Jonathan Smith offers evaluation of Aidan Chiles in spring game

Michigan State head coach Jonathan Smith was quite pleased with Aidan Chiles in the Spartans’ spring game over the weekend.

Chiles followed Smith to East Lansing from Oregon State, where he spent one season under his head coach. There’s been no decision on the starting quarterback, but Chiles is right in the thick of it.

Despite not revealing a ton and throwing a lot of complicated concepts at Chiles, Smith was pleased with his quarterback in live situations.

“I thought he threw it accurately, moved his feet well,” Smith said. “I think it helped to get a bit of the run game going … and again, I think on both sides of it, we wanted to kind of base package it, not show too much. This is all over TV and whatnot and he looked comfortable and guys made some plays for him in the pass game, which is great to see.”

Chiles played sparingly for the Beavers in 2023, going 24-of-35 passing for 309 yards, four touchdowns, 17 carries, 79 rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns over the course of nine games.

As a member of the Class of 2023, Chiles was a four-star recruit out of Downey (Calif.) High, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He was the No. 13 overall prospect in the state, the No. 12 quarterback in the class and the No. 160 overall prospect in the class.

“Our trust in Coach Smith goes back to way before he even started at Oregon State,” Aidan Chiles’ mother Nikki told Spartan Mag. “The recruiting process is hard. It is a lot. Coach Smith and Oregon State were the first Power Five school to put their trust in him.

“Not just that, we felt that he was sincere in everything that he said. He was honest. When you go through something like that, there is a lot of stuff you have sift through, but coach Smith was super honest with Aidan about things, so when he made that switch to East Lansing, it’s all about relationships. Michigan State is where Aidan wants to be. He doesn’t want to go through all the (recruiting) stuff that he has been through before. You want to go to the people you can trust, and he trusted coach Smith.”

That trust could blossom into a starting role in 2024 as Chiles has a lot of potential. It could be part of a resurgence for Michigan State this fall.