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SALT LAKE CITY — Aaron Roderick looked tanned and relaxed as he talked about his offense on the last day of the Utah's football camp.
"I think we're on schedule to be ready for the Michigan game," he said.
The co-offensive coordinator didn't yell or scream when his team struggled during practice, neither did he get too high when they were successful. You'd never guess that he was getting back in the hot seat again.
"I wanted it and I made clear that I wanted it," he added
Roderick is somewhat of a rarity. He's been an assistant on the hill for 10 years.
"I like being here," Roderick said. "I like working here and I believe in this program."
He almost left twice and has already been co-offensive coordinator once. In 2009, he accepted a job in Washington, worked in Seattle for a short time and then decided to return to Salt Lake. In 2010, he was promoted to co-offensive coordinator, and he learned some lessons along the way.
"We were running a spread offense with a quarterback that couldn't run and that got hard," he said.
The Utes scored only 13 points in their three losses that season. Roderick lost his playing calling duties to his former coach at BYU, Norm Chow.
"I had a feeling an opportunity would come again, I didn't know if it would be here or elsewhere," Roderick said.
Provo was that "elsewhere" at one point. Roderick accepted a job coaching the receivers at BYU in 2013 before deciding he wanted to stick around Salt Lake.
"Whatever role I'm asked to play I'll play it," he said. "And we ask our players to play certain roles. A guy who was a starter one year might be a backup the next year if somebody is better than him."
Chow, Brian Johnson, Dennis Erickson and Dave Christensen all called plays before Roderick received his second chance. He'll work with Erickson and co-coordinator Jim Harding on coming up with the week's game plan, but he will be the guy calling the plays.
"You know, there is maybe five to 10 calls a game that are sort of gut feel," Roderick said. "Most of the time you are just going with the plan that we all agreed on."
Roderick says there is no greater pressure this time around.
"I don't think about things like if this will be my last chance because it won't be," he added. "You know, I've been in this business for 17 years and there will be more opportunities for good things in the future if we do well and win."
And if Roderick can pile up the wins, his demeanor will continue to be relaxed.
