A stoic Aidan Chiles sat in front of the media following Michigan State’s 41-14 loss to Rutgers to end Michigan State football’s 2024 season. The quarterback shared his disappointment, his anger, and most of all, his embarrassment after a crushing loss at home to eliminate the Spartans from bowl contention. He was blunt and made […]
A stoic Aidan Chiles sat in front of the media following Michigan State’s 41-14 loss to Rutgers to end Michigan State football’s 2024 season. The quarterback shared his disappointment, his anger, and most of all, his embarrassment after a crushing loss at home to eliminate the Spartans from bowl contention. He was blunt and made it clear that if people weren’t bought in, they didn’t belong in East Lansing.
Looking back to that time, Chiles now uses it as motivation for the 2025 season.
“It was embarrassing, honestly,” Chiles shared earlier this week when remembering the loss to Rutgers to conclude the 2024 campaign. “It is what it is. We needed that, we needed to feel that so we could come in with a chip on our shoulder this year.”
Chiles reflected back to those moments with the media and in the locker room following that loss to the Scarlet Knights. He recalled that the most important thing he shared with his teammates was that, rest assured, “It’s not going to look the same next year.”
Fast forward to days before the home opener of the 2025 season versus Western Michigan, and Chiles is excited to show all what he has worked on during the offseason, mentally and physically, and how far along the team has come as a whole.
In addition to spending time in the weight room and bulking up, Chiles shared he has seen the most growth in himself in the “mental side” of the game.
“Last year I don’t think I was ready for that leadership role, Chiles said. “This year I felt like I needed to hone in more on that and just be more a part of the team.”
That emphasis on being a team leader has paid off for Chiles, as he was voted as a team captain for the second year in a row.
Chiles summarized that ending the 2024 season last year with a 5-7 record was a test on his character and the biggest learning curve came from responding to “all the ups and downs” that came with the Spartans’ volatile season.
To assist with Chiles’ development, Michigan State added quarterbacks coach Jon Boyer to the staff in January. Throughout many of his comments during the spring and fall camp, Chiles has cited Boyer as a big factor in his development.
“A lot of that is thanks to Coach Boyer,” Chiles said about his growth as a quarterback. “A lot of the times people don’t see the late nights and the early mornings. Just talking to each other one-on-one and just taking a deep dive into what we are going to see this week.”
When asked about his younger counter part, backup quarterback Alessio Milivojevic, a redshirt freshman, Chiles stated that they work together to identify what needs to be improved upon.
“When I’m on the field, Alessio sees what I don’t see, and then I come off the field and talk about it,” Chiles said about Milivojevic
“The way I can help Alessio is getting him reps in game,” Chiles continued. “Our goal is to score, we score enough and put Alessio in the game. That’s what I want to do, that’s my goal every week. Get Alessio in.”
The Spartans begin their season at home in Spartan Stadium this Friday at 7 p.m against the Broncos. Watch the game from home on Fox Sports 1 and follow along with us here at Spartans Illustrated for in game updates and postgame comments.
Category: General Sports
