKER_00: He said, just remember you said that.
[22:38] SPEAKER_00: He said, because ultimately you're gonna find yourself in a situation where as the head coach, your time gets eaten up pretty quickly.
[22:44] SPEAKER_00: And it's not that easy to respond to every single letter that is sent your way.
[22:48] SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, uh-uh, I'm gonna respond to every single letter for the rest of my life.
[22:52] SPEAKER_00: And that's ultimately, you know, where I was at at that time.
[22:55] SPEAKER_00: If you wrote me a letter, I was writing you a letter back because I went through what it was I knew what it was like to have people not pay attention uh to you.
[23:01] SPEAKER_00: And I can't do them all, you know, to this day as we sit here today because my time is not always my own at this level.
[23:07] SPEAKER_00: But at the same point in time back then, I made a point of making sure I did it.
[23:10] SPEAKER_00: And then I learned I looked, just did a little research so I could write him a note and make sure it was a little bit more personalized.
[23:15] SPEAKER_00: Again, the quality of it rather than the quantity of it.
[23:18] SPEAKER_00: And I wanted to learn about his father, learn about their their ALS, you know, fund that they had.
[23:24] SPEAKER_00: And the thing that impressed me the most is that they had something called Christmas in the city, which was for homeless kids in Boston.
[23:31] SPEAKER_00: So homeless families in Boston, they would put on a Christmas day for them and buy presents and wrap them up and do all those things.
[23:38] SPEAKER_00: So I just that was pretty moved by that, and I knew that was something that I want to be part of.
[23:42] SPEAKER_00: It was nothing crazy, you know.
[23:44] SPEAKER_00: I think I wrote a hundred dollar check or two hundred dollar check, whatever it might have been.
[23:47] SPEAKER_00: But at that time that was probably a lot for me.
[23:49] SPEAKER_00: Uh, but at the same point, I knew that I wanted to uh be part of something that great.
[23:55] SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
[23:55] SPEAKER_01: And the the recall to have all that.
[23:57] SPEAKER_01: And I and I know a lot of your staff too, there's been some key guys have come with you.
[24:01] SPEAKER_01: I love the guys still with you from Assumption.
[24:03] SPEAKER_01: One of the key guys too, when I've talked to guys in your program, the strength coach, it's uh Gregkowski coach, he's Grosky.
[24:11] SPEAKER_01: That's it, right.
[24:11] SPEAKER_01: They say he's the the key, the the breadth of your organization.
[24:15] SPEAKER_01: And I I believe that too.
[24:16] SPEAKER_01: I remember being in college with Coach Mike Gentry as a Virginia Tech.
[24:20] SPEAKER_01: He he was the reason Virginia Tech was good when I was back when I was back there.
[24:24] SPEAKER_01: And I think that's people don't know that listening how much time the players actually spend with the strength coach, is probably more than anybody, because he's with them on a daily basis, kind of body weight, what they're eating, intake, all that stuff, but then getting them strong.
[24:39] SPEAKER_01: How key was is he was he to all all the way through your programs and today?
[24:44] SPEAKER_00: Very key.
[24:45] SPEAKER_00: And and the thing about Coach Grotsky is he started as our defensive line coach uh at Assumption College, and I don't remember what it was, but maybe fifteen hundred dollars or something we were paying him for the year.
[24:54] SPEAKER_00: I don't remember the number, so don't quote me on that.
[24:56] SPEAKER_00: But it was it was nothing crazy, and it was probably almost offensive, but he still wanted to be at that D2 level and that scholarship level.
[25:03] SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, he came along and did a phenomenal job recruiting.
[25:07] SPEAKER_00: He was our defensive line coach, and then he was doing some strength stuff with other sports at WPI back in Worcester, and then later he became the full-time strength coach for 26 teams at Assumption College, on top of being the defensive line coach.
[25:19] SPEAKER_00: And then eventually he broke away and went in the strength route.
