Opportunity.

It is what brought coach Bob Chesney from James Madison – a program he took to its first-ever College Football Playoff – to UCLA.

The chance to turn around a Power Four, Big Ten program at a school teeming with academic and athletic excellence.

The chance to prove that his secret formula works from the Division III level to the upper echelon of collegiate athletics.

Chesney’s hunger and desire operates like a magnet, bringing like-minded individuals with him to Westwood.

And there may be no better example of this than linebacker Sammy Omosigho.

Omosigho – a consensus four-star recruit, ranked as the No. 67 prospect and sixth-best linebacker in the nation by 247Sports – left Crandall High School in Texas with offers from SEC powerhouses Florida, Oklahoma and Auburn.

Across three seasons in Norman, Oklahoma, Omosigho garnered 97 total tackles, two sacks and a forced fumble. He got some starts at the Sooners’ “Cheetah” position but served primarily as a rotational linebacker.

Omosigho knew he could do more – and the Chesney-led Bruin squad seemed the perfect fit.

“Everyone loves more opportunity. I always chase more opportunities and (that’s what I did when I) entered the portal,” Omosigho said after Spring practice Thursday. “I want to be able to showcase whatever I have. I feel like I have the opportunity to do it here and make the team the best team possible.”

After the graduation of linebacker JonJon Vaughns and the transfer of linebacker Isaiah Chisom, two gaping holes were left in the center of the Bruin defense.

Chesney wasted no time to fill it with the addition of Omosigho, the third-ranked linebacker in the portal.

Omosigho may not have produced the most eye-popping stats at Oklahoma, but his three years of experience at a top-ranked SEC football school – one that went 10-3 in two of his seasons there and reached in the College Football Playoff last year – should add a level of intensity to the center of UCLA’s rebuilt front seven.

“When you play at a certain level, it stays in you, and you bring it wherever you go, so that level of experience, level of competitiveness, that level of aggression, comes with you, and I try to reinforce it to the entire team,” Omosigho said.

For the Bruin transfers familiar with Chesney, belief in their head honcho and how he leads his programs was enough to convince them to take the West Coast opportunity alongside him.

And for former JMU wide receiver Landon Ellis, trust was imperative for the wideout to leave the state he grew up and spent three years of college in.

To Ellis, the coach he sees every day in Westwood is the same person he knew as a 17 year old recruited to Harrisonburg, Virginia.

“That’s him every day, day in and day out. That’s what he does,” Ellis said. “A lot of people get that mic on their chest, and they get that camera following them all day, and they turn into a different person. That’s coach Ches since I have met him. He’s the same guy with that contagious energy and that fire every day.”

Ellis’ belief in Chesney and what he built in his two-year stint at JMU was solidified in the program’s bout with Oregon in the College Football Playoff.

While the Dukes fell 54-31 Dec. 20 in the first round of the national playoff, the scoreline did not necessarily exemplify how the non-Power Four school competed against one of the country’s top programs.

“My biggest takeaway from that game was they’re (Oregon is) human,” Ellis said. “The score didn’t reflect it all the time, but we moved the ball on them pretty well. We proved to ourselves that we can play at that level. We can compete with those guys. And obviously, if you’re doing it week in and week out, you’re just going to rise to that level if you do it the right way.”

Although Chesney may have secured Ellis’ trust, the former JMU wide receiver was still considering all of his options when he entered the transfer portal after the 2025 season.

But after sitting down and talking to redshirt sophomore quarterback Nico Iamaleava during his official visit in Westwood, the presence of opportunity was evident.

Iamaleava and he shared the same core belief – the desire to win.

“If you go back to that conversation when I was on my visit, that’s all he talked about, how he wanted to win. He wanted to turn this thing around,” Ellis said. “That’s another reason why I felt really comfortable coming over here – because I felt that we had that leader already here,. And we’re going to be able to get this program to the next level.”

While opportunity is abundant, converting on it cannot be done until the Bruins take the field for the first time Sept. 5.