To Boise State football coach Chris Petersen, the spring is all about individual development.

And that includes his staff.

Coaches use the time between recruiting and spring practice to meet with peers at other college programs and in the NFL to find new ideas, brainstorm and learn the pitfalls of new wrinkles they want to implement.

This year, the Broncos met with coaches from former bowl opponents Oklahoma and TCU, the Chicago Bears of the NFL and 2010 opponent Oregon State - among others.

"If you don't do stuff like that," defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox said, "you're not growing."

Petersen takes advantage of a Nike-sponsored trip every year to get his professional development. About 20 head coaches at Nike schools gather for up to a week to socialize and learn how they can help the company whose logo they all wear (they went to Puerto Rico this year).

Football isn't on the agenda, but Petersen goes with a list of questions for the other coaches. Participants include Mack Brown of Texas, Joe Paterno of Penn State, Bobby Bowden of Florida State, Bronco Mendenhall of BYU and Jeff Tedford of Cal, Petersen said.

"They're all such good guys and they usually want to help you unless you play them. É There's a lot of brainpower that I can get to in a hurry,'' Petersen said.

Meanwhile, his assistants scatter across the country. Usually, you have to know someone to get access to a team's film and coaches - that's BSU's policy. They search for schools who have something in common with the Broncos, schools who are exceptional in an area the Broncos want to improve or schools that have a scheme they want to adopt.

They might come away with a new play. Or a technique. Or an innovative way to teach a technique. Offensive coordinator Bryan Harsin walked out of one meeting with a code word he liked for an offensive concept.

Harsin and wide receivers coach Brent Pease talked by telephone with Oklahoma this year. Those conversations were part of ongoing discussions between the schools that could lead to BSU coached visiting Oklahoma or vice versa in coming years.

The teams famously battled in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl, which BSU won 43-42 in OT.

"They wanted to know how we practiced," Petersen said.

Harsin, Pease and running backs coach Keith Bhonapha attended a clinic in Houston that brought together coaches from Arizona, Houston, Kansas, New Mexico, Arkansas and others.

Offensive line coach Scott Huff and tight ends coach Chris Strausser met with Oregon State coaches to discuss run-game techniques. Because the teams play next year, the discussion didn't include schemes.

Harsin also made a phone call to TCU coach Gary Patterson about a week after the Horned Frogs beat the Broncos 17-16 in the Poinsettia Bowl. They talked for an hour, dissecting their chess match.

Earlier in his career, Harsin visited Washington Redskins coach Jim Zorn when Zorn was the quarterbacks coach with the Seattle Seahawks. They met for more than 4 hours.

"He was completely into it," Harsin said. "That was unbelievable to be able to talk with him and have him challenge some of the ideas that we do and have to explain them. É I came back with a ton of ideas (for coaching quarterbacks) and implemented them. That made me better."

Wilcox meets with Colorado defensive coordinator Ron Collins and Cal defensive coordinator Bob Gregory every year. He worked under Collins at BSU and Gregory at Cal and BSU. Wilcox has visited the Seattle Seahawks and Atlanta Falcons over the years while on recruiting trips.

Special teams coach Jeff Choate visits an NFL team every other year to talk special teams. The other year he goes somewhere to work on his position, now linebackers. He uses the NFL for special teams because those coaches spend all of their time on the kicking game. They don't coach positions or recruit.

This year, he visited the Bears, who have one of the NFL's most dynamic special-teams units.

"It has given us a chance to really put some wrinkles into what we do and to refine our teaching," Choate said.