Inside Aidan Chiles' Journey to Michigan State: He 'has found his people'

Aidan Chiles is nothing if not resilient. Halfway through his junior year at Downey High School, a player landed on his right arm – the same one he uses to throw the football – resulting in a broken forearm.

Of course, it was a setback – both in terms of his on-field development and recruitment. But he persevered through the adversity and found his way back to the field. In fact, he came back better than ever, and success would soon follow.

“I got more heart than most of these dudes out here, I’m just gonna keep it a stack (be honest),” Chiles told an L.A. Times reporter in 2022. “If I gotta compete with somebody, I’m gonna compete. I try to prove myself every time I step on the field.”

Despite the injury, he eventually started to catch the attention of college coaches. It was his relationship with one coach in particular – Oregon State's Jonathan Smith – that would prove to be the most impactful in his football career trajectory.

While it may not have been clear at the time, each of these events eventually led him on a path to Michigan State University.

Just about every Michigan State football fan is now familiar with Aidan Chiles.

The highly sought-after Oregon State transfer committed to MSU on Dec. 14. He is expected to take the reins as the Spartans’ starting quarterback in 2024.

But who is Aidan Chiles as a person, as a player, as a son?

Spartans Illustrated connected with his parents, Adrian Chiles and Nikki Chiles, and posed those questions and more. Together, they shared their insight as to how their son's story became intertwined with Jonathan Smith's story, and how the journey to Michigan State had ups and downs along the way.

But before we get to all that, let's start back at the beginning and learn a little more about Aidan, the person.

“He’s very bright, very inquisitive,” Nikki said about her son. “He’s very active and has been since birth. He is very loyal. He was always the kid who would do very well in class, but he ran his mouth all the time. But he’s very much a leader, and just a pretty cool person. He’s athletic in everything!”

According to Nikki, Aidan has an infectious smile and he loves life and learning.

Both Nikki and Adrian work in schools, and Aidan makes it a point to come in and visit elementary school students. The younger kids admire him and beam with joy every time he comes in.

“He’s a real leader, on and off the field,” Nikki said.

One of the words that both Nikki and Adrian used to describe Aidan was “loyal.”

There are many reasons why Aidan wanted to stick with Smith as his head coach, even after Smith made the move from Oregon State to Michigan State, and loyalty was one of the biggest factors in his decision.

How did Aidan arrive in East Lansing, though?

Well, technically, he doesn’t arrive at MSU until Jan. 4, 2024, with classes beginning on Jan. 8, 2024. Nikki will accompany him and get him settled into his new college home, while Adrian will stay in Long Beach, California with their youngest son, Aaron.

But to understand the course that Aidan took to get where he is today, let’s take a look at his prep days.

The recruiting process was slow for Aidan as a high school athlete at Downey High School in California. As mentioned, he broke his right arm six games into his junior season. For a significant period of time, the injury to his throwing arm scared off scouts and coaches.

Eventually, Florida Atlantic became the first Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) school to offer him a scholarship and things quickly got rolling in his recruitment. However, the first program from a Power Five conference to offer Aidan was Oregon State. Despite the injury, Smith, offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Brian Lindgren, and the rest of the staff saw something special in the young signal-caller.

“It was slow at first, but once he got his first offer from FAU, it started to pick up after that,” Adrian said about Aidan’s recruitment. “When it really boomed is when Oregon State took a chance on him, considering the fact that he broke his throwing arm the year before, and nobody wanted to really touch him, to be honest. I think they were just afraid that he wasn't going to recover or something like that. It could be a number of things, but Oregon State, they did their homework, and they decided to pull the trigger … they talked to people and they decided to offer him.

“So, (OSU) was his first Power Five offer. And then, once that happened, everybody wanted to know: ‘Who is this kid? Why did Oregon State offer him?’ So, that's where it all began, as far as all the attention, as far as other schools wanting to see him, and him being recruited very hard after that.”

This is why that word “loyalty” is so important in Aidan's story. Smith took a chance on a quarterback coming off a significant injury to his throwing arm. Not only did the Beavers offer Aidan a scholarship, but they made him a priority. That belief meant everything to the Chiles family.

