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Provo • Taysom Hill alleviated a lot of fears last week when he assured everyone that his return from a season-ending injury, a fractured left leg, is on track and that he will be back next fall for his senior season at BYU.

Still, there's understandable concern that Hill won't be his former playmaking self, and there's also worry that if he does go down again, BYU won't have a capable backup like Christian Stewart to step in and carry the offense like the senior has done this season.

Calm the fears, BYU quarterbacks Jason Beck said Tuesday as the Cougars (7-4) continued preparations for Saturday's regular-season finale at 5-6 California (2:30 p.m. MST, Pac-12 Network). Not only is Beck "not worried about Taysom at all," he is confident that help is on the way so the program won't be caught as bare at the quarterback position as it was this year.

"Taysom will be back, and then we are recruiting like crazy to get some other guys in here to add to our depth at that position," Beck said. "I feel really good about who we have coming in, as well as getting Taysom back."

Beck said coaches "have looked into the junior college ranks," an obvious reference to landing a commitment from Trent Hosick, the Missouri transfer who played this season at Arizona Western College in Yuma. Until BYU gets Hosick's signature in December, coaches can't talk about him, per NCAA rules.

There has been concern that Hosick is wavering on his commitment and perhaps entertaining offers from other schools, such as Oregon, but he quelled those rumors Tuesday on sports radio station 1320 AM KFAN.

"BYU is my only offer," Hosick told Ben Anderson and Kyle Gunther. "I don't have a visit planned. Everyone says that Oregon is interested. … But BYU is where I am headed at this point."

Beck said highly touted prep quarterback Tanner Mangum, from Eagle High School in Idaho, returns from his church mission to Chile in July. That's a "little late," Beck acknowledged, and Mangum might be asked to redshirt. As mentioned last week by coach Bronco Mendenhall, BYU is moving away from redshirting players, except quarterbacks.

"With quarterbacks, we will still look to redshirt guys that are young and develop them so they are ready to play," Beck said. "So yeah, that is the one position that is an exception a little bit."

BYU will probably sign two high school quarterbacks in February: Pine View's mission-bound Kody Wilstead and Beau Hoge, a dual-threat QB from Highlands High in Fort Thomas, Ky. and the son of ESPN pro football analyst Merril Hoge.

Beau Hoge's 81-yard tackle-breaking touchdown run was recently the No. 1 overall play on ESPN's "SportsCenter" Top 10 plays of the day, and he has thrown for 3,048 yards and 32 touchdowns and rushed for 654 yards and 20 TDs this season.

Wilstead will graduate from Pine View in December and is scheduled to start his Spanish language training in Mexico on Jan. 14 before his mission to Argentina.

"We feel really good about the future of the quarterback position here," Beck said.

Twitter: @drewjay —

BYU at California

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