Dan Lanning is having flashbacks to Oregon's 56-22 loss to Indiana in the 2025 College Football Playoff semifinals. Except they're colored in blue and gold. With a bye week and change to spare before the 15th-ranked Ducks (3-1, 1-0 Big Ten) host No.
23 UCLA (4-0, 2-0) on Saturday, Oct. 10th, Lanning is preparing for a team and a coach he's very familiar with. "We're about to play a UCLA team that reminds me a lot of Indiana from last year," Lanning said at his Tuesday media availability.
To his point, the similarities between UCLA and Indiana are eerie. Both had flailing football programs at schools known for men's basketball. Both are being rebuilt by a coach who came over from James Madison.
To turn around their program, the Hoosiers plucked Curt Cignetti from JMU after he helped the school jump to the FBS level. Two years later, the Bruins hired Chesney after he led the Dukes to a CFP appearance. Cignetti brought his coordinators Bryant Haines and Mike Shanahan from JMU to Indiana as Chesney did with Colin Hitschler and Dean Kennedy.
Cignetti brought 13 players from JMU to Indiana ahead of his first season. Chesney brought 11. Cignetti's Hoosiers' have carried over 20 transfers in both seasons as he identified players that matched his system, rather than superstars.
Chesney brought in 43 transfers for his first season at UCLA, synchronizing quickly for an exciting start to the season. "Why I draw some comparisons to Indiana — a lot of guys traveled with (the coach) to their next stop," Lanning said. "Extremely well-coached team.
You've got two coordinators that were with (Chesney) before, so they've been together for a while, a lot of continuity." In Cignetti's first season at Indiana, the Hoosiers outdid expectations, qualifying for the College Football Playoff and competing valiantly against eventual-runners up Notre Dame. The following year, Indiana had a perfect season and defeated Miami in the CFP national championship. Now, in Bob Chesney's first season at UCLA, he and the Bruins are surprising everyone, dominating each opponent they've faced to achieve a 4-0 record heading into their bye week.
Ironically, Oregon's path in the CFP last season included matchups with Chesney and JMU and Cignetti and Indiana. The Ducks defeated the Dukes 51-34 before falling to Indiana in the semifinals. So if Lanning believes this UCLA team reminds him of that Indiana team, he clearly holds some fear that the Bruins could defeat the Ducks like the Hoosiers did last year.
"They've got a lot of different looks, and they certainly present some challenges." To evaluate the Bruins, Lanning said, he's looking back at Oregon's matchup with JMU in the CFP, but also the "body of work" UCLA has put on tape throughout its 4-0 start. The Bruins have defeated each of their four opponents in different ways. UCLA is currently tied for the third-most points (44.8 per game) and forced the most amount of turnovers (13) among Big Ten teams.
"They got some players that can play ball," Lanning said. Outside of football, Lanning holds respect for Chesney as the coach reached out, offering his help to Oregon quarterback Dante Moore, who sustained a concussion in the Ducks game against USC last Saturday. "He texted me as (the Bruins) were traveling back to LA and said, 'Hey, if you need my help with Dante or anything, and he's still in LA, I'll go check on this guy.
I'm giving the team off tomorrow; let me know.' It speaks to the kind of person he is," Lanning said on the "Jim Rome Show." It's a class-act move from Chesney, but when Oregon's game against UCLA kicks off next Saturday, the comparisons and narratives will be put to the side as two sides with a brief, yet deep history, face off.
