Scouting Northwestern: Personnel, Scheme, and Aidan Chiles’ Resurgence under Chip Kelly

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After a crushing overtime loss to Illinois, Michigan State must regroup quickly to face a Northwestern team that has been very impressive through the first half of the season. Equally impressive has been the play of Wildcats’ quarterback Aidan Chiles, who will return to Spartan Stadium after entering the 2024 and 2025 seasons as MSU’s starter.

The Spartans and Wildcats haven’t met since the 2021 season opener – a 38-21 MSU win in Evanston – when Kenneth Walker III provided the first of many highlights in his lone season in East Lansing and Pat Fitzgerald was still on Northwestern’s sideline.

We’ll look at keys to the game in another article but now let’s take a closer look at Michigan State’s game seven opponent.

Northwestern Overview

After an early week two bye, the Wildcats come in at 4-1 overall and 1-1 in the Big Ten. Northwestern has convincing home wins against South Dakota State, Colorado, Penn State, and Ball State. Their only road trip so far was a 29-23 loss at defending national champion Indiana.

Northwestern fell behind 12-0 at halftime in Bloomington before battling back and getting within two points of the Hoosiers in the fourth quarter. Indiana converted nine of 15 third downs and held Northwestern to just 32 rushing yards on 27 attempts to hold on for the win.

The Wildcats had a favorable response to the loss, however, in defeating Penn State 34-13 the following week while opening their new stadium, and enter East Lansing coming off a 45-14 victory over Ball State.

Northwestern Coaching

Pat Fitzgerald hired David Braun as Northwestern’s defensive coordinator prior to the 2023 season. But, before the two ever coached a game together, Braun was promoted to interim head coach after Fitzgerald was fired in July of the same year. Braun’s interim tag was removed in November after Northwestern won at Wisconsin.

In his first season, Braun led Northwestern to an 8-5 record, including 5-4 in the Big Ten, and a Las Vegas Bowl win over Utah, earning Big Ten Coach of the Year honors for his efforts.

Things were a bit rougher in 2024, as Northwestern went 4-8, but the Wildcats got back on track in 2025, going 7-6 with another postseason win in the Game Above Sports Bowl.

Prior to Northwestern, Braun was the defensive coordinator at North Dakota State, helping the Bison to the 2019 and 2021 FCS national championships. NDSU’s defense allowed only 12.3 points per game in 2019 and did even better in 2021, giving up only 11.1 points per game.

Chip Kelly is in his first year at Northwestern’s offensive coordinator and, so far this year, has provided an excellent balance to Braun’s defensive background.

Kelly’s first high level coaching opportunity was as Oregon’s offensive coordinator from 2007-2008. He then took over for Mike Bellotti as the Ducks’ head coach in 2009. Under Kelly, Oregon made a BCS bowl game each year from 2009-2012, including the 2011 national championship game. However, the success on the field came with three years of NCAA probation for use of scouting services that occurred under Kelly’s tenure in Eugene.

Kelly received an 18-month show cause penalty for the violations, likely playing a role in his decision to move the NFL as head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles in 2013. Kelly put together consecutive 10-6 seasons with the Eagles but was fired late in the 2015 season with a 6-9 record. Things got worse in 2016 in San Francisco as the 49ers went 2-14 with Kelly at the helm.

After a somewhat humbling NFL stint, and a year as TV analyst, Kelly came back to college as the head coach at UCLA in 2018. After three straight losing seasons, the Bruins went 25-13 from 2021-2023 but Kelly called it quits in LA – just before UCLA’s 2024 spring practice and impending move to the Big Ten.

Kelly was rumored to have been interviewing for coordinator positions in the NFL but settled for the OC opening on Ryan Day’s staff at Ohio State. After helping the Buckeye’s to the 2024 national championship, Day went back to the NFL as the OC for the Las Vegas Raiders under head coach Pete Carroll. It didn’t last long. Carroll fired Kelly after a 2-9 start to the 2025 season before he landed on his feet again with Braun at Northwestern.