Aidan eventually worked his way up to being regarded as a four-star prospect. He ranked as a top-250 player nationally, and as the No. 3 dual-threat quarterback in the 2023 class. Other big-time schools would get involved in his recruitment and offer scholarships: Oregon, Washington, Washington State, California, Kansas State, Rutgers, and many others.

But there was only one school and coaching staff that was there from the early stages and made a huge impression: Oregon State.

Smith’s candor is what stood out to the Chiles family. Now, his allegiance is being returned as Aidan has made the decision to follow him to East Lansing.

With three years of eligibility remaining, Aidan will be both the quarterback of the present and the future, and he will be one of the players who sets the foundation of what the Michigan State football program looks like under Smith.

“That meant a whole lot to him,” Adrian said when asked about the coaching staff being loyal to Aidan. “It meant everything to him, actually. He didn't know what was going to happen. He didn't know if anybody else was gonna recruit him. But, yeah, that meant a whole lot.

"They stayed with him, and they were sincere, as far as how they recruited him. They were honest and that went a long way with us and that went a long way with him. Ultimately, that's one of the reasons why he ended up at Oregon State – because of how they recruited him, how they treated him, how they treated us, and the honesty that they provided to us, to him. So, that's mainly how it happened.”

Aidan built a tight bond with Smith and Lindgren during the recruiting process and that relationship became even stronger once he arrived in Corvallis, Oregon – and now it has morphed into something extraordinary.

“It's really close, really tight,” Adrian said when asked about the relationship between Aidan and Smith. “They've got a really good relationship. (The coaches) know that he knows what they want from him, and he knows what he is gonna get from them.”

While Aidan respected Oregon State and was thankful the Beavers made him a priority, he wasn’t immediately sold on OSU.

Oregon State’s location wasn’t exactly what he was used to growing up in Southern California, and, while visiting campus, he wasn’t sure if that was where he wanted to attend college. However, the loyalty and vision from Smith, Lindgren, and the rest of the staff is what eventually won him over.

“When we first went to Corvallis, Aidan said, ‘This is not the place for me. I'm not moving here,’” Nikki recalled. “After meeting the coaches, talking to them, we were sold (as parents), but we didn't know that he was.

"But he had met a lot of people. He'd learned to sift through what people were saying to him, and the words that Coach Smith and Coach Lindgren were saying to him just stayed true. So, it wasn't back and forth. There were things that we were hearing from people that just didn't sit well with us – about when they met him, when they knew about him. And the words that Coach Smith was saying, everything was the same. It was on the up-and-up. So, that mattered more than where Corvallis was. Relationships matter.”

Aidan signed his National Letter of Intent with Oregon State on Dec. 21, 2022.

As a true freshman in 2023, Aidan worked himself up the depth chart to be Oregon State’s backup quarterback behind Clemson transfer DJ Uiagalelei.

However, he didn’t just sit on the bench and watch.

The coaching staff made sure to get the young quarterback some experience at the college level, as he played 100 offensive snaps.

This past season, Aidan completed 24 of his 35 pass attempts (68.6%) for 309 yards and four touchdowns. He did not throw a single interception. He also carried the ball 17 times for 79 rushing yards and three additional scores.

That playing time is going to pay dividends for Aidan as he progresses throughout his college career, and the fact that he already knows the ins and outs of the offensive system that Smith and Lindgren run is a huge advantage when he begins his career in East Lansing.

“I think it helped him tremendously,” Adrian said about Aidan getting playing time as a true freshman. “Number one, it helped him get used to the speed of the game and playing with grown men, that's what they are. Getting the opportunity to go out there as a true freshman and play with guys who have been in college for a number of years, and they probably have a little bit more experience (is huge). But what Coach Smith did was awesome. It was a big-time learning experience.”

Keep in mind, however, that Aidan is still a young player. He’s entering just his second year of college, and will be on a brand-new campus in unfamiliar territory. While his potential is considered to be off the charts, there will be growing pains along the way.

“It's definitely an advantage – knowing the system already, knowing what the coaches want, you know what you're getting from them, they know what he's gonna give them,” Adrian explained. "It's a big plus. He still has a lot of growing to do, though – never take any of that for granted. It’s a different conference, you’ve gotta think about that. The experience is great, but like I said, he's still got a lot more learning to do. He's still young, he's still got a long way to go, but that experience helped him out tremendously. I think that's very beneficial for him, as far as moving forward.”