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Dick Harmon: Why BYU's Mike Empey came back to coaching after 12 successful years away from football

Mike Empey’s coaching redo is a passionate return down a familiar path.

He hits that road every day. But he does so with a different compass.

Empey is in his second spring football practice at BYU, working alongside Ty Detmer, a quarterback he once protected as a Cougar lineman. This comes after a decade-long hiatus from this highly competitive college coaching profession.

Empey left his post as recruiting coordinator and tight ends coach in 2004, the final season of head coach Gary Crowton at BYU. Although he dabbled in coaching at American Fork High School, the jobs that paid the bills were far removed from football.