Northwestern alum Tim McGarigle has been on the Wildcats’ staff since 2018 and defensive coordinator since 2024. Those of us who thought Fitzgerald might be Northwestern’s leading tackler would be mistaken. McGarigle holds that record with 545 stops.

He was a also Broyles Award nominee for college football’s best assistant coach in 2025, when Northwestern gave up just 19.8 points per game.

Prior to Northwestern, McGarigle was a quality control coach for the Green Bay Packers and has also served on the staffs of Illinois and Western Michigan.

Northwestern Offense

Chiles leads the Wildcats’ offense and has been very effective in running Kelly’s system. He has thrown for at least 240 yards in four of Northwestern’s five games this year, including 293 yards against Indiana when the Wildcats’ run game really struggled. His season low output of 93 yards came in the win against Penn State but Northwestern only had to put in the air 14 times in that game while gashing the Nittany Lions for 413 rushing yards.

On the year, Chiles has completed 71.4% of his passes for 10.5 yards per attempt – both big improvements over his MSU days. He has yet to throw an interception this year, an issue that plagued him as a Spartan in 2024.

Like we saw at MSU, where Chiles was sacked a combined 51 times in 2024 and 2025, opposing defenses have gotten to him nine times this year. This is a factor in his rushing output where Chiles has produced just 73 yards on 44 carries this year, but six of those carries have gone for touchdowns.

Chiles throws primarily to two receivers and a tight end. Senior receiver Griffin Wilde (6-2, 200), who began his career as South Dakota State, leads the team with 24 catches for 425 yards (17.7 ypc) and three touchdowns. Junior receiver Drew Wagner (5-10, 195) has been more a possession receiver with 16 catches for 159 yards while big sophomore tight end Luke Dehnicke (6-6, 240) has been a big play threat with 11 catches for 208 yards (18.9 ypc).

Northwestern’s rushing attack features three very capable backs behind an offensive line that, outside of the Indiana game, has excelled in run blocking.

Junior Kaleb Komolafe (5-11, 210) and senior Gavin Sawchuk (6-0, 205) are each averaging over 5 yards per carry. Komolafe is the primary back with 60 carries for 334 yards and three touchdowns but senior Joseph Himon II (5-9, 195) has been the home run hitter in averaging 13.9 yards per carry, with a long of 80, on his 23 carries.

Kelly’s offense leans heavily towards the ground game, as the Wildcats have run on 63% of their plays in 2026. Despite Chiles’ low rushing output, which is affected by his sack yards, he still poses a running threat to other teams. This is a staple of Kelly’s offense, where a running QB frees up another blocker, allowing Northwestern to play a true 11 on 11 game.

Since moving to the Big Ten, Kelly has also emphasized a physical interior running game instead of outside zone concepts. Also, as the 63% rate suggests, Kelly will run it, regardless of down, until the defense brings a safety into the box. When the defense finally commits eight defenders to the run, Kelly will look to provide Chiles with simpler, single read options that look to exploit the space vacated by linebackers crashing towards the line of scrimmage in run anticipation.

Northwestern Defense

Braun and McGarigle run a 4-2-5 or 4-3 base defense that is predicated on gap integrity and designed to limit big plays while forcing offenses into long, perfectly executed drives in order to score. Northwestern does not blitz often and relies on their front four to get enough pressure on the quarterback.

The safeties often play back, but the defenders rally to the ball and are sure tacklers, preventing a six yard out route from becoming a 40 yard catch and run. The defense is extremely disciplined and rarely falls for the types of trick plays MSU had some level of success with against Illinois.

Finally, Northwestern rotates a lot of players on their defensive front – both lineman and edge rushers – and the stereotype of Northwestern having smaller players up front doesn’t necessarily hold true here. The linemen rotation averages close to 300 pounds while the edge rushers average about 260. What Northwestern lacks, however, is a true giant on the line that can absorb double teams as well as a speedy disruptor off the edge. Michigan State was able to get some production running Jaz Patterson between the tackles against Illinois. If the offensive line can execute against a disciplined Northwestern front, they should have enough of a size advantage to produce some openings for Patterson against the Wildcats.

So, another big challenge but big opportunity for MSU. We’ll take a closer look at some of other the key matchups later in the week.

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