Why ethnic gap among BYU players?
Deseret Morning News - August 2007 - By Dick Harmon
It's been months since Bronco Mendenhall suspended linebacker Terrance Hooks. This week he welcomed back the sophomore from Tempe, Ariz., as if he were the biblical parable of the wayward son of the nobleman.
Mendenhall did not mince words as he spread the welcome mat for Hooks, who was arrested and jailed last spring for breaking down a door to confront two men who threw water balloons at his girlfriend.
Legal issues aside, 40 hours of community service done, Hooks is back. And Mendenhall is glad, not for the player, but for the man. He has gushed to reporters over the return of Hooks.
"Our team will welcome him back," said Mendenhall. "They have missed him. It has never been that our team doesn't love him or support him. I think he is a valuable team member. We recognize he made a mistake in representing our program, and I held him accountable. I believe he's done everything I've asked him to do."
But an issue with BYU's football program remains, one Mendenhall inherited when he took over for Gary Crowton three years ago. Minority players — African-Americans and Polynesians — are the majority represented in incidents that escalate to trouble with the law, leading to suspensions.
As he has every other component of BYU football, Mendenhall has broken down this issue, examined it and tried to find a way to make it better than before.
"I've looked everywhere possible to see if there is a common thread of why that has happened," said Mendenhall. "Men that have issues with the law, I look at the severity of the infraction to see what brought it on, to see if it registers, if we did something to bring it on, or if it was just an agency decision and something any of us could have done."
Before Hooks, it was defensive tackle Matangi Tonga, who still faces legal issues stemming from a series of campus thefts in the fall of 2006. His older brother, Manase Tonga, has returned to the team from a suspension after being jailed days before his wedding in July for giving a wrong name to a Provo patrolman after failing to pay two traffic tickets.
Tonga remains a BYU team leader.
Mendenhall is correct when he points out the severity and number of incidents has subsided under his watch. Still, as he welcomes back Hooks and Tonga, both will be suspended for the Arizona game. And there remains the issue that members of the team who are not ethnically part of the majority at BYU and Provo represent those most likely to be suspended.
Is it a breakable trend? Or is it simply a product of free choice and humans being human?
One of the last times any player of the ethnic majority was arrested may have been in the late '90s when linebacker Derik Stevenson fired a handgun on the Snow College campus when he felt threatened.
The majority of other incidents, which have been ugly, have involved primarily minorities.
"We need to get to the point to determine if a grade-point average is a predictor," Mendenhall said. "We look at every factor possible to see if there is something we can prevent or work with. Basically, I take accountability to bring in the right men that I think can make it and will make it and get the right education in place along the way."
Just last week, Mendenhall invited nationally renowned organizational behavior scientist Paul Gustavson in to address the entire team, breaking down the science of learning. He's instilled a big-brother program to help usher along freshmen and transfers. He has instigated a Friday fireside program where all members of the team speak or sing whether on the road or at home. His workout program in the offseason is not position-specific, but mixes as much diversity as possible.
"We create as much diversity to groups to make sure crossover is happening, and we do it at a level I've never seen at any other institution," he said.
Mendenhall has a roommate housing rule where players living with other students, who may or may not be an athlete, must have a 2.75 GPA in the apartment. If one guy has a 2.0, somebody else in the apartment better have a 3.5, or somebody moves into the campus dorms.
Mendenhall uses a non-LDS ministry and Bible study on campus during the season to provide a spiritual outlet for non-LDS players. He has two Polynesian coaches on staff in offensive coordinator Robert Anae and defensive line coach Steve Kaufusi. One of the academic advisers is black, former player Jamaal Willis, as is Mendenhall's secondary coach, Jaime Hill.
"It's all part of a plan to have role models on our staff," Mendenhall says.
Bottom line?
BYU incidents with the law happen to players just like they do with the regular student population. But most tend to be minorities when it comes to members of Mendenhall's team.
Mendenhall wants it solved.
"I hope this makes our program fall forward," he said. "When you make mistakes, you learn from those mistakes. Use it as a life lesson, not to look back on the mistake, but use it to get better."
Amen.
