It's official –– UCLA head coach Bob Chesney is straight out of Hollywood central casting and ready to be a certified star in college football.
On Saturday, before the Bruins faced Oregon in Eugene, Chesney had his team take a knee in the Autzen Stadium tunnel for one final message. As his undefeated Bruins listened intently, Chesney turned into Tony D'Amato (Al Pacino) in Any Given Sunday. In the 1999 movie, D'Amato reminded his players,"We're in hell right now, gentlemen. Believe me. And, we can stay here, get the s–t kicked out of us, or we can fight our way back into the light. We can climb outta hell... one inch at a time."
Chesney gave his boys a speech in a similar vein.
The 49-year-old Hollywood newcomer chose to paraphrase Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés after his 1519 landing in Mexico with 600 troops.
"They're about to go in and start the war, and he wants to make sure that nobody has any other thought," Chesney told Bruins. "No other thought than we're 100% positive we're winning this f–king battle. He looks around at the boats they'd have to go home on and says, 'Burn the f–king boats.'
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"There is no way out. We can't go that way (Chesney points to the sunlight outside Autzen Stadium). You gotta go through these motherf–kers."
The Bruins stand up, chant something, and Chesney turns towards the tunnel. Like Tom Cruise about to strap in and go shoot down multiple Sukhoi Su-57 stealth fighters, Chesney grabs his sunglasses, locks them into place, seems to hit play on an Apple iWatch workout and walks down the ramp into battle.
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Chesney isn't the first inspirational speaker to use the "burn the boats" speech, but in the modern Internet era, he's the first to do it with such cinematic flair. The hair is perfect. The all-black shoes, pants and shirt and then the black sunglasses project something that none of us can remember from UCLA – hardness.
After his burn the boats speech, the Bruins went out and dominated the time of possession – 39:15 to 20:45 – and beat Oregon 17-15. It was the first time they'd beaten Oregon on the road since 2004.
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Was it a beautiful win? Not at all. Chesney was the first to admit it before his team boarded a plane back to Los Angeles, instead of a boat. Remember, they burned the boats.
"So, if you're going to ask about complacency, you don't have to, because obviously there's enough on that film that we got to do a whole lot better if we want to win this next game and any to follow. We can't turn the ball over," Chesney told the media. "We can't get a field goal blocked. We can't do a lot of the things we did, letting the ball get down at the one-yard line, and all the other things that showed up in that game. There were moments where it really could have gone the other way, but I was really, really proud of the effort. Really, really proud of how hard they played.
"Really, really proud of them being able to self-regulate in a hostile environment like that. Not an easy place to play, but I thought they did a really good job of it, and I'm proud of that effort."
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There's bad news for the Bruins. Quarterback Nico Iamaleava is believed to be out for the season with a knee injury suffered Saturday.
Where does Chesney go with the speeches from here? Will he channel Band of Brothers? Stay tuned. We're about to witness some of this guy's best work with a dream season in the works.
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