Chicken Little can always find evidence that the sky is falling.

As SDSU football’s 2024 campaign nears its end, doomsday prognosticators are predicting the demise of the Sean Lewis Era before he has even had a full year as head coach. They point to the team’s 3-7 record, the low attendance of a Friday night contest, the Aztec Fast offense not hitting its stride, and recent decommits from Class of 2025 recruits Jaden Williams and Quaid Carr as proof of the program’s downward direction.

Like Chicken Little’s fowlish panic from falling acorns, these interpretations of the events surrounding the program are, at best, incomplete and, at worst, misguided. The sky is not falling around the Aztecs.

They are moving to the Pac-12. Snapdragon Stadium is still the program’s home. Despite this season’s results, Lewis is as confident and passionate as ever. NIL is evolving into revenue sharing. As terrific as Carr and Williams are as prospects, they were not the most important members of SDSU’s Class of 2025.

That distinction belongs to the quarterback who turned down offers from no. 5 Indiana, no. 9 Ole Miss, Cal, and others to become an Aztec. Even as some of these schools recently tried to pry JP Mialovski away from SDSU, the Milikan High School signal-caller is locked into Lewis, quarterback coach Matt Johnson, and what they can build together on The Mesa.

“Schools reached out that don’t have a commit that was on my radar before, and I just tell them that I’m committed still,” Mialovski told EVT in an exclusive interview this week. “The relationships that I’ve built with coach MattyJ, coach Lew, and the rest of the staff is really tight, really strong. I can’t really imagine breaking that relationship that I have there. I’m still loyal to coach Lewis, and I’ll be signing on (December) fourth.”

History Making Quarterback

Millikan and Long Beach Poly are Moore League rivals, separated by just five miles, but they are worlds apart in the local high school hierarchy.

Coming into the year, Milikan had not hung a Moore League banner since 1973. Poly had won 15 straight titles, winning all 76 league games during that span. Their last two Moore defeats were back-to-back contests in October 2009. Before those losses, Poly had a then-state record 80-game league winning streak.

Four-star recruit and current Stanford Cardinal Myles Jackson preceded Mialovski as Millikan’s quarterback in 2021 and 2022. Poly defeated the Rams 42-0 and 42-28 in Jackson’s final seasons. In 2023, Mialovski’s first as a starter, LBPHS, snuck by with a 26-23 victory in overtime. Those were Millikan’s only Moore League losses in the last three years.

“Poly is always a great team,” Mialovski explained about the matchup. “We had the mindset that we were going to go in there and finally get it done this year because we knew we had the guys to do it. We had the right game plan, and we executed. We scored on almost every drive. The defense did a really good job keeping them off the field, letting us get our drives going, score those points, and beat them by two scores.”

The 2024 clash with the Jackrabbits started as so many others have over the years. Poly raced out to a 12-0 lead. On the next drive, Mialovski responded as special athletes do.

He moved the chains by dropping a dime to his running back on a wheel route over the chasing defender and in front of a crashing safety. He controlled the C gap in the run game, tucking the ball on a read/option and picking up another first down. He completed the drive by executing a perfect RPO.

He read the defensive end crashing on the running back, kept the ball, and sprinted to his left. His second read was the cornerback in the slot. Once the Poly defender keyed on him, Mialovski got his shoulders parallel to the line of scrimmage and found an open receiver for a 19-yard touchdown pass and Millikan’s first score.

A 57-yard completion on a perfectly thrown slant in the third gave the Rams its first lead of the game, 29-26. They would go on to win 53-40. After the game, the Rams celebrated by spraying sparkling cider inside the locker room. Sounding like a Lewis recruit, however, the euphoria was short-lived.

“It was a huge deal,” Mialovski said about the victory. “We celebrated that weekend, but our mind was on Lakewood (High School) the next week, so we didn’t really carry it over. We definitely made history. It’s something people are going to remember for a very long time. Hopefully, they can keep that streak going at Millikan and beat Poly more often now.”

Two victories later, the Rams secured their first Moore League Championship in 51 years. If Millikan hangs the 2025 banner in the school’s second semester, Mialovski likely won’t attend the ceremony.

He has already gained acceptance to SDSU and will be enrolling early to learn the offense and be ready to compete for the starting job in Fall Camp. Long Beach Unified is on a traditional school schedule, so he cannot come to San Diego until after Millikan’s first semester ends on January 24.

