Start an eight-clap. Sing the “Sons of Westwood.” Put on your Wayne Knight jersey.
UCLA is going to the College Football Playoff.
It’s a heady notion, this program moored in mediocrity since the turn of the century suddenly appearing on college football’s biggest stage.
But holy Bob Chesney, it’s happening. We’re calling it with more than a week to go in October.
Six wins down, five or six to go before the end of the regular season.
Yes, this team is that good.
The Bruins can maul you with physicality. They can run you over. They keep getting better as the game goes on.
Starting quarterback goes down? No worries. The backup might be even better.
Then there’s the coach who is quickly showing himself to be among the best in the business.
He took James Madison to the CFP a year ago and now is on the verge of doing it at a place better known for inventing the internet than appearing on the ESPN college football home page.
Not settling for wins on Saturday, Chesney holds Sunday scrimmages to develop players who need more reps before getting their own opportunities.
This is why Chesney refuses to put limits on what his team can accomplish – because there are none.
UCLA’s standing among the big boys will be revealed soon enough in the initial CFP rankings.
Let’s dispense with any notion of suspense.
The Bruins will be among the top 12 teams on Nov. 3, when the first rankings are released.
They will be in every week that follows.
They will be in for the first round of games beginning Dec. 18.
After UCLA’s most scintillating 6-0 start in decades, it isn’t a matter of if the Bruins will make the CFP but where they will play and when.
The schedule sets up favorably. At this rate, the Bruins might compete for a first-round home game that could conceivably lead to a quarterfinal appearance back in Pasadena in the Rose Bowl game on Jan. 1, 2027.
How’s that for a happy New Year?
Right about now, some of you reading this are skeptical. It’s OK. Go ahead, scrunch up your face and deliver your best Jim Mora impression.
“Playoffs? You kidding me? Playoffs?”
Yes, playoffs.
Who’s going to stop this team now?
The only undefeated team left in the Big Ten or the SEC controls its own destiny like Leonardo DiCaprio walking into a room full of single 23-year-olds.
Consider this: UCLA has only one more ranked team left on its schedule.
The next two games are against Michigan State, which is winless in the Big Ten, and Nevada, which has losses to Montana State, Middle Tennessee and North Dakota State.
So, in other words, the Bruins will be 8-0 heading to face Minnesota on Nov. 7.
The Golden Gophers are a plucky bunch under coach P.J. Fleck, who was in the mix for the UCLA job when it went to DeShaun Foster in 2024. But in the battle between one coach who tells his team to row boats and another who tells his team to burn them, Chesney will prevail.
That brings us to a Friday night game against abysmal Illinois at the Rose Bowl. Next!
At 10-0, the Bruins will have breathing room for their final two regular-season games. It’s possible they might need it given that Michigan is tough to beat at home – with or without the benefit of an additional second on the clock – and No. 16 USC has an elite offense that often masks its deficiencies.
Here’s predicting that the Bruins will be painting the Victory Bell blue Thanksgiving week.
One potential dilemma would be if UCLA finishes 10-2, reaches the Big Ten title game and loses. That would force it to go the 2025 Alabama route and hope for a CFP invite after being dealt its third loss in a conference championship game.
The way things are going, the Bruins shouldn’t face that worry.
The truth is that no one has looked unbeatable in the Big Ten one year after Indiana, Ohio State and Oregon were clearly in a class of their own.
The Hoosiers appear vulnerable and the Buckeyes and Ducks are playing backup quarterbacks.
If the Big Ten title game were played this week, it would be the Bruins versus the Buckeyes.
Who could have seen that coming two months ago?
Maybe Chesney and his players, who are adopting the mindset that their best football is yet to come.
If UCLA wants to host a first-round CFP game, it’s probably going to have to go into the postseason with just one loss. History tells us as much because none of the four teams who hosted first-round games a year ago had two losses.
But who’s to say the Bruins can’t put themselves in that position heading into a postseason like any other?
Start an eight-clap. Sing the “Sons of Westwood.” Put on your Wayne Knight jersey.
UCLA is going to the CFP.