[25:22] SPEAKER_00: But the thing about those guys, and and here, I don't know if every place is this way, but this is where it is here.
[25:28] SPEAKER_00: Because he was a coach, because he understands it, because he knows what these guys went through, because he played it, he doesn't just see it from the strength and conditioning side, he sees it from the football coaches and the football player side as well.
[25:38] SPEAKER_00: He knows when to put his foot on the gas and what when to pull back a little bit.
[25:41] SPEAKER_00: Uh, he trains them as hard as probably anybody in America and develops them as hard as anybody in America.
[25:46] SPEAKER_00: And at the same point in time, has a great relationship with every single kid on the team.
[25:50] SPEAKER_00: But all the summer is his.
[25:52] SPEAKER_00: Everything he wants to do in that summer, we're doing.
[25:54] SPEAKER_00: Everything he prescribes for us as individuals or whatever drills we could do is his.
[25:59] SPEAKER_00: Winter, same thing.
[26:00] SPEAKER_00: Then you move yourself in the preseason.
[26:02] SPEAKER_00: Even these practices he and I meet on every single day and go over the volume and the intensity of that practice and what we've done.
[26:08] SPEAKER_00: So even though it may not be in the weight room, his fingerprints are all over this program in every single thing that we do.
[26:14] SPEAKER_00: So uh yeah, the the value of having someone you trust in that position that speaks your same language and that you work with and get to work with and trust on a day-to-day basis, and you're aligned together is is so uh instrumental in whatever it is that we're gonna do.
[26:30] SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
[26:31] SPEAKER_01: And I got to see you at first hand.
[26:33] SPEAKER_01: My daughter was at Holy Cross and saw you there.
[26:35] SPEAKER_01: Great years.
[26:36] SPEAKER_01: You won five Patriot League Championships, which is unbelievable.
[26:39] SPEAKER_01: You know, being from the Northeast, that's a great.
[26:40] SPEAKER_01: My grandfather went to Holy Cross and had a brother go there too, my daughter.
[26:44] SPEAKER_01: So great program, great school, but hadn't been winning.
[26:47] SPEAKER_01: You you turned around and made it a great winner.
[26:48] SPEAKER_01: And that now there's they kind of struggle a little bit.
[26:51] SPEAKER_01: But I know there was over 20-something guys that guys say that you put in the NFL, NFL camps.
[26:56] SPEAKER_01: How did you really develop those guys, Coach Gratsky and yourself?
[26:59] SPEAKER_01: You know, you recruited well, obviously, got some good guys, saw develop and developed them.
[27:03] SPEAKER_01: Is that the key?
[27:04] SPEAKER_01: Recruit some good guys, throw them in the weight room, develop them as men, coach them up, and then develop them as players too, right?
[27:10] SPEAKER_00: That's right.
[27:10] SPEAKER_00: And I I think that uh so whatever guys we recruited, uh, you know, other people probably wanted to recruit them too, right?
[27:16] SPEAKER_00: So you have to first win the recruiting battle.
[27:18] SPEAKER_00: So you had to, you know, just kind of put out a plan and let them see what that plan would look like.
[27:22] SPEAKER_00: And more than anything, I think the energies just got to match, right?
[27:26] SPEAKER_00: It it I we wanted people that love life.
[27:28] SPEAKER_00: Like that's what I wanted.
[27:29] SPEAKER_00: I wanted people that love life on a day-to-day basis.
[27:32] SPEAKER_00: We're gonna spend a lot of hours together, as you know, within that football building.
[27:35] SPEAKER_00: And you better have people with you that you care a lot about, but that also inspire you and bring you energy on a day-to-day basis.
[27:42] SPEAKER_00: That's important.
[27:43] SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, you can't be very successful.
[27:45] SPEAKER_00: So that's a big part of the recruiting, and then you could really push them and take them to places that they never thought they could go.
