EAST LANSING -- Northwestern lined up a wide receiver about 12 yards behind the line of scrimmage during its opening play against Penn State a few weeks ago.
Michigan State's defense will see some weird stuff on Saturday. The Spartans' (2-4 overall, 0-3 Big Ten) matchup against the 25th-ranked Wildcats (4-1 overall, 1-1 Big Ten) is already packed with storylines. The return of quarterback Aidan Chiles to Spartan Stadium is one thing, but the unusualness of Northwestern's offense is a whole extra thing.
Chip Kelly's Northwestern Offense
NU's offense was expected to be interesting this year. That's because head coach David Braun went out this offseason and got Chip Kelly to be the Wildcats' new offensive coordinator to respond to Northwestern being ranked 98th in both scoring offense (23.4 points per game) and total offense (346.1 yards per game) in 2025.
Kelly is one of the most well-known and influential offensive minds in college football in the 21st century. He's perhaps best known for his four-season tenure as Oregon's head coach, where he went 46-7 overall and reached a BCS bowl game each year. Kelly was also the head coach at UCLA from 2018-23. That was after two not-so-successful tenures as the head coach with the Philadelphia Eagles and the San Francisco 49ers.
Ohio State partially won the national title two years ago because Kelly was the offensive coordinator. The Buckeyes didn't put up gaudy offensive snaps that year, but OSU scored 36.3 points per game during its four-game playoff run.
After a year as the offensive coordinator with the Las Vegas Raiders, Kelly returned again to the college ranks. He's instantly helped improve NU's offense. Entering Week 7, the Wildcats are 37th nationally in scoring offense at 35.4 points per game and 41st in total offense at 437.4 total yards a contest.
"On first and second down, they're being very creative, creating matchups and doing a good job of creating some indecision with the run fits," Michigan State defensive coordinator Joe Rossi said about Kelly's offense. "I think, obviously, they're running a lot of wing-T plays and doing a really good job with it."
"Obviously, they're doing some things with the receivers and with the depth and moving them around. So, yeah, I think it's pretty unique what they're doing, and it's a testament to them, 'cause they're scoring a lot of points and moving the ball and running the ball for a lot of yards against some good defenses."
Rossi said he hasn't seen a college team go with a wing-T formation since he coached at Division III Thiel College in the early-mid 2000s. The wing-T's heyday was decades ago. Its vestiges these days are largely in smaller high schools and some smaller college programs. Northwestern doesn't exclusively run wing-T, but even having packages of it these days at the Big Ten is highly unusual. Alas, the Wildcats run it, and they run it pretty well.
The previously mentioned fact that NU and Kelly will line up receivers absurdly far from the line of scrimmage is another wrinkle for Michigan State to account for. Sometimes, that receiver is essentially a total decoy, but sometimes the receiver sprints forward in motion, CFL-style, before leveling out at the snap to avoid an illegal motion penalty. That initial sprint, though, has allowed them to gain more momentum and speed than with a traditional motion.
Chiles' Return
There are two giant elephants in the room with this matchup. One of them is MSU head coach Pat Fitzgerald going up against his alma mater and the program he was the head coach of for 17 years. The other, though, is Chiles' return to Spartan Stadium with Northwestern.
It's been a great year so far for Chiles in Evanston. He leads the Big Ten with 71.4% completions, which has gotten him 1,172 yards, nine passing touchdowns, and zero interceptions. Chiles has also added six touchdowns on the ground. His 15 total TDs this year in five games is just one shy of the 16 total touchdowns he had during each year he had at Michigan State in 2024 and 2025.
"He's playing outstanding," Fitzgerald said about 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 he's the reason why they've won the way they've won. Our hat's off to him. He's playing at a very high level and doing a great job."
Chiles is the third and final quarterback MSU will face this season who was a starter for the Spartans at one point. Michigan State faced Noah Kim (Eastern Michigan) in Week 2 and Katin Houser (Illinois) last week.
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