Comparing the quarterbacks in the Michigan vs. Michigan State game

At quarterback for Michigan State the starter for both this season and last has been Aidan Chiles. He transferred in, following Jonathan Smith over from Oregon State, prior to the 2024 season. He was a former top-100 type recruit overall so it was a big win for him to sign with the Oregon State Beavers at the time and was again a big win when he followed Coach Smith over to East Lansing as a transfer. Despite being very physically talented, he's struggled to put it all together thus far in college. Last season he ended up completing 59% of his passes for 2,415 yards, with 13 TD's and 11 INT's. He also added 225 yards and 3 TD's on the ground. His issue has mainly been taking care of the football and not completing a high enough percentage of his passes but he's still a very talented player who has high level abilities.

This season he's been better at taking care of the ball and completing more passes as his stats through 7 games look like this: completing 65% of his passes for 1,262 yards, with 10 TD's and 3 INT's while adding another 234 yards and 5 TD's on the ground. This year, as you can see, he has been more accurate overall and has done a much better job of taking care of the football. He's also been using his legs more frequently, already topping his 2024 marks in both rushing yards and TD's through just 7 games so far in 2025. He's a very talented player who has all the physical ability in the world, it's just been more about getting better every season for him and staying consistent while not turning the ball over.

At quarterback for Michigan it will be Bryce Underwood getting the start once again. Thus far through 7 games he's completed 62% of his passes for 1,440 yards with 7 TD's and 2 INT's while adding 202 yards and 3 TD's on the ground. His stat line is actually quite similar to Aidan Chiles so far this year when you dive into it. Chiles is completing a slightly higher percentage of his passes but for slightly less yards than Underwood. Chiles also has more TD's but another INT as well. All of those statistical categories of the two appear to be very close, at least on paper.

Bryce Underwood however is 2 years younger than Chiles and is putting up a similar stat line which is an encouraging sign for the Wolverines. Underwood is also coming off of his best start of his young career last week against the Washington Huskies. He set a career high in completion percentage by completing 21/27 passes for 230 yards and 2 TD's. He played so well that PFF had him as their highest graded true freshman in his performance last week against the Huskies.

With Bryce Underwood being two years younger than Chiles and being arguably better than he is already, I have to give the edge to Michigan in this quarterback matchup. Chiles has taken steps to be better in 2025 than he was in 2024 for the Spartans but in recent weeks he hasn't played as well. He's gotten benched in two of the Spartans last three games against Nebraska and UCLA for his performance before coming back and playing fairly well against Indiana. Meanwhile; Bryce Underwood is playing some of his best football as of late and at just 18 years old, he'll most likely continue to grow and improve with every game and that's why the Wolverines will have the edge at the game's most important position in this game.

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