Y.'s Hooks will sit out '07 opener

PROVO — BYU head football coach Bronco Mendenhall announced Monday that linebacker Terrance Hooks will be suspended for the season-opening home game against Arizona, while tight end Vic So'oto will not miss any games following their Easter weekend arrests and jail time in connection with a water-balloon incident and broken-down doors at an Orem apartment complex.

Both will do community service and make restitution for damages.

Hooks was charged Monday in 4th District Court with two felony counts of burglary and two misdemeanor counts of criminal mischief. Hooks, through his attorney, C. Danny Frazier, entered a not-guilty plea and will appear in court again May 1 at 2 p.m.

Neither Hooks' girlfriend nor So'oto was charged.

Hooks and So'oto spent two days in jail after Orem police arrested the players and a girlfriend of Hooks for entering two apartments without permission. The two sought to confront the men who had allegedly thrown water balloons from an upper-balcony apartment early April 7. A water balloon hit Hooks' girlfriend, Natalie Dew; she was not injured.

Mendenhall said he will require both players to do 40 hours of community service in spring and summer semesters. Both will be invited to participate in team offseason workout sessions which begin in May. Following the incident, Mendenhall suspended both players from the team for a week, including practices, workouts and the Blue-White game on Saturday.

"Both Vic and Terrance are tremendous young men, and I am looking forward to having them rejoin the team," Mendenhall said. "I appreciate the way they have handled this situation. We have set a high expectation, in terms of behavior, for the members of this football team. We expect them to maintain those standards both on and off the field. I am confident a valuable lesson has been learned and we're anxious to move forward."

Mendenhall said any action he takes is independent from what players may yet face from the university honor code committee, or in the case of Hooks, the judicial system.

To Mendenhall's judgment and apparent review of prosecutors, it appears So'oto's involvement in the apartment confrontation was not at the level of Hooks'.

"Before this happened, Vic had a desire to back up anyone on the team. Now his perspective is that he will get in front, go up the first few steps and stop anything from progressing," said Mendenhall.

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Sara Israelsen contributed to this report.