- A UTSA transfer won the Week 1 job, delivered a 42-41 road win at McNeese, and lost the rest of 2025 to a fractured fibula before the program parted ways with its head coach in November.
- Jackson Gilkey, Weber State Football connect back to Weber State University and the wider football picture.
- The story is backed by 6 sources and a visible last-verified date.
April 2, 2026
June 3, 2026
5 min / 1,049 words
6 official links
Jackson Gilkey opened Weber State Football's 2025 season as the Wildcats' Week 1 starting quarterback after winning the job from a four-deep camp competition. By the end of his fifth start, he had thrown for 218 yards and a touchdown and rushed for 114 yards and a score in a 42-41 road win at McNeese — the first 100-yard rushing game by a Weber State quarterback since Stefen Cantwell did it in 2017. Two games after McNeese, Gilkey fractured his left fibula at UC Davis. The Wildcats lost their starting quarterback for the year, and on November 10 the program announced it was parting ways with head coach Mickey Mental.
The combined sequence — an FBS transfer winning the job, a 42-41 road win, a season-ending injury, and a head-coaching change — made the Wildcats' 2025 season one of the more eventful Big Sky storylines of the calendar year.
Ennis to UTSA to Ogden
Gilkey is from Ennis, Texas, the central Texas community east of Waxahachie that has produced a steady stream of Power-conference signees over the past decade. His Ennis High School career closed with 5,725 passing yards and 51 touchdowns — a high-volume career number that ranked him among the program's most-productive recent quarterbacks.
He signed with UTSA — University of Texas at San Antonio — out of high school, joining the Roadrunners' Conference USA program. UTSA has built one of the FBS's stronger Group-of-Five identities over recent seasons, with multiple conference championships and a steady professional pipeline. Gilkey's UTSA years did not produce a starting role; the program had veteran quarterbacks ahead of him through his early college years.
The Weber State transfer arrived in the winter portal cycle ahead of the 2025 season. The Wildcats' staff signed Gilkey as part of a class designed to remake the quarterback room, and the program's preseason coverage framed his first live game as his first in nearly three years of college football.
The McNeese game
The 42-41 road win at McNeese on the second weekend of the season was Weber State's signature 2025 result. The Wildcats traveled to Louisiana for a non-conference matchup against the FCS opponent and delivered the program's first FCS road win against a Top-25-ranked opponent in years.
Gilkey's individual line was the headline. He threw for 218 yards and a passing touchdown — the steady, possession-heavy production a road FCS quarterback usually needs to keep his team in front of a hostile crowd. The bigger line was the rushing: 114 yards on the ground and a rushing touchdown.
The 114-yard rushing game placed Gilkey alongside Stefen Cantwell on the Wildcats' historic quarterback-rushing record. Cantwell, who started for the program in 2017, was the previous Wildcat to break 100 rushing yards in a single game. The Big Sky's quarterback rooms have shifted over the past decade toward dual-threat play, but the 100-yard barrier remains a meaningful single-game line for the position.
The UC Davis injury
Five starts into the season, Gilkey suffered a fractured left fibula in the Wildcats' road game at UC Davis. The injury was diagnosed at the game and confirmed in Weber State's postgame release.
He underwent surgery within days. The recovery timeline ruled him out for the rest of the 2025 season, which left the Wildcats searching for a quarterback solution mid-year. The remaining starts went to the program's depth-chart options, and the offensive production declined accordingly.
The injury also placed Gilkey on the medical-redshirt eligibility track. NCAA rules allow a player who plays in four games or fewer in a season to redshirt; Gilkey's five-start total exceeds that limit, but the medical hardship waiver process is a separate eligibility pathway. The Wildcats' coaching staff has not publicly addressed Gilkey's eligibility status post-season.
The November coaching change
Weber State announced on November 10 that the program was parting ways with head coach Mickey Mental. Mental finished his three-year tenure at 13-20 overall and 8-14 in the Big Sky. The 2025 season closed with the Wildcats below the conference's average winning percentage.
Brent Myers took over as interim head coach for the closing stretch of the schedule. Myers had been on the staff during Mental's tenure and stepped into the head role for the final games of 2025.
The coaching change added the offseason variable to Gilkey's recovery. The new head-coach hire for 2026 will determine the program's offensive scheme, the quarterback's role inside that scheme, and the depth chart that Gilkey enters when he is cleared to return.
Eric Kjar takes over for 2026
The head-coach question resolved in December. Weber State hired Eric Kjar, the longtime Corner Canyon High School coach from Draper, Utah, on a four-year contract covering the 2026-29 seasons. Kjar arrived with a 112-10 record and six state championships over nine years at Corner Canyon — a rare jump from a high school program directly into an FCS head-coaching chair, and a bet on a coach who had dominated the same Utah prep pipeline Weber State recruits.
For Gilkey, the hire is the variable that defines his return. Kjar's offensive system, his read on the existing quarterback room, and his depth-chart decisions all reset in 2026, and a dual-threat quarterback who already owns a 42-41 road win and a 100-yard rushing game is the kind of returning piece a first-year staff usually wants to evaluate early. His medical-hardship eligibility review runs on the offseason calendar; if the waiver is granted, he keeps an additional season to compete for the job.
Key facts: Jackson Gilkey
- Player: Jackson Gilkey, quarterback, Weber State (2025)
- Path: Ennis (Texas) High School → UTSA → Weber State (2025 transfer)
- 2025 signature game: 42-41 road win at McNeese — 218 passing yards, 1 TD; 114 rushing yards, 1 TD
- Milestone: First 100-yard rushing game by a Weber State QB since Stefen Cantwell (2017)
- Injury: Fractured left fibula at UC Davis, ended his season after five starts
- Coaching change: HC Mickey Mental out Nov 10, 2025; Eric Kjar (ex-Corner Canyon, 112-10) hired December 2025
The 2026 Big Sky season opens in late August. By then the program's coaching identity is set under Kjar, Gilkey's recovery and eligibility status will be public, and the Wildcats' next quarterback room will have taken shape around the dual-threat starter the 2025 season introduced before the injury cut it short.
