The Bruins have their guy.

Bob Chesney won the eyes, ears and hearts of the UCLA faithful during his introductory press conference as the football program’s new head coach Tuesday morning.

Chesney immediately fostered something this team has lacked over the last few years – belief.

[Related: UCLA introduces Bob Chesney as head football coach, instills hope in Bruin community]

And not just the belief that Chesney can be a good head coach.

There is genuine conviction that the James Madison head honcho is “the” guy.

He is the man who can save a sinking and burning ship. He is the leader who can make UCLA a name to be reckoned with in the Big Ten. He is the one who can bring Bruin football back to national prominence.

Tuesday morning marked an imperative turning point in UCLA Athletics history.

In five to 10 years, we will look back at Chesney’s press conference in two ways. Tuesday morning will either be the day UCLA football was saved, the day the Bruins found their Curt Cignetti.

Or it could be the day UCLA football bit its last bullet.

And the latter is not an option.

Not because it’s not plausible, but because there are no excuses.

Chesney was not hired in February, long after the college football coaching carousel ends. In fact, he was brought in while his former team still had the biggest game in program history ahead of it – a first-round College Football Playoff showdown against No. 5 seed Oregon.

[Related: DeShaun Foster hired as UCLA football’s 19th head coach, succeeding Chip Kelly]

He was not part of the scraps of coaches that remain after all of the Power Four teams fill their head coaching vacancies. Chesney was sought after – despite his lack of Power Four and FBS head coaching experience – by multiple notable programs.

“Bob was going to get a job somewhere,” said Bob Myers, a 1998 UCLA alumnus and former general manager of the Golden State Warriors. “So when we interviewed him, we made a point to say, ‘You’re likely to get a job or a higher-level job. What makes you want this job?’ Because he could have done other jobs, but he liked the idea of UCLA and what it offered – which, to me, is everything.”

The coaching search was not rushed either.

UCLA knew since Sept. 14 – when the university fired former head coach DeShaun Foster just 15 games into his head coaching tenure – that it would need to replace the top of one of its biggest athletics teams.

[Related: Fos Era over in Westwood as UCLA parts ways with DeShaun Foster after 15 games]

And more importantly, UCLA Athletics knew it couldn’t make a mistake after the fiasco that has been the Foster and Chip Kelly coaching experiments.

While athletic director Martin Jarmond rightfully deserves both the criticism for how the football program has been handled since he has taken the reins and the praise for hiring Chesney, let’s not forget the committee that was created to make the right choice.

Myers, 2002 UCLA alumnus and current Washington Commanders general manager Adam Peters, 2014 UCLA alumnus and 10-year NFL pro Eric Kendricks, and 1996 UCLA alumnus and CEO and founder of Wasserman Casey Wasserman all comprised a committee assembled by Jarmond to ensure the next Bruin football coach was the right fit.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts even helped advise the committee while leading his team to back-to-back World Series victories.

“For a guy like Dave to just jump on and say, ‘How can I help?’ and then even being as busy as he was had time to connect with a coach and offer his services, which was great,” Myers said. “It’s just about helping our current students, our former students, this whole UCLA family be proud of a football coach that we think can win, and be proud of the person and somebody that cares about his family like we all talk about.”

Needless to say, there are no excuses behind the selection of Chesney for the new era of Bruin football.

UCLA assembled its version of the Avengers to make one of the most important coaching decisions of recent memory – and if the committee’s counsel and support were not enough to produce a successful transition, then there are much bigger issues at stake.

But what is success in the Chesney era?

Jarmond defined it as winning.

“The search committee was laser-focused on landing a program-builder who will represent UCLA the right way and who has built a winning expectation, the mentality that every time we play the expectation to win,” Jarmond said. “Without a shadow of a doubt, coach Bob Chesney is that person.”

And Chesney only amplified the athletic director’s words.

“I see zero reason why we cannot be competing for a championship,” Chesney said.

So a 5-7 record or worse, or even a 6-6 and 7-6 record with a meaningless bowl game, will not cut it.

If a rebuild was in the works, then I would say a little patience is fair compensation, and I still think patience is integral given the tall task handed to Chesney.

But everyone has said the same thing.

The Bruins can win.

And they will.

So if Jarmond and the committee are dead set that they have their guy, and Chesney is adamant that UCLA football will return, then what else do the Bruins need?

Finances aren’t the issue, as Myers said Chesney will have the support to compete with the upper echelons of the Big Ten.

“We said, ‘We may not be at the very top of resources. There’s some very well-funded schools at the top, but you’ll be in the top third to compete, maybe top quartile to compete with these schools financially, as far as what we can provide, what revenue we can provide for the school, and I’ll support all those things, alumni support,’” Myers said.

Chesney will have the capital to recruit the players and the staff he needs to overhaul an otherwise depleted Bruin roster that will return few and is coming off a 3-9 2025 campaign.

So could it be support from the university that the football program needs?

But then again, Chancellor Julio Frenk was the first person to speak at Chesney’s introductory press conference, and the word he and Jarmond stressed the most in the selection of the James Madison coach is “alignment.”

Alignment from the university, to the athletic department and with the new head coach.

“University leadership and athletics are aligned and committed to doing the right things to build a winning program,” Frenk said. “In coach Chesney, we have a leader who has the vision, the discipline and the track record of success to take our football program to new heights.”

It seems everyone is in agreement this hire was the right one and that Chesney will bring the program back to what it is supposed to be – a team with sustained winning and success.

And it appears the alignment has reached the Bruin faithful as well.

Chesney has seemingly won over the majority of UCLA fans after he hit his introductory press conference out of the park. The head coach said he would be a presence on campus, interacting with the student body to revitalize students who have been consistently disappointed by the state of their football program.

Everything is in place.

Jarmond and his committee have their guy.

Chesney has the bandwidth and resources to recruit the players and staff he so chooses.

Bruin football has once again found itself in the good graces of the UCLA faithful.

And the student body will see a new era and identity of the Bruin football program with a new coach and fresh coordinators and players – and maybe even a high-tech new stadium closer to campus.

It seems the university has all of the right pieces to the puzzle. Now, it just has to go out and assemble it.

But assemble it wrong, and there’s no going back.

Excuses that have permeated this program for the last several years are obsolete. The bridges are burned. Mediocrity is no longer an acceptable outcome.

This hire has to work.