Once upon a not-so-distant time Brandon Rodd lived close enough to Aloha Stadium to see the lights and hear the roar of University of Hawai'i football crowds on Saturday nights.

As a senior at 'Aiea High, he crossed the street from his home near the Ice Palace and attended a bunch more games there, often standing on the sidelines as a guest of the Warriors.

But when the 6-foot-4, 300-pound junior offensive lineman strides onto the FieldTurf in Halawa on Christmas Eve, Rodd has no doubt how he'll be perceived now.

"I'm gonna be one of the bad guys," he chuckles.

For Rodd, a three-year starter, will be wearing the maroon and gold of Arizona State, the symbolic black hat of the Warriors' opponent in the Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl.

"It is gonna be weird playing back at Aloha Stadium again — and I'm gonna be one of the bad guys," said Rodd, who will share that role with another Hawai'i product, Shawn Lauvao, a Farrington High graduate. "I never thought I'd walk into Aloha Stadium and be one of the bad guys," Rodd said.

Indeed, for the longest time he figured to be wearing UH green. "They (the Warriors) were the first team that recruited me," Rodd said. "I was a UH fan. I'm still a UH fan — except when we play them."

He was a teammate of UH's Rocky Savaiigaea when they both played for Na Ali'i and knows several other Warriors. But when the scholarship offers began to mount, Rodd said he and his family started seriously thinking about playing somewhere else. Ultimately, he said, it came down to UH and ASU. The lure of going away finally winning out on national letter of intent day.

And as soon as he got to ASU in 2003, Rodd said he began checking future schedules for signs of a game against UH and a hoped-for return to home. Only when it was announced that the Pac-10 would send a representative to the Hawai'i Bowl this year for the first time did Rodd see a sliver of a chance of playing in front of family and friends again en masse.

Just how many of them there now are for the honorable mention all-Pac-10 pick was driven home by mounting ticket requests. Rodd said he has so far secured "93 or 94" tickets for his own rooting section, mostly by asking teammates for their allotments. It no doubt hasn't hurt his bargaining position that teammates have called on him to be a tour guide, information booth and surfing instructor. "I've got some boards and I'm taking some guys out surfing at Queen's," Rodd said.

Come Dec. 24th, Rodd might be "one of the bad guys." But among his teammates, Rodd is just about the most popular guy on the roster right now.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.