[27:51] SPEAKER_00: If you just take the best football player, but you know the energy doesn't match, you know that he's a guy that's not even really about like pretty negative guy that doesn't pay attention to any, like it's matching the core values to the people we bring in, not only their football acumen and their football ability, but when you do that, you could you could really, you know, you could take a guy that has this ceiling, right?
[28:10] SPEAKER_00: And he and another guy that has this.
[28:12] SPEAKER_00: And this guy may never give you that part.
[28:14] SPEAKER_00: He just may never give you this part.
[28:16] SPEAKER_00: But that other guy here will blow past that ceiling and end up leaving it the exact opposite way.
[28:22] SPEAKER_00: And that comes from, I think, again, being in a program and being part of something that you believe in and something that you feel inspired by on a day-to-day basis.
[28:31] SPEAKER_00: So a lot of our development, you know, we're guys that probably never thought they could make the league, never thought they should make the league, but believed in what we did on a day-to-day basis, competed as hard as they could possibly compete, and then put themselves in situations that when they got an opportunity, they were revealed for all the hard work they did.
[28:47] SPEAKER_00: I say it to them all the time.
[28:48] SPEAKER_00: There's usually that light shines on you at some point in a game, somewhere down the line, uh, and the game's on the line, maybe that light will shine on you.
[28:55] SPEAKER_00: And when that light shines on you, you'll one of two things.
[28:58] SPEAKER_00: You'll either be revealed for all the hard work you did, or you'll be exposed for the work you didn't do.
[29:03] SPEAKER_00: And that's a big piece of what I think led those guys to be able to have so many be able to go and play at the next level when they had none of them had a star next to their name, probably.
[29:11] SPEAKER_00: If they did, it was what probably a one-star football player.
[29:14] SPEAKER_00: And you know, I think we probably put more in the more more of those, you know, into camps and into the league than probably anybody else out there.
[29:21] SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
[29:21] SPEAKER_01: No, great time, great run.
[29:23] SPEAKER_01: I guess, coach, last few questions.
[29:25] SPEAKER_01: Adversity, right?
[29:26] SPEAKER_01: You've dealt with adversity in your life, you're gonna deal with it again.
[29:29] SPEAKER_01: What do you how do you approach adversity when you're when it's coming down the track on you?
[29:34] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think it's opportunity, is the way I look at it, right?
[29:37] SPEAKER_00: Every adversity that you face is is an opportunity to think differently, uh, to change something if you have to, or to stick to exactly what you're doing and not waver.
[29:45] SPEAKER_00: Uh it makes you think a little bit, you know, more, but for every adversity, I feel like is an opportunity.
[29:49] SPEAKER_00: I find it all the time, you know, when a coach leaves this program, you know, and I'm like, oh my gosh, I can't believe that guy's leaving.
[29:55] SPEAKER_00: You know, I I, you know, found myself in a spot where I was like, oh, this is such adversity.
[30:00] SPEAKER_00: And then I realized quickly this isn't adversity, this is opportunity.
[30:03] SPEAKER_00: We have a chance to get that same guy and what he did, but the negatives he had, find someone that doesn't have those, and we even could get better.
[30:11] SPEAKER_00: And I think those are the things that every situation you find yourself in, if you look at it in a negative lens, it's going to be negative.
[30:17] SPEAKER_00: If you look at it in a positive lens, it's going to be positive.
[30:20] SPEAKER_00: And we will face our share of adversity for sure this year.
[30:22] SPEAKER_00: And it's not necessarily the adversity we face, but how we respond.
[30:25] SPEAKER_00: And our guys, you know, have a good understanding of that.
[30:28] SPEAKER_01: Sure, good.
[30:29] SPEAKER_01: And I guess best advice you've ever gotten, coach.
[30:33] SPEAKER_00: I think it honestly it it it came from my mother, and it was grow where you're planted, she said to me.
[30:38] SPEAKER_00: Just grow where you're planted.
