ESPN’s Josh Pate on Chances Bob Chesney Gets Poached from UCLA

Is UCLA going to keep Bob Chesney, or is the end of the season going to turn into, as Rich put it, "a Bob Chesney palooza"? Rich brought the question to ESPN's Josh Pate on The Rich Eisen Show.

Rich set it up with a report from a friend of the show. "Our friend Bill Simmons on his pod was very adamant that they're going to extend him," Rich said, adding that he had an idea why Simmons would be so secure saying it, and leaving it at that. "It sounds accurate cause it makes sense, and I think Bill would know."

Pate was all for it. "I hope it's true about Chesney," he said. "I hope it's true about Will Stein. I hope it's true about Jake Dickert at Wake Forest. I hope it's true about a lot of these guys."

His reasoning had to do with how much the sport has changed. "There's some things I don't like about the new landscape. One of the things I do like is you can win anywhere now. That's been proven," Pate said. "You don't have to mercenary yourself towards one of the 10 evergreen pastures in college football."

So if UCLA is willing to spend to keep its coach, Pate isn't going to argue. "I don't want to tell Bill how to spend his money, but if that's how they're choosing to spend their money out there, more power to them."

He did have one wish. "I wish I could see Bob Chesney doing his part, which he's doing, in a Rose Bowl that's more than 50 percent to capacity, which they're not necessarily doing right now," Pate said. He doubts that's what drives Chesney, though. "I think he cares about a path to win, and I think he knows in time, if we're winning here, they'll show up."

Pate's sharpest point was about the market. Even if Chesney wanted to leave, where would he go? "Right now we got Florida State. You're insane if you leave Bob Chesney's current situation for Florida State," he said. "So I'm going to go ahead and mark that off the board in case anyone's wondering."

His way of putting it: "We need puzzle piece B to open before puzzle piece A can even talk about such things."

Rich asked which puzzle pieces might open. "The only ones that would even theoretically make sense would be Michigan, would be Texas, would be the biggest of the big," Pate said. And he was careful to qualify even that. "I want to very, very clearly state, even then I don't think it's some guarantee that Bob Chesney would leave, nor is it a guarantee he needs to leave."

He noted that Texas is in the thick of the playoff race, and told Rich he would know more than Pate does about Michigan, where Pate sees a special circumstance at the very least. Those are the jobs that would force a second hard look if they came open.

In the meantime, Pate thinks UCLA is playing it right. "I think they're smartly just trying to get ahead of the whole thing and lock him down."