He washed dishes. He waited tables. "I guess I was the PR guy a little bit, too," he recalled. "It's hard working for your parents." It also was hard working until 11 o'clock too many LaSalle High School nights.

His mother and boss knew what she was doing, though.

"He got a taste of something he never wants to do the rest of his life," Debra Stanchek said.

No wonder her dishwasher/waiter son performs an offensive line role similar to bottle-washer/cook for the Mountaineers, moving to tackle in the 2006 season opener from guard, which remains his more natural, maybe even better position.

No wonder he plays West Virginia left tackle with all-Big East abandon. Ryan Stanchek can't take the heat of that kitchen.

Don't get him wrong: Abby's Pub and Grill is a splendid little establishment on Cincinnati's West End, officially in Dent, Ohio. It's two miles from the family home and a 15-minute drive from the familiar Nippert Stadium, where this lineman played a bunch of high school games -- and will play again at 7:45 p.m. Saturday, when fifth-ranked West Virginia collides with his hometown, 21st-ranked Cincinnati Bearcats. It's a nice place to work, but he wouldn't want a career there, especially this Saturday.

See, Abby's -- derived from the mother's maiden name, Abbatiello, and abbreviated bartender nickname -- has been a high-school themed sports restaurant throughout the roughly six years that Debra and John Stanchek owned it. Their walls are decorated with banners and their menu is an homage to the programs throughout the area, where prep football passion rivals that of Western Pennsylvania. There's the Spartan fish sandwich for Roger Bacon (no BLT?), the Mustang roast beef for Western Hills, the Lancer hoagie for LaSalle and the Panther meatloaf, Ryan's not-so-complimentary suggestion for rival Elder.

So when their son decided to attend West Virginia over North Carolina State, because it was closer to home and offered the major in athletic coaching education he desired, one floor of the tavern required an entirely new theme: all Mountaineers all the time.

West Virginia's Dayton alumni club, among other fans traveling an hour or more, gathered there Oct. 29 to watch the ABC telecast of the Mountaineers' 31-3 defeat of Rutgers, the one where Stanchek obliterated two Scarlet Knights to spring Steve Slaton on a 51-yard screen pass.

Afterward, coach Rich Rodriguez said, "He plays with such emotion, he rubs off not only on the rest of the linemen, but the entire offense."

After an August scrimmage where those emotions elicited a few penalties, Rodriguez recalled: "We had a little heart-to-heart. We had to work on that anger management. I think he's an all-league player now. He probably would be a better guard than tackle, but we need him at left tackle. Ryan is a great guy from an example standpoint about the passion you're supposed to play with."

Many of those same fans gathered at the inn Thursday to watch the ESPN telecast of the Mountaineers' 38-31 defeat of Louisville, the one where Stanchek received a holding penalty to nullify a 34-yard Slaton run and later blocked a Cardinals defender into Patrick White, who got a concussion. "I felt terrible," Stanchek said afterward. "So when he came back in the game, I was very relieved." Then again, Stanchek made a critical block on White's 50-yard, winning run in the end.

The same as Mountaineer Field, after every victory, the tavern crowd plays selection No. 67 on the jukebox -- "Country Roads."

This Saturday, when the ESPN cameras come to Nippert Stadium for the Mountaineers (8-1, 3-1) and the Bearcats (8-2, 3-2), when a passel of West Virginia fans comes to Abby's for the revelry, the finest offensive lineman the restaurant's kitchen ever produced should well earn both air time and cheers.

This 6-foot-4, 300-pound junior has started 22 consecutive games at left tackle, moving there after Damien Crissey's opening-game injury last fall, and nine in a row previously at left guard. Stanchek serves as a leader on a star-studded offense that just might be West Virginia's best chance to return to a BCS bowl -- a January end more tantalizing than one of Abby's homemade soups or even one of his beloved chocolate shakes.

The Stanchek homecoming weekend also should attract a crowd at the Harrison Avenue tavern where mugs and Mountaineer burgers -- eight ounces of beef, grilled ham and onions, cheese and a special sauce -- are likely to be raised in honor of that team and the starting tackle who once worked there.

"I made him suffer to learn when he was 16 years old," his mother said. "It did him good."