Aidan Chiles is showing growth and confidence in his second season as Michigan State football's starting QB. It's flowing through his entire offense.
EAST LANSING — It was a play Aidan Chiles and Jack Velling had worked on for weeks. “Reebok.”
The ball sat at USC’s 1-yard line. Timing being of the essence, Velling motioned behind his quarterback. It was a Trojan horse against the Trojans, intended to get the defense bunched together thinking the Michigan State football offense was about to deploy a “tush push” – a QB sneak with Chiles.
Instead, in perfect syncopation with Matt Gulbin’s snap, Velling feigned like he was about to grab Chiles’ hips then broke to his right. Chiles faked a play-action fake, spun a full 360 degrees and, with a rusher in his face, lofted a soft-touch toss to his tight end, who +caught it and powered through hard contact to get the ball across the goal line.
“It just kind of came out for the perfect time,” Velling said with a grin Tuesday, Sept. 30. “I got in, but barely.”
Chiles sauntered over and gave Velling a hand-slap and head-butt. MSU at that point had rallied from three touchdowns back to make it a one-score game going into the fourth quarter. Though they eventually lost for the first time this season, 42-35, on Sept. 20, the Spartans continued to show an evolving swagger and sureness in their leader that has continued to build alongside Chiles’ personal growth and development.
“It’s not surprising, I don’t think, to anyone in this building how he’s playing,” Velling said. “From last year, the whole offseason, spring ball, summer, we all kind of saw it. I think it’s the little things, maybe even an attitude on the sidelines.”
The Spartans (3-1, 0-1 Big Ten) hope Chiles maintains that offensive mojo after a bye week when they head to Nebraska (3-1, 0-1) on Saturday, Oct. 4 (4 p.m., FS1).
The junior from Long Beach, California, threw for three touchdowns and 212 yards along with his rushing score against hometown foe USC. That included a 75-yard, fourth-quarter score to Omari Kelly, who caught six passes for 133 yards, as the Spartans refused to go quietly after the Trojans rebuilt their lead to three TDs.
On Monday, MSU coach Jonathan Smith said he needs to see more of those game-changing plays the rest of the season from Chiles and his crew, both through the air and on the ground.
“Those big plays, we want to show up,” Smith said. “We want it to be not just because we throw it 50 yards, we want to find continued plays.”
For the season, Chiles' 68.6% completion percentage (70-for-102) ranks 27th in the Football Bowl Subdivision, his 167.3 passing efficiency rating ranks 17th, and his seven touchdown passes are 26th. Chiles has 868 passing yards while throwing just one interception, on a tipped pass under pressure against Youngstown State, picked off by a defensive lineman. That is Chiles' only interception in his past seven games; he threw 11 picks through the first nine games of 2024 but didn't have another in his final 102 attempts as a first-year starter.
“He's truly playing quarterback,” Nebraska, coach Matt Rhule told reporters Monday. “He's checking runs, he's going outside zone to outside zone away. He's going outside zone to naked or play-action. He's going play-action to play-action away. He's a thinking man's quarterback, which I respect. ... He's taking what's there and protecting the football, and he is dynamic. He can run.”
The rest of the offense has picked up as well, even though it now is missing two starting offensive linemen (Luka Vincic and Stanton Ramil) and lost at USC with star receiver Nick Marsh and starting running back Makhi Frazier both playing while limited because of injuries they suffered a week earlier.
With Frazier, backup Brandon Tullis and Chiles doing the bulk of the work, MSU is averaging 154 yards per game on the ground, which is 72nd in the FBS and an improvement from the 115.3 rushing yards they averaged a year ago. The Spartans’ 34.3 points per game ranks 48th, while their 374.3 yards of total offense is 80th as they head to face a Nebraska defense that struggled against Michigan against the run but has allowed the fewest passing yards (75.8 per game) and 14th-fewest total yards per game (249.3).
“Everybody gets more confidence and gets more experience with what we’re seeing and who we’re playing with,” Kelly said of Chiles. “Obviously, everybody’s gonna improve. But I have seen him improve game to game. It seems like he’s a little more confident.”
Velling, who transferred to MSU along with Chiles from Oregon State before last season, agrees and sees a new maturity from his 20-year-old quarterback.
“He was great last year, but it’s just another level of leadership that he’s kind of come up with this year,” the senior said of Chiles. “His decision-making and everything, he’s just on a whole other level and playing really good football right now.”
Contact Chris Solari: [email protected]. Follow him @chrissolari.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State football getting new swagger from QB Aidan Chiles
Category: General Sports
