UCLA Football officially opened preseason camp on Thursday, its first under new head coach Bob Chesney. And the Bruins looked exactly the way coaches hope their teams will look on the first day of camp.
But for Chesney, how the team looked on day one isn't the point.
"Day one is day one, right?" Chesney said. "I think that everybody should be excited to be here on day one. I think everybody's going to bring everything they got in day one. It's really day four, five, six, seven that I'm interested in to just see exactly who they are and how they handle all this."
Chesney begins camp with continuity after most of the roster has spent a winter, spring and summer immersed in the Bruins' program, allowing coaches to build on months of accumulated work.
"This is language they've heard before," Chesney said. "You go through the winter, then through the spring, then they heard it all summer long, so there's a lot of things that we're able to do at a decently high level today. Just because of the fact that we've stuck together."
The result was a noticeably smoother opening practice than the one Chesney led in March.
"You've had the winter, the spring, and the summer, and here we go into preseason," Chesney said. "Yeah, it's night and day compared to what it was in day one of spring."
TESTED IN FIRE
The Bruins purposely opened camp in the afternoon heat before moving preseason camp to Orange County for several days next week.
"So, how do we do in the height of the heat?" Chesney said. "There's ultimately what we're trying to do right now, and just make sure that we're throwing them in this right away."
Chesney repeatedly referenced players' ability to handle adversity, respond emotionally and move on from mistakes.
"We have to make sure that we're not just reacting, but we're responding," Chesney said. "We talked a lot about that today. Is that it can't just be reactionary, that every impulse that I have, I act on."
The goal is to create enough pressure situations throughout camp that coaches understand exactly how players will respond when games arrive.
"Pay no attention to a virtue that's not been tested in fire," Chesney said. "And that's ultimately something that we have to be able to do, is put them in situations where we've tested them in fire."
Competition remains central to everything the Bruins do.
"We score everything that we can," Chesney said. "And make sure that we're challenging each other, not working on each other, learning from mistakes, and understanding the failures are gonna happen."