Aaron Roderick has a perspective unlike most people involved in the Utah-BYU rivalry.

He's experienced it from both sides.

Roderick was a true-blue Cougar in the late 1990s when he played wide receiver for LaVell Edwards. Less than a decade later, he's on the other side, coaching the Utes and doing his best to see the Cougars go home unhappy.

"You learn to understand it's a big game, but at the same time, you just have to do your job," he says. "When you do it for a living, you can't afford to get too caught up in the rivalry. You don't treat it any differently than any other game."

Roderick grew up in Bountiful and was lightly recruited out of high school. After an LDS mission and a stint at Ricks College, he went to Provo, where he caught 25 passes for four touchdowns in his two seasons.

When he was younger, Roderick had allegiances to each school at different times, and as a youth, he "went back and forth" between the two schools.

He figured to be a Cougar for life, especially after he met and married Laurel Simpson, who was a standout on the BYU soccer team.

However, things started to change when she got a job at Utah in 2002 as an assistant coach for the Ute soccer team under Rich Manning. Aaron had just gotten a job at Snow College after a couple of years as a BYU graduate assistant. Then he spent a couple of years at Southern Utah, even living in coach Gary Andersen's basement one year while his wife worked in Salt Lake.

When Kyle Whittingham took over the Ute football program, he hired Roderick as his receivers coach, a perfect scenario for the Rodericks.

"Not many coaches get to coach where they choose," he says. "It was a great opportunity for me."

The 33-year-old says his friends and former teammates at BYU don't give him a bad time about where his allegiance now lies. And he doesn't have any bad feelings towards his former school.

"I have great respect for BYU and what they've done this year," he says. "The players and coaches have a lot of respect for each other. The trash talk is more for the fans. It's fun, but if the coaches and players get caught up in that, you lose focus."

Roderick puts all the hype aside and worries about one thing.

"I just want to win this game."

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E-mail: sor@desnews.com