Michigan State football: Aidan Chiles should be top priority for Jonathan Smith

Michigan State football needs to land a big-time quarterback to kick off the Jonathan Smith era. Enter, Aidan Chiles.

I’ll be honest, I planned on writing this since Jonathan Smith was hired as Michigan State football coach. I didn’t expect it to be right after Katin Houser entered the transfer portal. That makes the point of this entire article even more relevant.

Michigan State is down to two scholarship quarterbacks — Noah Kim and Sam Leavitt — and there’s a chance that both of them enter the portal as well.

The Spartans could legitimately have zero scholarship quarterbacks on the roster at some point this offseason, although Henry Hasselbeck is still committed. That means one thing: Smith needs to bring Aidan Chiles to East Lansing.

Chiles is one of the more talented young quarterbacks in college football and he was ranked the No. 58 overall prospect in the 2023 class. As a true freshman, he backed up DJ Uiagalelei in Corvallis but still passed for 309 yards and four touchdowns on nearly 70 percent completions. He also rushed 17 times for 79 yards and three touchdowns. And this was all in backup duty.

Smith has raved about Chiles, saying he’s one of the best young quarterbacks he’s coached. He said that the sky is the limit for Chiles and was incredibly impressed with him as a 17-year-old freshman.

If that’s not intriguing, I don’t know what is.

Chiles played a decent amount for a ranked team that was in Pac-12 title contention. He accounted for seven touchdowns for this team. And now he might be looking for a new home, so why not East Lansing?

Michigan State could probably offer Chiles a chance to start right away. He may have to fight off Houser if he decides to withdraw from the portal or even Leavitt, but I would not be shocked to see him as QB1 when the season kicks off next fall.

There are a lot of priorities for Smith now that he’s in charge, but getting Chiles to East Lansing has to be No. 1. Especially after losing Houser.