Spring football practice is a perfect time to refine technique, pick up some new skills and build chemistry.

Friday's afternoon BYU football practice had more than 400 high school coaches in attendance as part of the one-day coaches clinic.

Participants listened to speakers, talked to members of the coaching staff and watched the Cougars work as they tried to pick up some things that would help them next fall.

"You can't take everything they teach you, so you try to learn two or three things you can implement," said Pleasant Grove head football coach Dale Sampson. "I brought five members of my staff, so if we each bring back two or three things hopefully they can be things that might affect the outcome of a big game."

Sampson said one of the things he saw during the clinic is the efficiency of practice time.

"Usually it's better to coach better than to coach longer," he explained.

For Orem head coach Bob Steele, a speaker earlier in the day addressed an area that he wants to improve on.

"We had a coach from Washington talk about defending the spread option," he said. "We've been very run-oriented on defense but now we might run into teams that pass more. We can't do all of the stuff but we can take our defense and tweak it."

The coaching tips are nice, but it's also a good chance for a number of coaches to catch up with some former players that are now wearing Cougar blue-and-white.

"It's nice to pick up things, the little things that you can do better," said Timpview head coach Louis Wong. "But it's also fun to see the kids out there. It tells you you're doing things right in your program to have many of them playing here."

The players also get to enjoy seeing their ex-mentors -- but not until work is over.

"Coach told us that this wasn't going to be any different than any other day," said sophomore running back Harvey Unga. "They expected us to work hard, but when we were done we could then go mingle and catch up."

Unga said the crowd of onlookers did get some of the players fired up and he saw them display a little more intensity.

For BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall, the clinic is a way to see the respect the Cougars are building and to give back to some of the coaches that prepare the athletes that team relies on.

"It's really gratifying to see the numbers, which have more than doubled since the first year," Mendenhall said. "I think people are anxious to see what we're doing.

"I also enjoy sharing the message of our program directly from me about what the program is doing and why. It also shows a lot of the local coaches our appreciation for providing us such outstanding athletes."

Mendenhall and the local coaches had nothing but good things to say about the members of the staff that organized and ran the event, making it useful for both the players and the visiting coaches.

• Notes: Cougar junior receiver Austin Collie made a pair of great catches during the afternoon. The first came as the receivers worked against the defensive backs and he made a one-handed grab of a 30-yard bomb while being interfered with. He also out-leapt the defense on a jump ball in the corner of the end zone for the only offensive score during the scrimmage ... junior quarterback Max Hall went 4-for-5 on his first series, but failed to score after a holding penalty forced a third-and-long and he missed junior tight end Dennis Pitta deep down field ... former tight end Vic So'oto continues to adapt to playing linebacker, bringing a lot of energy and fire to the defense.

• Jared Lloyd can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it