Michigan State’s 2026 schedule got a little more interesting on Monday afternoon with a Big Ten foe naming its starting quarterback ahead of next week’s season opener.
The Spartans are already set to face Noah Kim (Eastern Michigan) and Katin Houser (Illinois), but now they’re officially going to see a third former QB1 in East Lansing.
When Northwestern comes to town, it’ll be led by Aidan Chiles.
The former prized Jonathan Smith recruit and No. 1 transfer who followed his head coach to Michigan State has officially been named Northwestern’s starting quarterback ahead of the 2026 regular season.
Sources: Northwestern has named Aidan Chiles the starting quarterback, and he’ll debut for the Wildcats against South Dakota State on Sept. 5. Chiles is a Michigan State Oregon State transfer with 4,126 yards and 27 passing TDs. pic.twitter.com/g8QevzYnjQ
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) August 24, 2026
Chiles is going to be a really good fit in Evanston and Chip Kelly is going to be able to get creative as the Wildcats’ offensive coordinator. Talent was never the issue at Michigan State, it was just not a great fit in the system that was being run, and he just wasn’t being used correctly. It felt like the staff was never playing to his strengths.
At Northwestern, he’s likely going to get a lot more freedom to run with the ball and there will be more designed quarterback keepers.
Chiles still has a loyal fanbase in East Lansing and they’ll be rooting for him this season, except on Oct. 17.
Aidan Chiles needed a fresh start
Whatever was going on between Chiles, Brian Lindgren, and Smith just didn’t work. There seemed to be some sort of disconnect between the former QB1 and the former Spartan coaching staff.
Chiles needed a fresh start. That could have happened under Fitzgerald, but when Chiles saw the coach who recruited him let go by Michigan State, he felt like it was his time to go and hand the reins of the offense to Alessio Milivojevic.
Northwestern is the perfect fresh start for him.
Chiles is going to learn from one of the better football minds in recent college football history (at least when he was still at Oregon) and he’s going to have to trust that Kelly is going to call plays that play into his strengths as a runner as well as a deep-ball guy. People forget that Chiles has a cannon.
His time in East Lansing wasn’t a complete failure. Chiles showed flashes of being a really good QB1 andhe had 23 touchdowns and just over 2,800 passing yards with over 450 rushing yards and nine touchdowns in two seasons. Unfortunately, much like a guy like Nate Carter, he just played during an ugly era of Michigan State football. He would’ve been so good in the prime Mark Dantonio years — or even 2021 and 2022.
A career year is coming for Chiles in Evanston.
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