{"id":870019,"date":"2026-04-19T15:54:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T15:54:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/870019\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T15:54:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T15:54:24","slug":"uclas-gary-beban-bullish-on-current-bruins-football-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/870019\/","title":{"rendered":"UCLA’s Gary Beban bullish on current Bruins football team"},"content":{"rendered":"

The only Heisman Trophy winner in UCLA history has seen this all before.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A new coach. A program that had been in the dumps. Only a handful of wins in each of the previous few seasons.<\/p>\n

The situation involving the current Bruins also presented itself going into Gary Beban\u2019s sophomore season.<\/p>\n

\"GaryFormer UCLA quarterback Gary Beban won the Heisman Trophy in 1967. AP<\/p>\n

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 \u201cThe Miracle Bruins\u201d from Sports Illustrated.<\/p>\n

Can coach Bob Chesney\u2019s Bruins<\/a> do something similar?<\/p>\n

Beban told The California Post in an exclusive interview that he was encouraged based on the team\u2019s first scrimmage of the spring Saturday, which was closed to the media.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a sense of spirit here that seemed to be missing before,\u201d Beban said. \u201cWhat I saw today and the direction and the underpinnings of the philosophies, I think those are the right components \u2014 I think they have the right attitude and the skill sets, and they\u2019ve had the experience of winning.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Chesney\u2019s most recent success came at the Group of Five level \u2014 the coach and his staff guided James Madison<\/a> to the College Football Playoff before taking the UCLA job in December \u2014 Beban said it was something that could translate to the Big Ten.<\/p>\n

\u201cWinning is a formula at any level, and I\u2019m convinced that the lower-level [philosophies] can win at the higher level,\u201d said Beban, who was back on campus for a reunion of UCLA quarterbacks as part of a charity fundraiser<\/a>. \u201cI think that the right parts are here; now it\u2019s a matter of the players putting it together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ANew UCLA coach Bob Chesney has what it takes to turn around the program, Beban told The California Post on Saturday. Los Angeles Times via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Part of that involves leadership.<\/p>\n

Beban recalled linebacker Don Manning standing up during that 1965 season and telling his teammates that they wouldn\u2019t lose on California soil. Those words initially embarrassed Beban.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can remember saying, \u2018Oh, my goodness. What is Don doing?\u2019 \u201d Beban said. \u201cAnd we didn\u2019t lose on California soil until the \u2018SC game my senior year \u2014 we went 14-0. It\u2019s those kinds of things that need to be created to bring the program back to where it should be.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s got to happen here, and the coach mentioned that they\u2019re looking for who are going to be those leaders. We have a lot of new players here, and they\u2019re going to try and figure out who are going to be the leaders to make those moves on the field that coaches just don\u2019t do; players need to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chesney has made a favorable impression<\/a> on the Bruins alumnus known as \u201cThe Great One.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s focused, he certainly knows where he\u2019s going and what he wants to do,\u201d Beban said, \u201cand he knows the components of what he needs to try and put together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although it\u2019s been nearly 60 years since Beban won the Heisman during his senior season in 1967, he said UCLA would produce another player to take home the most coveted award in the college game.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d he said, \u201cthere will be another winner.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Beban will continue to reacquaint himself with a campus that bears little resemblance to the one he strolled as a student. Back then, the school\u2019s athletics complex consisted of three Quonset huts \u2014 prefabricated structures made of corrugated steel with a semicircular, arched roof \u2014 where the Luskin Center now stands. One hut belonged to the football coaches, another belonged to basketball coach John Wooden and the third belonged to athletics director J.D. Morgan and the school\u2019s other coaches.<\/p>\n

Now, Beban barely knows where he\u2019s headed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI more than needed a map,\u201d Beban said. \u201cI had to ask people where I was going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beban, who will turn 80 in August, plans to return for an anniversary celebration of the team\u2019s Rose Bowl victory over Michigan State when the Bruins play the Spartans on Oct. 24 at the Rose Bowl.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a game that never fades,\u201d Beban said. \u201cIt never diminishes one bit that we played and won that game.\u201d<\/p>\n

If history repeats itself, the Bruins could be on the verge of more special memories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The only Heisman Trophy winner in UCLA history has seen this all before.\u00a0 A new coach. A program…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":870020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1443,4413,7,10341,49,48,9,666],"class_list":{"0":"post-870019","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-exclusive","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-heisman-trophy","12":"tag-ncaa","13":"tag-ncaa-football","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-ucla-bruins"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116432186228266835","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=870019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/870020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}