The past 48 hours have been a whirlwind in college football, with hirings and firings taking place in rapid succession following the end of the regular season on Saturday. One of the biggest splash hirings took place on Monday morning, with the UCLA Bruins announcing that they would be hiring James Madison Dukes' head coach Bob Chesney as their next coach in Westwood.

Chesney spent two years as the head coach at JMU, going 20-5 in that time and winning the Boca Raton Bowl a season ago. This year, he has JMU in the mix to potentially land a College Football Playoff spot, depending on how conference championship games play out this coming weekend.

Before his time at JMU, Chesney was a long-time coach at Holy Cross, getting his start at the smaller level and now moving up to the Power 4, where he has been among the top candidates throughout this coaching cycle.

Chesney will replace DaShaun Foster at UCLA, where he has a chance to return the Bruins to prominence, though it won't be an easy job. As members of the Big Ten, UCLA has been near the bottom of the standings over the past couple of seasons, struggling to recruit or draw large attendance numbers to the Rose Bowl. Chesney has a chance to change that.

According to ESPN's Pete Thamel, Chesney's deal with UCLA is for five years, and it will begin after this weekend's Sun Belt conference championship for the Dukes. Should JMU make it into the CFP, the Bruins have agreed to let Chesney finish out the season before starting with the Bruins.

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This article originally appeared on College Sports Wire: UCLA Bruins to hire JMU's Bob Chesney as next head coach

Reporting by Zachary Neel, College Sports Wire / College Sports Wire

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