On the first throw of the first skeleton passing drill on the first day of spring practice, Max Hall threw incomplete to Austin Collie.

But not to worry: After practice, Hall and Collie pulled up a couple of folding chairs and started talking about reads and pass patterns.

Based on last year's results, they'll probably get it right by the time the season starts.

"We've got a couple of new concepts and new things we're trying to do," said Hall, who threw for 3,848 yards and 26 touchdowns during his sophomore season. "We're trying to tweak things and get them right. That's what spring is for."

Maybe for the offense, which returns nine starters.

The defense? There are some holes to fill, and BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall said that's an important order of business.

"On defense we have a lot of new faces," he said. "They're willing, we just need to teach them what to do."

More than 100 BYU football players took the field for Monday's first spring practice. There's Matt Ah You, the former Lone Peak linebacker who returned from an LDS mission. There's Andrew Rich, a highly touted walk-on safety from Snow College. There's former Timpview standout Stephen Covey, back from a mission and getting his chance at quarterback.

Mendenhall has spent most of his career on the defensive side of the ball, but as the head coach he watches the offense more now.

"It's nice to have a few returned missionaries at wide receiver, Luke Ashworth and Spencer Hafoka," Mendenhall said. "They both have good size and speed and help us with depth. That was good to have the first day. We also have a healthy stable of running backs with Harvey (Unga), Fui (Vakapuna), Manase (Tonga) and now J.J. (DiLuigi) is healthy. All of a sudden that position is deep and what we'd like it to be."

Overall, Mendenhall said experience made a big impact on the first day of practice.

"We were re-establishing practice tempo and that took up part of practice, but it was nice to have some experienced players," he said. "On offense it didn't take us nearly as long to get the execution as clean as it was the second or third week of spring last year.

"It went a lot smoother and there's not as much emotion tied to it because the players realize spring is just another step toward getting ready for fall. They're more composed and workman-like and know what to expect."

Defensive end Jan Jorgensen said everybody was a little rusty the first day. His favorite thing about spring football? Playing football instead of lifting weights and running.

His least favorite thing?

"Beating up on our own guys for four weeks," he said. "It gets tiring and you don't get to look forward to a real game. But you learn and you grow and make your game better. Going against Dallas (Reynolds) and Ray (Feinga), it's great, because they're so incredible every day."

Then there's pursuit drill, where the defensive units are required to sprint into position. If the effort isn't right, they do it again. And again. And again.

"Pursuit drill shocks the new guys," Jorgensen said. "We all went through it and sometimes it kicks your butt. But we have to make sure we have the right guys out here. If they can't do pursuit drill, they can't play BYU football."

Spring football is a long way from the start of the season, but Hall said he and his teammates know the excitement is already building.

"We have high expectations of ourselves," he said. "We're going to work hard to get better and hopefully live up to them."

• The Terminator: One of the stories to follow this spring is the move of Vic So'oto from tight end to outside linebacker. The 6-foot-3, 249-pound junior had a good first day, according to Mendenhall.

"Whether he's a starter or a backup, that's to be determined," Mendenhall said. "But there's no question he can help us."

Hall said he has joked with So'oto about getting used to not throwing the ball to him.

"Vic is such an athletic guy, to have him on defense will help our team," Hall said.

• First day, first team: Coaches move players to different units for most of spring, but for what it's worth, the starting offensive line during team drills consisted of senior Dallas Reynolds (left tackle), Feinga (right guard), junior Tom Sorensen (center), redshirt freshman Matt Reynolds (right guard) and senior David Oswald (right tackle). Junior R.J. Willing took some reps at center, since BYU is looking for a backup to Sorensen.

The defensive line was Jorgensen (right end), senior Brock Richardson (nose tackle) and junior Ian Dulan (left end). So'oto and sophomore Grant Nelson took turns at boundary linebacker with junior Matt Bauman and junior Shawn Doman on the inside and senior David Nixon at field linebacker.

The defensive backfield was junior Brandon Howard (field corner), junior Scott Johnson (boundary corner) and the safeties were redshirt freshman Jordan Pendelton and senior Kellen Fowler.

How about some hoops? Who's the best basketball player on the BYU football team? Jorgensen said senior receiver Michael Reed "thinks he's the best," but that junior tight end Dennis Pitta was pretty good, too.

• Daily Herald Sports Editor Darnell Dickson can be reached at 344-2555 or by e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ,