Weber State quarterback Jackson Gilkey is the second all-time leading passer in the history of Ennis, Texas, High School. Texas Tech legend Graham Harrell is the all-time leading passer in Ennis history. Sam Harrell, the father of Graham, was Gilkey's high school coach.
Harrell holds nearly every major Texas Tech passing record with the exception of yards per game, which is held by Patrick Mahomes. Arizona offensive coordinator Seth Doege is fourth in Texas Tech history in multiple passing categories.
Doege was the tight ends coach at USC in 2021 and Purdue in 2023 when Harrell was the offensive coordinator for both programs. Harrell played at Texas Tech from 2005 through 2008. Doege was at Texas Tech from 2008 through 2012. Harrell held several Texas High School passing records.
Doege and Harrell both played under the late Mike Leach at Texas Tech and run modified versions of the Air Raid. Before becoming the USC TEs coach in 2021, Doege was a Offensive Quality Control Analyst in 2019 and 2020 with the Trojans.
Gilkey completed 64.0 percent of his pass attempts for 5,725 passing yards and 51 touchdowns with a 170.06 QB rating and rushed for 884 yards and 12 TDs during his high school career. Gilkey spent the first two seasons of his collegiate career at Texas-San Antonio but did not appear in a game.
In his debut for Weber State in the season opener, Gilkey completed 10 passes in 24 attempts for 84 yards, one TD and three interceptions. Gilkey is 103rd in the Football Championship Subdivision in passing yards per game.
After throwing three interceptions versus James Madison, Gilkey will play against an Arizona defense that had a trio of picks in their 40-6 win over Hawaii in the season opener last week. Gilkey has to try and eliminate or significantly minimize the interceptions he had in the 45-10 Weber State loss at James Madison.