Doman's coaching challenge begins now

It was in a wrestling match in junior high that the powder keg that is Brandon Doman's competitive drive reared its fiery head and exploded.

The BYU quarterbacks coach is the youngest in a line of brothers — all of whom took their turn pushing, prodding and setting high expectations for their baby brother.

At the match, Doman faced a huge kid on the mat. The youngest Doman was so stoked, remembers his father, that when the ref set the match in motion, Doman raced over to his opponent, picked him up off the floor and immediately put him on his head, pinning him without taking him down on his back. Doman pinned his opponent by holding him with feet in the air and shoulders down.

Like a planted carrot.

This is the year Doman will need every bit of what's in his competitive quiver. He's got to produce a starting quarterback for the reigning Mountain West champions.

"I want them to be competitors," Doman said. "I want them to battle. I want them to look like they have war paint on every day."

It all started on Monday, the kickoff of spring practice. Doman lit the fuse. Folks are standing by to see what powder residue rubs off when the smoke clears on essentially four brand new quarterbacks.

Gone is NFL-bound John Beck. Gone is his backup, Jason Beck, now a graduate assistant for the Cougars. Gone is Jacob Bower, who transferred when he didn't see himself fitting in.

These are faces nobody's really seen on campus.

The rookies are Arizona State transfer Max Hall, Snow College all-American Cade Cooper, Glendale Community College and Nevada transfer Brenden Gaskins and Doman's cousin Sam, fresh off a mission and a broken foot. From throwing tighter spirals to taking the proper steps, they'll need to nail down all of it, plus digest BYU's offense and get ready for the Sept. 1 opener against Arizona in Provo.

The Doman touch is simple. It starts with attitude.

"I want them, by the way they play and carry themselves, to be so that the team will automatically want to follow their lead," he said. "They had to feel their way through conditioning camp the past few months, but, with the personalities Max and Cade have, they'll naturally be team leaders in time. We're going to rely on Manase Tonga and Fui Vakapuna as vocal leaders, that and solid offensive line play."

And right there, Doman explains one of the biggest challenges for this group. They've got to almost instantaneously find a leader in this group while on the run.