"Brendan's been very consistent," said quarterbacks coach Brandon Doman. "He's continued to work hard, he's continued to be a team player. Right now, he's the backup, but he's got to continue to earn that. I wouldn't say that's completely solidified. He gets a lot of reps right now and he's done well."

Hall and Gaskins took all the snaps during the first week of spring practice, but others will join the mix as the spring continues.

Behind Gaskins are Kurt McEuen, a sophomore from Heber City, and redshirt freshman Stephen Covey, a Provo native who returned from a mission in January. Redshirt freshman Jason Munns is participating in spring drills, though he plans to leave for a mission before the 2008 season begins. "We won't be able to get (the quarterbacks) all equal reps, but finding a backup quarterback, just like identifying our two-deep at all positions, is one of our primary objectives of spring," Mendenhall said.

Doman likes McEuen and all the QBs he has to work with.

"Kurt has been in the program for two years," he said. "He has really done a good job this spring; I've been really happy with him. He'll be a real good third quarterback and someone to pressure Brenden for the backup job."

The 5-foot-11, 177-pound Covey signed with BYU out of Timpview High in 2005 and played defensive back on the scout team that season. Mendenhall promised Covey when he returned from a mission, he could compete at quarterback.

"The style of offense that we could play when he's in there will be different from the style we play now because he's such a run threat," Mendenhall said. "He's fast, he's athletic, he's quick, he's tough and he's an excellent leader. Beside switching positions, he also just came off a mission.

"Patience is one of those things that will be the key here. He has to learn the position, he has to get his body caught back up to speed and master the offense. All those things take time. And he has quarterbacks in front of him.

"Quarterbacks here, ideally, won't play until they're juniors anyway," the Cougars' coach said. "Whether he chooses to stay at quarterback and how long that takes, that's hard to project. But I like him."

Cougar notes: In a brief team segment at the end of Monday's practice, Hall completed 9-of-13 passes for 60 yards and a touchdown to Michael Reed, while Gaskins was 3-of-5 for 7 yards and had a tipped pass intercepted by linebacker Terrance Hooks. ... There were plenty of recruits on hand Monday, including Timpview High commits Kevin and Craig Bills, Bronson Kaufusi and Garrett Nicholson (West High) and Iona Pritchard and kicker Justin Sorensen (Bingham High). Victor Unga, the younger brother of star running back Harvey Unga, was also on the sidelines and at 345 pounds looked like a load. Victor has committed to walk on BYU as a noseguard this fall and will battle for a scholarship.

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E-mail: jeffc@desnews.com