March 29, 2024
Recruiting


Recruiting

St. Francis QB Alessio Milivojevic picks up offer from SEC’s Ole Miss

The rising junior quarterback holds two official offers with budding interest across the country

St. Francis quarterback Alessio Milivojevic

Alessio Milivojevic’s summer schedule certainly is a hectic one.

In the past two weeks, Milivojevic, a St. Francis junior quarterback, has gone to exposure camps at Penn State, North Central and Duke.

Milivojevic, who was on Duke’s campus recently for an Ivy League mega exposure camp, has since netted his first Southeastern Conference offer from Ole Miss.

It could be the first of many offers for the rising quarterback prospect.

“I know [Ole Miss co-offensive coordinator Charlie] Weis [Jr.] has been watching me for a while now throughout the summer,” Milivojevic said. “He watched my tape multiple times for sure and they wanted to come out here. They never got out here and he finally pulled the trigger on me.”

The 6-foot-1, 200-pound Milivojevic has yet to step foot on the Ole Miss campus, but he has a recruiting event at a later date in July where he’ll be in attendance.

Milivojevic also has an offer from Bowling Green of the Mid-American Conference.

Milivojevic is gaining plenty of traction with camp invites or social media followings from programs and coaches across the country, including Missouri, Pittsburgh, Auburn and Tennessee.

After his camp attendance at North Central last week, Milivojevic has talked to coaches from Western Michigan, Central Michigan and Duke, and he even threw in front of Penn State head coach James Franklin.

“It’s amazing to know all these hours, all these days that I’ve spent in the gym and my quarterbacks coach, speed trainer, with the team … all these different times I maybe couldn’t go hang out with my friends and I went to work out [have paid off],” Milivojevic said.

“At a lot of these camps, there’s lots of kids and you’re fighting for reps,” Milivojevic said. “So the coaches want to see how you compete with other players in the camp generally. They come, talk to them at the end. … I’m a QB, right? It’s different for a lot of positions because there’s only one QB on each team. They want to see you throw. They want to watch the film. They want to actually connect with you before they offer.”

Self-evaluating his film from last fall with the Spartans, Milivojevic has worked to transform and build upon his overall athleticism, including speed training, quickness, evasiveness from pressure in the pocket and more.

As a sophomore, Milivojevic completed 65% of his passes, averaging 169 passing yards per game and had an 11 to 6 touchdown-to-interception ratio.

Along with the physical aspect, reading defenses and understanding coverages is a continued point of emphasis from the 7-on-7 events.

“Many people say [7-on-7s] doesn’t help generate the real game [because there’s] no pressure,” Milivojevic said. “But what it does help is five receivers versus seven defenders. You have to decipher seven guys covering five, which really helps with reads, in my opinion.

“The pressure isn’t coming at you, but it still helps you sort of with an idea of real-game speed against guys all around the country,” Milivojevic said. “I went to Florida, Kentucky, [Georgia], all these different places.”

Jacob Bartelson

Jacob Bartelson

Jake is a full-time sports reporter writing primarily for the Kane County Chronicle covering preps. His collective work is featured across several Shaw markets and platforms, including Friday Night Drive and Bears Insider. Jake began full-time in 2017.