Trading places: Pat Fitzgerald, Aidan Chiles the headliners in Michigan State-Northwestern

EAST LANSING – For two years, Aidan Chiles was the face of Michigan State football.

For nearly 30 years, Pat Fitzgerald was the face of Northwestern.

Roles have reversed. Chiles left MSU and is now the Wildcats’ starting quarterback. Fitzgerald got fired from his alma mater a little over three years ago, now resurrecting his coaching career with the Spartans.

It's a strange snapshot of college football in 2026, but one that Fitzgerald is trying to block out as MSU prepares to host Chiles and Northwestern.

“This week and this game is not about me. It’s about the players on both teams,” Fitzgerald said Monday, Oct. 12. “I’m very proud of my experience as a player there and the great teammates I had. Very proud of the teams and the coaches I had, the coaches that I worked with and the players I had a privilege to coach there. And very thankful for that experience.

“But I’m a Spartan. And I’m proud to be a Spartan, and I’m honored to be here.”

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The Spartans (2-4, 0-3 Big Ten) are seeking to end a four-game losing streak and nursing a multitude of major injuries, while Chiles has the Wildcats (4-1, 1-1) inching toward a bowl berth heading into their matchup Saturday. Kickoff is noon at Spartan Stadium (Big Ten Network).

Fitzgerald was an All-American and College Football Hall of Famer as a linebacker at Northwestern from 1993-96, becoming the first player in college football history to win both the Nagurski and Bednarik trophies as the nation’s top defensive player in back-to-back years (1995 and 1996). He returned as an assistant coach from 2001-05 and then took over as head coach after Randy Walker’s death just before the 2006 season.

In 17 seasons, Fitzgerald went 110-101 overall and 65-76 in Big Ten play while reaching the league title game twice. He was fired shortly before the 2023 season.

While Fitzgerald was out of college football until MSU hired him in December, Chiles was leading the Spartans as their starting quarterback for 20 games in 2024 and 2025 before entering the transfer portal after the firing of coach Jonathan Smith. The 6-foot-4, 225-pound native of Long Beach, California, was 8-12 as a starter before getting benched for current MSU starter Alessio Milivojevic for the final four games last season, but not before becoming the 18th quarterback in MSU history to eclipse 3,000 passing yards (3,807) as he completed 61% of his throws with 23 touchdowns and 25 interceptions. He also ran for nine touchdowns but was sacked 51 times in his MSU starts.

This season, under Wildcats offensive coordinator Chip Kelly and with the tutelage of quarterbacks coach Jerry Neuheisel, Chiles is thriving. He is completing 71.4% of his passes for 1,172 yards with nine touchdowns and no interceptions and has added five rushing TDs.

“He had a great career here [at MSU] and a great run here. And he’s playing outstanding,” Fitzgerald said of Chiles. “The touchdown-to-turnover ratio speaks for itself. I think he’s executing coach Kelly's offense excellently. He’s given them a chance to win every game and is the reason why they’ve won the way they’ve won.”

About that tirade

Fitzgerald said he would keep private any conversations he had with the Big Ten about plays in Saturday’s 38-37 overtime loss to Illinois, particularly the errantly flagged offsides penalty on a surprise onside kick MSU recovered midway through the third quarter during their comeback from a 17-point first-half deficit. The play had Fitzgerald fuming, swearing and flipping the middle finger – he felt his mother “is rolling over in her grave” from his gesture.

Fitzgerald repeated his mea culpa from after Saturday’s loss, saying he needs to show more composure and leadership, and said he apologized to his team on Monday “for any distraction I may have created.”

“We have to play cleaner and play better to overcome things that are gonna happen in the game,” he said. “We’re gonna make mistakes, I’m gonna make mistakes. I make mistakes all the time. You learn and you move forward. And I have such great respect for the officials and the job they do. …

“I’m the leader of our team. I have high expectations of myself.”

But he would not apologize for the overarching theme of what caused his vitriolic response to the referees.

“I do have a passion problem, and I’ve had that for a long time. But that needs to be controlled and not be emotional,” he said. “I can’t do that. I know I can’t do that. But I’m not gonna apologize for fighting for my guys, and I’m not gonna apologize for fighting for our program and fighting for our school.

“It means the world to me to be here. It means the world to me to have this opportunity to be those guys’ leader. To see the way they fought, and to put ourselves in that position and then have what happened to them happen to them, I’m really proud of our response. I’m not proud of mine, but I’m proud of theirs.”

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Trading places: Pat Fitzgerald, Aidan Chiles the headliners in Michigan State-Northwestern