Rolling Meadows’ Milas chooses Ball State

Jack Milas is about to begin a busy senior year in which he plans to play football, basketball and baseball for Rolling Meadows.

So, one of the state’s most prolific quarterbacks took care of one potential time-consuming obstacle by making a verbal commitment last week to play Division I college football at Ball State.

The 6-foot-2, 193-pound Milas was a Daily Herald All-Area selection last season as he was on target with 66 percent of his passes for 2,730 yards and 29 touchdowns with only 8 interceptions as the Mustangs qualified for the Class 6A playoffs.

“I really wanted to get it done before the season,” Milas said. “The pressure is kind of off and I can concentrate on my senior year. I felt Ball State was a really good fit.”

Milas said he also had interest from Central Michigan, Bowling Green, Eastern Illinois, Drake, Butler and Winona State.

He said Ball State first showed interest with about a month left in the school year and then targeted Milas after another quarterback who received a scholarship offer chose another school.

“I like the coaching staff and I liked the school,” Milas said. “They were honest with me the whole time.”

Ball State is coming off a 6-6 finish in its first season under head coach Pete Lembo. Milas said the plan is for him to redshirt his first year and then compete for playing time.

Milas, who has a 3.9 grade-point average on a 5.0 scale and is undecided on what he plans to study, started to see playing Division I college football as a realistic possibility when he broke into the starting lineup as a sophomore and threw for 523 yards and 10 TDs.

It’s all part of a quick transformation since Milas played offensive line until he came to Meadows as a freshman.

“I was too heavy,” Milas said with a laugh.

Now he has taken some weight off his mind for this season.