MSU's Aidan Chiles on training with Michigan's Bryce Underwood: 'It's kind of weird'
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It was 95 degrees on the turf field Sunday, June 22, at U-D Jesuit High School, but that did not matter to Aidan Chiles.
Chiles, the Michigan State football junior quarterback, was standing in the cool air conditioning of the school’s gym. In front of him were dozens of young quarterbacks, ready to learn from two top talents.
The other quarterback? Chiles' new rival, Michigan football's Bryce Underwood. The two are connected by Donovan Dooley, the founder of Quarterback University, hosting the camp along with the Child’s Play Foundation and the Athlete Collective.
How did Chiles feel about hosting a camp with the quarterback of his school’s biggest rival?
“It's kind of weird,” Chiles said. “I'm gonna be real. Honestly, it's kind of weird, just because we are rivals and we all know how things play out outside of this. But other than that, it's just coming together for the community, just being better people and trying to make better quarterbacks, better futures.”
Chiles, 19, and Underwood, 17, aren’t close buddies, but “We cool,” Chiles said. They spend plenty of time training together with Dooley, even if they aren’t always in the same group every day. Underwood, an incoming freshman and ranked the No. 1 overall prospect in the 2025 recruiting class, has trained with Dooley for more than a decade and swears by the coach’s mental approach to the game.
Chiles began working with Dooley when he transferred from Oregon State to MSU in 2024, and agrees that Dooley has revolutionized the mental aspect of his game.
“It's really helped me on the mental side of things, for sure,” Chiles said. “IQ wise, football wise. We're working a lot of technique now, just making sure that everything's polished, so that I can go into the season and be ready, make all the throws I need to make, as simple as that.”
It’s something Chiles badly needed after a tough season where MSU went 5-7. He threw 13 touchdowns to 11 interceptions in 12 games under first-year coach Jonathan Smith, whom Chiles followed from Oregon State.
But Chiles showed his talent as well, including running the football, and had five touchdown passes to no interceptions over his final three games. He threw for 2,415 yards, becoming the sixth MSU quarterback to throw for at least 2,000 yards.
Chiles knows he has much more to prove on the field.
He has spent plenty of time training this summer on the field, working on footwork and quick reactions. Chiles has also spent a lot of time in the film room with Smith breaking down the basics and ensuring Chiles' foundation is solid.
But he has also taken time off the field to get to know his Spartan teammates better and build chemistry. He feels it’s important going into his second season with the program after a tough first year, and wants to make sure he bonds with teammates.
But Sunday, Chiles took time to work with middle school and high school quarterbacks. He participated in the camp last year with former Michigan quarterback Alex Orji (now at UNLV), and now he’s doing it with Underwood.
For Underwood, it’s a chance to give back to the community that raised him. Chiles, from Long Beach, California, doesn’t have that connection but loves doing it all the same.
“It's beautiful, man,” Chiles said. “Just coming out here and seeing kids that look like me and just coming out here and teaching them, showing them what we learned, what we got to learn. Some of these things I didn't get to do when I was little, so just stuff like that, being able to just help the youth.”
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Aidan Chiles training with Bryce Underwood: 'It's kind of weird'
