I’m not sure how I missed this, but before spring ball, ESPN ranked all 68 Power Four quarterbacks in the country, and Michigan State’s Alessio Milivojevic was disrespected to an insane degree.
After a strong end to the 2025 season where he took the starting job from Aidan Chiles and never looked back, fans were lobbying for new head coach Pat Fitzgerald to do everything in his power to keep Milivojevic in East Lansing. He did that and Michigan State’s quarterback situation looked like one of the better ones in the Big Ten.
Well, one college football expert disagreed.
According to Bill Connelly of ESPN, Milivojevic is the fifth-worst quarterback in the entire FBS, ahead of only Iowa’s quarterbacks, Cole Ballard of Kansas, Ryan Browne of Purdue, and ex-Michigan quarterback Davis Warren who’s now at Stanford.
Talk about a slap in the face.
The quarterbacks just ahead of Milivojevic make no sense either. As a first-year starter, Alessio took over for Chiles near the end of the season and passed for over 1,200 yards and 10 touchdowns with just three picks and a completion rate over 64 percent. He was fantastic in a short period of time which made his return a welcomed sight for Spartan fans.
Milivojevic was the best quarterback that Michigan State had fielded in years, and yet somehow he’s being touted as the fifth-worst quarterback in the Power Four? What are we doing?
The disrespect is going to continue into the season I’m sure, but I have faith that Nick Sheridan is going to develop Milivojevic quickly and turn him into one of the better quarterbacks in the Big Ten. There’s just absolutely no way that he’s the third-worst in the Big Ten and fifth-worst in the entire Power Four. That’s just disrespectful.
I doubt that an under-the-radar spring changed Connelly’s mind on Milivojevic, but I’m sure the 2026 season will.
Alessio Milivojevic could become Pat Fitzgerald’s Kirk Cousins
If you don’t understand this reference, let me explain. Under Mark Dantonio, he needed a talented quarterback to really take the program to the next level after Brian Hoyer left and Kirk Cousins stepped up, beating out Keith Nichol for the starting job — and the rest is history.
I’m not out here saying that Alessio is as talented as Kirk was or that he’s going to have a similar legacy, but he has a chance to do what the now-Las Vegas Raider did: turn MSU into a winner.
Milivojevic is Fitzgerald’s first quarterback and after four straight seasons without a bowl berth, even getting Michigan State to six wins would have his legacy trending in the right direction. It won’t take much for fans to hop on the bandwagon and with a full offseason under Sheridan and Fitzgerald, I believe that Milivojevic has a chance to be a top-half-of-the-Big Ten QB1.
ESPN will be eating its words (again) in about five months.
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