Tabbed as Weber State’s starting quarterback after two years at UTSA, Gilkey faced a rather undesirable first matchup last week at James Madison; the Dukes, takeaway hawks, entered as the nation’s reigning FBS turnover margin king.

Gilkey finished 10 of 24 for 84 yards, one touchdown and three interceptions. He had bright spots, a couple bad throws, and felt again what it’s like to be tackled. (WSU’s offensive line kept him clean on pass plays, but he rushed eight times for 21 yards.)

The 14-yard touchdown pass to Noah Kjar, he said, felt pretty good. Bells went off as soon as Kjar made his break near the end zone.

“When I saw the coverage and he was wide open, it was just ‘please don’t miss this throw,'” Gilkey smiled. “You just have to throw the ball, don’t make him speed up to catch it or anything like that. … Just a nice, easy ball, like you’re playing catch in the backyard.”

Daniel Lin, Daily News-Record via AP

It was his first touchdown pass since Nov. 19, 2022, when his previously undefeated Ennis High squad took a one-point loss in the 5A Texas state playoffs. His three interceptions, well, he’d like a couple of those throws again, if he could choose. Those appear to be his first picks thrown since Oct. 22, 2022.

In practice this week, Gilkey wasn’t much concerned with how long it had been.

“I think I’ve got to process things a little bit quicker. I can be a little more accurate with the ball. Overall, my decision-making wasn’t too bad but there’s a few plays I wanted back,” he said. “Just getting used to the game speed, processing and accuracy, is the biggest thing I need to work on.”

He hopes there’s significant progress for him and teammates from Week 1 to Week 2 heading to Arizona.

“Just having the fundamentals down, knowing what you’re doing each play — you’ve got to be on time even moreso in games than in practice. The windows are tighter, the coverage is tighter. So just processing it, having my feet aligned with where you want to throw the ball; you’ve got to be ready to throw the ball when you need to throw the ball.”

Robert Casey, Weber State Athletics

Coaches had more praise for Gilkey than he had for himself.

“For not playing for so long, I thought his timing, his clock was good in the pocket. We didn’t give up any sacks,” head coach Mickey Mental said. “Accuracy could’ve been a little bit better. The first pick got tipped at the line of scrimmage, second one went off the receiver’s hands. The third one was on him.

“Overall, I thought he managed the game pretty well. At the end of the day, we’ve got to score more points, and get more yards to flip field position at the minimum when we’re backed up.”

After a 2024 full of false starts and what he felt was a disconnect between the quarterback and offensive line, associate head coach and offensive line coach Brent Myers was pleased with the first outing of hopefully many to come with Gilkey at the helm.

“He’s 100% better. We got one false start and nobody even moved. … I’m looking at the film and I can’t see one guy move,” Myers said. “So that’s an improvement, because of the guy who’s calling it. Against pretty heavy pressure, I thought we did a nice job in protections.

“Jackson’s done a really good job and I feel very confident that he and the O-line are very much on the same page. I didn’t feel that way last year.”

Myers and Mental both said Weber State has to run the ball better to play “complementary football” and to make Gilkey’s job easier in the passing game.

“I hesitate to say we’re not very good when we played against … an excellent, excellent defense,” Myers said about James Madison. “They are fast, they are athletic, and they’re going to beat a lot of people. They’re going to win football games because of that defense.

“Now, no rest for the weary,” he continued, speaking about facing an Arizona defense that held Hawaii to six points. “Just the nature of the beast; you go up a level, you play better defenses. We’ve just got to compete, execute, do what we do best, play as hard as we can, and let the chips fall as they may.”