[30:39] SPEAKER_00: I remember as a young coach thinking, am I gonna be stuck in Vermont my whole entire career?
[30:43] SPEAKER_00: Am I to be at the D3 level my whole entire career?
[30:45] SPEAKER_00: Like, what am I gonna do next?
[30:47] SPEAKER_00: I gotta take this job to get that job and take this next job to get that.
[30:50] SPEAKER_00: And she's like, Stop that.
[30:52] SPEAKER_00: Like, stop doing that, right?
[30:53] SPEAKER_00: Like, don't think that way.
[30:54] SPEAKER_00: Just grow where you're planted and everything will work itself out, right?
[30:57] SPEAKER_00: And and it'll whatever's supposed to come to you will come to you.
[31:00] SPEAKER_00: And ultimately, that's what I've done ever since that day is I don't ever look at other jobs.
[31:05] SPEAKER_00: I don't ever look past you know what I'm doing today.
[31:07] SPEAKER_00: It's about a day-to-day process, and I want to be the best at our process on a day-to-day basis.
[31:13] SPEAKER_00: And that's ultimately it grow where you're planted is probably the the the biggest one I'll remember.
[31:18] SPEAKER_01: Excellent.
[31:18] SPEAKER_01: I love the mom advice.
[31:20] SPEAKER_01: The moms are the best.
[31:21] SPEAKER_01: Okay, last question, coach.
[31:23] SPEAKER_01: Thirty years from now, 40 years from now, you get kids, grandkids, former players, they're talking, hey, hey, Bob Chesney, Bob.
[31:29] SPEAKER_01: What do you want?
[31:29] SPEAKER_01: What do you hope they say?
[31:32] SPEAKER_00: That I treated them like I would have wanted my own son to be treated, you know, that I was demanding, I was never demeaning, but I made sure that there was personal connection with them, and that we achieved things that nobody ever thought we could achieve.
[31:43] SPEAKER_00: That's been pretty standard for everywhere I've been.
[31:45] SPEAKER_00: From Salve, you know, I said we're gonna win here, they're like, hell no, you ain't winning there.
[31:49] SPEAKER_00: Nobody wins there, and we did.
[31:51] SPEAKER_00: And then I went to Assumption College and they were like, you cannot definitely can't win there.
[31:55] SPEAKER_00: And next thing you know, we won there.
[31:57] SPEAKER_00: And then I went to Holy Cross and we had one winning season in 20 years prior, and you can't win there, and we did.
[32:03] SPEAKER_00: I went to JMU and all those guys left and went to Indiana, the whole coaching staff, all the players, and it was one of those situations of this is gonna be really hard to win, and we won.
[32:12] SPEAKER_00: And now I'm here at UCLA, and I can't imagine you can win here, is what the outside world will say.
[32:17] SPEAKER_00: And I'm excited, you know, to just continue this trajectory.
[32:20] SPEAKER_00: And to me, the pattern is the proof, and I think we'll be uh proving a lot of people wrong in the very near future.
[32:26] SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
[32:26] SPEAKER_01: No, I see it, and I know, and I've I've been a fan of yours since Holy Cross, and I know great things are coming, and it's the details, the attention to detail, and you listen and you get the empathy, you believe in people.
[32:35] SPEAKER_01: It's all great stuff.
[32:36] SPEAKER_01: Your mom was right, and uh really thank you for the time, coach, and best of luck this season.
[32:40] SPEAKER_01: We'll have you on again and talk soon.
[32:42] SPEAKER_01: Appreciate you.
[32:43] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, all right.
[32:44] SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much, Jim.
[32:44] SPEAKER_00: Go ruins.
[32:45] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you got it.
[32:46] SPEAKER_01: Take care.
[32:46] SPEAKER_01: See you, coach.
[32:47] SPEAKER_01: See you.
[32:48] SPEAKER_01: Bye.

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