UCLA’s no-show fans deliver first loss of season for unbeaten team

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The best story in college football is being ignored.

The most electrifying coach in UCLA football history is being disrespected.

The only undefeated team in the Big Ten or SEC is getting crushed by indifference.

On a night the Bruins honored their historic momentum under their new coach by giving out 1,000 “Chesney Train” conductor hats, it wasn’t exactly all aboard at the Rose Bowl.

Even with robust student turnout that filled the lower half of one end zone Saturday for UCLA’s 17-7 victory over Wisconsin, the crowd of 36,045 delivered an inconvenient truth.

For the first time possibly ever, the Bruins have a fan base unworthy of their team.

UCLA’s first loss of the 2026 season belongs to those fans, who refused to show up on a night they should have loudly celebrated the successes of coach Bob Chesney.

His team is 6-0, it’s surging into the top 10 in the national rankings and is absolutely headed for the College Football Playoff.

Does anybody care? 

It didn’t seem like it based on the turnout.

The greatest setting in all of sports was marred by less than half the seats being filled.

At first glance, the crowd didn’t appear embarrassingly small. The students showed up and there weren’t huge pockets of empty seats thanks in large part to those giant end zone tarps and an enormous red swath of Badgers fans.

Reality was later revealed in the box score.

Yes, the number reflected actual attendance as opposed to the inflated figures of years past in an admirable nod to transparency under new CEO and athletic director Tim Harris.

It also uncovered how much work remains to be done in getting fans reengaged with Bruins football and a program that averaged 76,650 for home games as recently as 2014.

Small home crowds were forgivable for San Diego State and Purdue last month, when the weather was oppressive, the opponents were underwhelming and it remained unclear just what this team had in its new coach.

Now, there’s no excuses.

These Bruins are sensational. They were playing a quality opponent. The Dodgers’ season was over. The weather wasn’t unbearable.

And don’t blame the prices. Students got in for free and tickets could be had on the secondary market for practically the cost of a McDonald’s Happy Meal.

Chesney has done everything he can to drum up interest short of doubling as the drum major. He’s granted every interview request and even took his team to visit with the UCLA band last week, after having made the rounds to deliver free pizza to fraternities in the spring.

There are plenty of theories as to why the Bruins can’t fill their stadium.

The place is too big. It’s too far from campus. Fans have been beaten down by decades of mediocrity. The ruinous Chip Kelly and DeShaun Foster eras can’t be forgotten overnight.

Some will also point to the arrival of two NFL teams a decade ago as part of an increasingly crowded Southern California sports landscape vying for fans’ entertainment dollars.

But what’s a better Hollywood story than these Bruins?

This is a team that can win every kind of fight. UCLA has prevailed in taut games and shootouts. It has persevered through slow starts and its starting quarterback going down. It has withered opponents’ souls by forcing turnovers and getting big stops.

This might be the best version of UCLA since the Bruins last faced Wisconsin – in the Rose Bowl game on Jan. 1, 1999. That game drew 93,872, even after the disappointment of UCLA having lost to Miami in the infamous “Hurricane Bowl” that cost the Bruins a chance to appear in the first Bowl Championship Series title game.

Chesney suggested the victory over Wisconsin on Saturday should be a game-changer in terms of fan belief given the toughness his team exhibited.

Needing Ty Dieffenbach to deliver throw after throw against a defense hellbent on stopping the run, the onetime backup quarterback delivered.

A defense that didn’t force a turnover for the first time all season remained stout nevertheless, making every crucial stop while holding the Badgers to a touchdown.

“I think for them, this should be the one to give them the confidence to understand just exactly who we are and where this thing is going,” Chesney said of the fans. “ … I hope that we’re making people proud and I hope that they release the fear they might have of anything else and just support the hell out of it and enjoy this journey.”

There’s four home games left, starting Saturday afternoon against Michigan State.

If L.A. really does love a winner, then it’s time to drop the losing mentality and start showing up.

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