KENT: Julian Edelman spent the final day of spring practice Saturday quietly watching from the sidelines, his helmet dangling all but forgotten from his left hand.

The other Golden Flashes quarterbacks, sophomore Giorgio Morgan and juniors Anthony Magazu and Jon Brown, played in the team's final scrimmage that was open to the public.

Edelman, the senior incumbent, did not take a snap. It simply wasn't worth the risk.

Edelman, who has played a majority of his career at KSU hurt, is recovering from a broken right forearm that prematurely ended his season last year.

Edelman has shown Flashes coach Doug Martin and his staff enough to win the starting job, but they weren't willing to risk the possibility of his getting hurt again at this juncture.

''We went live on the quarterbacks all spring,'' Martin said. ''That was a real roll of the dice, but we felt we needed to do that for all of them to get better. Yet, at this point, there was no sense in taking any more shots on Julian.

''He's proven he's back, and he's playing really well. He's making plays, not only with his legs but with his arm, too. And he was getting more and more accurate as the spring went on. He got his arm strength back pretty early after surgery; it's the accuracy he's been working on.''

When the semester wraps up, the 6-foot, 196-pound Edelman plans to head home to Redwood City, Calif., where he will spend time with his father honing his accuracy while working out at nearby Woodside High School.

''Spring ball was great for me to get my confidence back, for seeing the field with people in your way,'' Edelman said.

Last fall, Edelman threw for 1,318 yards with seven touchdowns in eight games while playing on a partially torn posterior cruciate ligament in his left knee before breaking the arm against Bowling Green on Oct. 20.

''My dad and I are going to go to my old high school with a bag of balls and set up targets. We'll do that probably every night.''

Morgan, 6-foot-4, 200 pounds, threw for 100 yards (14-of-23) with an interception as he continued to battle with the 6-foot-3, 196-pound Magazu (5-of-11 for 58 yards) for the backup spot.

''Not having the red jerseys on this spring gave me a real game-type experience,'' Morgan said. He had planned to sit out last season but gave up his redshirt status late in the season because of injuries to Edelman and Magazu (ankle).

''Usually in the spring, quarterbacks don't get hit. Usually, you can't even touch 'em. But I feel like taking those hits and getting that kind of action will give us an edge over a lot of teams'' in the Mid-American Conference.

Necessity tossed Morgan into the fire as a freshman. He made his collegiate debut Oct. 27 against Central Michigan by tossing three touchdowns. The on-the-spot tutorial didn't last long, as Morgan hyperextended his leg in just the second quarter of his second game against Northern Illinois.

''Giorgio has great accuracy, and he sees the field really well from the pocket and when he scrambles,'' Martin said. ''The negatives of Giorgio right now are just details, knowing his pass protections, when he has to throw the ball hot and when he's protected.''

With two-a-days still coming up this summer, Martin warned not to exclude Magazu from the final backup quarterback picture yet.

''The last week he's been really impressive,'' Martin said. ''He's just now getting his arm back after (offseason) elbow surgery. Either way, I think we'll be able to play two quarterbacks this year. There will be situations where we do that, maybe the third series of each half, where we put another quarterback in for a series.''

Spring success

• The KSU coaching staff handed out five traditional honors Saturday to senior defensive end David Filippi (hard work and dedication), sophomore running back Andre Flowers (most improved offensive player), senior tight end Jameson Konz (two awards for the greatest improvement in spring drills and for the upperclassman with the highest cumulative GPA) and sophomore defensive lineman Monte Simmons (most improved defensive player).