Michigan State football's Aidan Chiles feels he can become nation's best QB with growth

EAST LANSING — Brian Lindgren matter-of-factly delivered perhaps the most important fact about new Michigan State football quarterback Aidan Chiles.

“He has never started a game,” the Spartans’ new offensive coordinator said Thursday, “which I think people sometimes tend to forget.”

It wasn’t meant to dampen some of the hefty hype and hope surrounding the talented Oregon State transfer. Chiles enters his second college season — and first in green and white — as the all-but-assumed starter and a beacon of optimism for fans after a tumultuous past few years, looking to bring stability specifically at quarterback and, in the big picture, to a team in transition.

Even if he’s only 18 years old. With only 91 snaps to his name. And the weight of a program on his broadening shoulders.

And the confidence and raw skills of a burgeoning superstar. With one mission: “I’m just here to win games. That’s it.”

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“I think — well, I mean, everybody has the mentality — but I think I'm the best quarterback in the Big Ten and in the nation,” Chiles said Thursday after MSU’s third practice of preseason camp. “Everybody has (that mentality), though, so my job is to prove it.”

The buzz around Chiles is by far the biggest of any transfer MSU has brought in during the portal era. That includes current NFL players who arrived via transfer, among them running back Kenneth Walker III, wide receiver Jayden Reed and linebacker Ben VanSumeren. The 6-foot-3, 217-pound California native was rated the No. 8 overall transfer, and second-best quarterback transfer, going into this fall, according to 247 Sports' rankings.

While it is difficult to compare the expectations and excitement that come with bringing in a new QB, as opposed to any other position, there is an anticipation that Chiles can generate the type of momentum shift that Walker did during his one season in 2021 — when he went from a platoon back at Wake Forest to becoming the Spartans’ first Big Ten running back of the year, Doak Walker Award winner and Walter Camp national player of the year.

“Aidan has such a vital role on the offense. They work around him,” sixth-year senior defensive tackle Maverick Hansen said Tuesday of Chiles. “He's the one, he's the one that everyone's looking at to be the guy and everything, just like any other quarterback. Now (Walker) is a running back. But we knew in spring ball before we even hit the season that K9 was a guy, because he would just cut up and he'd be gone before anyone else could touch him. And we're like, 'Holy smokes, this dude is the real deal.' And the coaches would say, 'Oh, K9 ain't gonna be here long. As soon as this season's over, he's in the league. ...'

“It's different for a quarterback, absolutely. He's got a lot — he can throw the ball, he can run the ball, he's got a lot of different options, as far as a running back can really just run and block. So I feel like there's a lot of potential there for Aidan. He's young, too, and he's been developing. And he pushes the team to be great.”

New MSU coach Jonathan Smith signed Chiles in December 2022. The strong-armed, swift-footed native of Los Angeles suburb Downey, California, enrolled at Oregon State a month later, expecting to play right away after graduating high school early.

However, Smith and his staff added Clemson transfer DJ Uiagalelei as the early signing period closed. Uiagalelei started every game in the Beavers’ 8-4 season, but Smith played Chiles during nine games, giving him his collegiate baptism by rotating him in for every third series. Chiles responded by going 24-for-35 (68.6%) for 309 yards and four touchdowns, adding 17 carries for 79 yards and three touchdowns.

As Smith and his staff — including primary play-caller Lindgren — headed east to East Lansing, it didn’t take long for Chiles to follow. Particularly as MSU lost all three of its scholarship quarterbacks — Noah Kim (Coastal Carolina), Katin Houser (East Carolina) and Sam Leavitt (Arizona State) — to transfers.

“He's such a young guy,” Lindgren said. “He was 17 when he came to Oregon State as a freshman, and he's kind of moving into that role to potentially be the starter for us. ... I think just the maturity is something that we've challenged him. I've seen him take steps, I'm just — (and) we're just looking for it more consistently. I think that's something, as he as he continues to go through camp, that'll be something that we're asking him to work on.

“It's been cool to see him take those those steps, but I think he can still continue to grow in that area as just a veteran guy (with) consistency, being detailed, bringing some of the younger guys along with him.”

Senior Montorie Foster, who watched Chiles grow into the starting role upon arriving in January and going through spring practice, said the receivers spent the summer months working almost every other day on their timing and connection. It didn’t take much for Foster to succinctly sum up what he’s seen from his new quarterback.

“Dynamic. I can say that in one word,” Foster said. “But if you want me to go more in detail: He's just a dude, man. He makes plays, he stretches plays. That West Coast offense, being able to get them out the pocket and stretch plays down the field, it helps my game to make more plays down the field.”

Lindgren said Chiles watched attentively as an understudy to Uiagalelei in Corvallis, learning how to prepare each week and approach the game with a starter’s mindset, as opposed to just being a backup. And Chiles added that he keeps in touch with his former teammate, who transferred again to Florida State after Smith and Co. left Corvallis.

The big improvement that Lindgren wants now — one Chiles admits he needs to work on — is taking the reins of leadership that come with his position. Some of that can only be learned on the job and through the inevitable highs and lows of being an every-down player, the only one with the ball in his hands on every snap.

Chiles feels he is ready to take that next step, adding that he understands the work necessary to turn his moxie and self-proclamation of greatness into a reality.

“I love the pressure,” Chiles said. “I don't know how to explain it, but it's just different now. I get to prove what I can do this year. Last year, I had one drive a game and I proved a little bit. But nobody really saw what I can do. So this year, the pressure is not there, for real, not in my mind.

“But I know that the team is counting on me to do what I have to do, and I'm also counting on them.”

Contact Chris Solari:csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.

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