COLLEGE PARK — Four Maryland quarterbacks split snaps during the Terps' second practice of the spring Tuesday morning, and one drew praise from coach DJ Durkin that's been heard throughout the player's career.

Perry Hills, who started eight games in 2015, is back for his fifth season, and Durkin has recognized the intangibles that earned Hills praise from the Terps' previous coaching staff.

“Perry had a really good offseason,” Durkin said. “He showed he's a leader. He's a tough guy, which is good. That's an important part of the position that sometimes isn't talked about all the time. You've got to be tough, but all those guys compete.”

Maryland's quarterback situation is far from settled, and the combination of a new offensive system, freshmen arriving in the summer and the new staff working to get to know its personnel means that it probably won't be resolved before the Red-White spring game April 16.

For now, Hills, fellow fifth-year senior Caleb Rowe, junior Shane Cockerille (Gilman) and redshirt freshman Gage Shaffer will be evaluated by the coaching staff before incoming freshmen Tyrrell Pigrome and Max Bortenschlager join them this summer.

“That's an ongoing process,” Durkin said. “It's always hardest on the quarterbacks early because of timing and everything else going on and learning the offense, and so we'll keep evaluating as we go.”

Durkin said Maryland's depth chart is changing from practice to practice based on the effort the coaching staff sees from the players. So the supporting cast surrounding each quarterback is changing, but it's allowing the quartet to learn offensive coordinator Walt Bell's system with the rest of the personnel.

“The chemistry is there, but we've still got to learn the new offense,” said wide receiver D.J. Moore, who caught 25 passes for 357 yards and three touchdowns last season. “We've just got to build back on the chemistry with the new offense.”

Maryland's quarterback play was much maligned in 2015. Hills won the starting job out of camp, and his start in the season opener was his first in nearly three years. But late in the second game of the season, a loss to Bowling Green, he was benched in favor of Rowe, who started three straight games. Hills was reinstated as the starter in October and started the next five games before mononucleosis knocked him out of the lineup and Rowe returned.

Hills started the season finale at Rutgers before he was relieved by Rowe.

Cockerille moved back from fullback to quarterback in October and played the second half of Maryland's loss to Indiana in November.

Meanwhile, Shaffer watched from the sideline in his redshirt season before he was suspended for the final two games, and graduate transfer Daxx Garman made two cameos.

The results — 15 touchdowns, 29 interceptions, a passer rating of 90.3 — weren't pretty.

And so Hills and Rowe headline the returners for their final seasons in College Park.

“They've both been making strides,” Moore said. “They're pretty even right now because they're just learning their playbook. We're just learning on the run and picking it up as we go. It's pretty even right now.”

The main takeaway from Maryland's first spring practices is that the Terps offense under Bell will be up-tempo with plenty of motion and deception. But with four quarterbacks with different skill sets, it will need to be tailored to each. It seems unlikely to expect a resolution in a month, and the coaching staff wants to see exactly what it has in each quarterback.

“They're all getting reps, and they all get an equal opportunity to go show what they can do,” Durkin said.