Sources: Jamie Martin joins Weber State football coaching staff for 2025 season
Wildcats also promote a former player to position coach
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- Left: Ogden Jets head coach Jamie Martin leads a practice during the fall 2024 season in Ogden. Right: Weber State defensive back Keilan Benjamin (10) intercepts a pass on Sept. 15, 2018, in Ogden.
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- Ogden Jets head coach Jamie Martin leads a practice during the fall 2024 season in Ogden.
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- Weber State defensive back Keilan Benjamin (10) intercepts a pass in a game against South Dakota on Sept. 15, 2018, at Stewart Stadium in Ogden.
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- Former Weber State quarterback Jamie Martin speaks at WSU for his jersey retirement on Nov. 15, 2014, at Stewart Stadium in Ogden.
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- Keilan Benjamin
Weber State football has finalized its coaching staff for the 2025 season, one that will include an all-time Wildcat legend.
Jamie Martin is joining WSU’s staff as an offensive analyst, sources tell the Standard-Examiner, while former Wildcat defensive back Keilan Benjamin has been promoted to cornerbacks coach.
Martin, the former record-breaking college quarterback at Weber State, has spent the last two years as head coach of the Ogden Jets, a post-prep academy football team launched by former WSU head coach Dave Arslanian.
As of the time of publishing Friday morning, neither hire had been made official by Weber State.
After a 16-year NFL career, Martin, 55, turned to the food business as a restaurateur. He owned a bar and grill in Saint Louis for several years and sold the restaurant in 2023 to move to Ogden and help lead the launch of the Jets.
Martin’s No. 10 is the only football number at Weber State recognized as retired (or maybe, more accurately, recognized in a ring of honor). In a career that wrapped up with the 1991 Walter Payton Award, given to the best player in then-Division I-AA football, he totaled 12,207 passing yards. At the time, that was fifth-most by any quarterback in NCAA football history at any level.
His career totals included single-game highs of 624 passing yards and seven touchdowns.
Martin went undrafted but his accuracy and ability to quickly learn playbooks led to a 16-year NFL career with the Los Angeles and Saint Louis Rams (over three stints), the New Orleans Saints and the Jacksonville Jaguars — with roles varied from practice squad, third-string veteran mentor and more.
Martin appeared in 53 NFL games, totaling 3,814 yards and 20 touchdowns. The year he started the most games in his career came in 2005 when the 35-year-old Martin led the Rams for five starts, completing 70.1% percent of his passes for a 4-1 record while Kurt Warner sat with an injury. He retired in 2008.
While in Saint Louis post-retirement, Martin spent some time as the offensive coordinator at Parkway West High School. He’s a native of Orange, California.
Benjamin, one of several players to have worn Martin’s No. 10 since its 2014 retirement, has been elevated to cornerbacks coach after the departure of Andre Dyson. Benjamin has been on WSU’s staff as a defensive quality control assistant for three years.
As a player, Benjamin joined Weber State as junior college transfer in 2017 and put together one of the better two-year stints of any WSU defensive back. Benjamin totaled 110 tackles, including 12.5 for loss, with seven interceptions and three forced fumbles for two Big Sky-title-winning teams.
Benjamin is a native of Richmond, California. The former first team All-Big Sky selection takes over for Dyson, who coached at Weber State for eight seasons overall, including the last five.
Benjamin is the second hire to WSU’s full-time staff of position coaches this season. The Wildcats also added Justin Mullgrav as defensive tackles coach following the departure of Grant Duff.
Mullgrav is a former linebacker from South Carolina State who was a graduate assistant at Utah for two seasons (2019-20), linebackers coach at Eastern Washington for two seasons (2021-22), and a defensive analyst for two more seasons at Utah (2023-24).
The Standard-Examiner reported Mullgrav’s addition on Jan. 22 and the school officially announced his hire on Monday.
Weber State begins the 2025 season under third-year head coach Mickey Mental on Aug. 30 with a trip to James Madison. That begins a 12-game season that includes two FBS opponents and four of the first five games on the road. WSU’s home opener is Sept. 20 against Butler.
Before then, though, comes the first day of the regular signing period, known as signing day, on Wednesday, Feb. 5. Spring camp typically opens in mid-March.
Signing day should mark the finalization of several additions, including UTSA transfer quarterback Jackson Gilkey, Boston College linebacker Sione Hala and Snow College receiver Reggie Frischknecht.
WSU should also sign Corner Canyon High School lineman Zion Finau, who announced his commitment to the Wildcats on Thursday. An offensive and defensive lineman, Finau was named Class 6A player of the year by the Deseret News, the MaxPreps player of the year for Utah, and a second-team All-American by MaxPreps. He also ran for 12 touchdowns as a goal-line fullback.
