PROVO — Talk to BYU starting cornerback Ben Criddle about the BYU-Utah rivalry, and you might as well engage in a chat about playing San Diego State or any other MWC team you can't find on TV.

Criddle is an alien. He was born in Hood River, Ore., and played high school football in Glendale, Ariz., before playing at Eastern Arizona and Glendale Community College. While the junior is a key cog in BYU's league-leading defense, this is just another week, simply one more big game.

People keep coming up to Criddle and telling him he's got to "Beat Utah. Go out and kill Utah."

Says Criddle: "Well, I try to go out and kill everybody I go up against. It's going to be great, but I treat every opponent the same. I respect them but I don't fear them. I'm just going to prepare for them just like I do every other week and do my thing."

Of course, Criddle admits he's never played a game in Rice-Eccles Stadium, where visiting Cougars are targets of traditional vitriolic rivalry abuse.

"Everyone tries to come up and instigate something, but to me, I see a need to go out and kill New Mexico and Air Force, too," he says. "It doesn't matter who it is."

Then, Criddle, feigning, almost mocking, the fighting words he's heard this week says: "Yeah, there seems to be a more fervent hatred, if you want to call it that, towards the 'Northern School.' I don't fully understand it. I say, let's just get pumped up for a game and be ready to go and play."

Criddle describes Utah as a team with a good set of receivers.

"Their defense is decent," he says. "I think they're going to throw the ball downfield on us and use power run and try and establish the play action and the boot in order to get some good yardage in their passing game. I don't think they are going to sustain a lot of long drives on us. We'll get timely turnovers and make plays when the opportunity comes, like we've always done. We need to stay within our assignments and win the game."

As for walking into a hostile arena?

"It's all good," Criddle says. "Everyone's got children, and they'll probably say things about my mom, but they don't know my mom, and they don't know me. They'll try and get me fired up, but it doesn't affect me unless they're throwing beer bottles or something, which hopefully security will keep under control. People have been talking trash to me and heckling me all my life. I say do it, go ahead, I don't care."

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E-mail: dharmon@desnews.com