“(SDSU’s staff) told me I’m going to go in there and I’m going to have an opportunity to take the job as a freshman, so I have held that close, and I’m going to do everything I can do to contribute to the team and hopefully be able to play as a freshman,” Mialovski said. “If not, be the quarterback of the future. They said they see me helping them bring a lot of success to the program. I feel like with my skill set and what I can do, I can help them out for the future and hopefully turn things around next year.”

JP Mialovski is the Alpha

Mialovski has NFL aspirations. The example Lewis sets with his work ethic and his demand that his athletes follow it should put the young signal caller in an excellent position to reach that goal. Achieving excellence comes down to luck and hard work.

The future SDSU quarterback has been blessed with a 6-foot-2, 205-pound frame. He has good athleticism and obvious arm talent. Jackson decided to graduate a year early, creating an opportunity for him at Millikan. He was born into a supportive family. He has capitalized on these favorable uncontrollables by putting in tremendous effort.

Lewis frequently discusses the obsession athletes must have to compete professionally. As a freshman, Mialovski left his hometown of Las Vegas with his mom and stepdad to enroll at powerhouse St. John Bosco. After spending two years there, he transferred 12 miles south to Millikan.

Nearly every week for the past four years, Mialovski has worked out six days a week. He alternates with workouts on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and throwing sessions on the other days. He sometimes adds a fourth throwing day on Wednesdays if he is not too sore. Sundays are his rest day.

Even before his junior campaign made him a national recruit, Mialovski poured into his craft. When his two years of toil finally paid off on the gridiron last year, he refined his efforts even more.

“I knew the potential that I had,” Mialovski said. “I’ve always seen myself as being a top-tier quarterback so just believing in myself always since I was a freshman and especially when I got my first varsity start and snaps as a junior. Really seeing what I could do on the field made me feel good about myself, what I could do, and be confident that I could play at that level. It pushed me to work that hard.”

Last spring, to keep his speed up while he added bulk to his frame, Mialovski competed on Millikan’s track and field team. His events were the 100-meter and 4×100 relays. He admitted that since his primary motivation was to increase his explosiveness for football, he didn’t master the technical aspects sprinters use to shave time off their results. It took multiple questions in the interview to get the complete picture of his season because Mialovski didn’t want to talk about second-place finishes.

“Second is not first. The quarterback has to be the first guy in the room, so I don’t like being second place in anything,” Mialovski said.

Belief in Sean Lewis

Even with a chance to exceed last year’s win total remaining, the Aztecs’ season has not lived up to the hopes Lewis created in the offseason. The offense led by Danny O’Neil has not been the advertised “Aztec Fast” attack. The prospect of 2025 led by another true freshman would not be ideal, but Mialovski’s training at Millikan might earn him that opportunity.

Millikan’s offense is very similar to what SDSU employs. Mialovski has spent years making the same reads Lewis’ system requires. While not a home run threat in the run game, the young QB could step into the Aztecs’ game on Saturday against Utah State and control the C gap. He also has the size to absorb punishment at the next level. On film, it is easy to see why Mialovski was high on SDSU’s recruiting board.

However 2025 plays out, Mialovski’s unshaken belief in Lewis and what he is building speaks to the positive direction of the program. Lewis and the prep star talk once a week and have done so all year. Johnson also calls a few times weekly to discuss Millikan and SDSU’s game plans for their upcoming contests.

“It’s coach Lew’s first year as a head coach,” Mialovski replied when asked why SDSU’s 2024 season has not soured him on the Aztecs. “Things are bound to happen that are not really in his control. As we continue to get this team to mesh together and with the new guys coming in next year, it’s only going to get better.”

“I believe in coach Lewis, and even though they haven’t won that many games, I believe he’ll be able to flip things around. We’ll start to get something going in the future. Just in his person and as a coach, I wouldn’t take those losses to heart. I don’t think that really represents him as a coach, and its only up from this point.”

On December 4, Mialovski plans to join his mentors as an official football team member. SDSU hopes he is joined by more than just the rest of the Class of 2025.

The university is campaigning for season ticket renewals. Fans who secure their spot by the day Mialovski intends to sign with the Aztecs receive a $25 voucher for each seat purchased and are entered into the school’s 12-Day of Giving contest.

Paul Garrison

My earliest sport’s memory involve tailgating at the Murph, running down the circular exit ramps, and seeing the Padres, Chargers and Aztecs play. As a second generation Aztec, I am passionate about all things SDSU. Other interests include raising my four children, being a great husband and teaching high school.