Practice for the coaches
Over 300 coaches, both from Utah and around the country — Texas, Arizona, Nevada, Wyoming, California, Washington, Idaho — gathered on campus Friday for BYU’s annual coaching clinic, an event that has grown over the past five years and serves a beneficial role to both the high school and BYU coaching staffs.
The coaches checked in at 7 a.m. and spent the day in meetings and watching presentations, then observed BYU’s practice before spending time in break-out groups with the Cougar coaching staff.
“It’s fun. We enjoy the opportunity to hear from the other high school coaches,” Spanish Fork defensive line coach Brian Argyle told me. “It just helps to give new ideas to what we’re currently doing and to assess our program against other successful programs.”
The program has been around since Bronco Mendenhall took over as BYU’s coach in 2005, but has undergone a few tweaks to make it better since then.
“After our first experience running the clinic when we had our local coaches as the presenters, what they shared with us afterward was that they’re happy to do it, but there was a conflict because they were speaking to their peers and their competitors,” Mendenhall said. “So they were hesitant to share really what their program was doing because of the competition factor.”
Now they’ve changed it so that coaches from outside of Utah present different ideas and philosophies, and the benefit has been enormous. Besides improving their programs, schools are making friendships that have resulted in out-of-state games, such as last year’s game between Bingham and Texas’ Euless Trinity, which Bingham lost 42-21. It was the first high school game played at the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium.
BYU also stands to benefit from hosting so many coaches from so many places.
“What happens to coaches who come to present is that they have a lot better idea of what a unique and wonderful place BYU is and all of the sudden they’re advocates when they go back home,” Mendenhall said. “If it’s the right coach in the right area, and they are impressed, then it can help our program.”
Other notes from practice:
Quarterback checkup: Here’s how the quarterbacks did during the in-practice scrimmages (this time in front of several hundred onlookers) …
Nelson: 3-6, 18 yards, one interception (on a hail-mary as the clock hit zero during the two-minute drill), 1 rush for 11 yards
Lark: 2-2, 8 yards
Heaps: 6-10, 73 yards, one touchdown (an 11-yard strike to Mike Muehlmann on the last play of practice)
Bring on the Beavers: Mendenhall shared his thoughts about Thursday’s announcement that BYU will play a home-and-home series with his alma mater Oregon State in 2011 and 2012.
“I’m glad to get a game,” he said. “First and foremost, it’s nice to get a quality opponent for a home-and-home series. It’s not to be taken for granted anymore. … Holly and I have become close friends with [Oregon State head coach Mike Riley] and his wife, and obviously I played there, but I respect the program and I love the way he runs the program. So, I think it should be a great matchup and I think there’s even a little more at stake since we’ve already played each other once. I’m looking forward to it.”