UCLA football is having a dream season.

The Bruins are 7-0 for the first time since 2005, one of just three undefeated teams remaining in the country and the only one from the Big Ten or SEC. They’re ranked No. 7 in the US LBM Coaches Poll, their highest ranking since the 2014 preseason poll, and are on track to contend for their first College Football Playoff appearance.

So, where are the fans?

Despite Bob Chesney’s perfect start, the Rose Bowl hasn’t exactly been packed to watch the Bruins. The student section has been particularly sparse, with the Week 8 win over Michigan State arguably producing the lowest student turnout of the season. It only thinned out further as the game progressed.

Chesney noticed.

“The student section was slow to get in there, and then felt like they left a little bit early,” Chesney said Monday, Oct. 26. “I think that they got to do a better job too.”

UCLA is one of the few major college football programs that doesn’t play on campus, and getting to the Rose Bowl can be a challenge. The stadium is roughly a 30- to 50-minute drive from campus, depending on traffic.

That distance has been part of UCLA’s longstanding struggle to fill the Rose Bowl. The Bruins tarp off sections of the end zones, reducing capacity to roughly 65,000, but they haven’t come close to filling even that reduced capacity this season. UCLA is averaging just 33,172 fans per game, with 33,757 attending the win over Michigan State.

Since taking over, Chesney has repeatedly urged fans to make the trip to the Rose Bowl. UCLA has even made tickets free for students, but Chesney acknowledged there’s still more the program can do.

“We all got to do a better job,” Chesney said. “We probably got to just get a little bit more involved and make sure our guys in classes are talking about this with everybody, making sure they can connect a story and a face to this team, not just what this team is, but ultimately, the people on it.

“I think we’ve done everything we could as far as the tickets, done everything we’ve done as far as the travel plans and the free access, all those things. I think our administration is doing a great job. We just got to make sure everybody just keeps talking about it all the time now, especially on this campus.”

The next opportunity comes Oct. 31, when UCLA hosts Nevada, though a Halloween matchup against a Mountain West opponent could present another difficult draw.

After that, the Bruins have only two home games remaining: Illinois visits Friday, Nov. 13, before UCLA closes the regular season against crosstown rival USC on Nov. 28. That rivalry game figures to provide the Bruins their best opportunity for a packed Rose Bowl.