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2006 Sugar Bowl: Ryan Stanchek
July 17, 2015 10:02 AM | Football
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| Ryan Stanchek was one of four key freshmen on the 2005 team. | |
| Brent Kepner photo | |
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There were four key freshmen on West Virginia’s 2006 Nokia Sugar Bowl team. Quarterback Pat White and running back Steve Slaton easily come to mind, as does specialist Pat McAfee, who is still doing his thing these days for the Indianapolis Colts.
The other key newcomer on that great Mountaineer football team was offensive guard Ryan Stanchek, who earned his first start that season against Virginia Tech.
“It’s amazing because Virginia Tech was my first start and I can remember telling my mom after that game, ‘I don’t know if I’m good enough to play college football,’” Stanchek recalled earlier this summer. “That was my first start and Pat White’s first start was (two weeks later against Louisville). I think the youngness of that group, coupled with the older guys who showed us the way, is what made that so special.”
Stanchek developed into one of West Virginia’s better offensive lineman during an outstanding four-year career that featured victories in the Sugar, Gator, Fiesta and Meineke Car Care bowls.
He was a key cog in a Mountaineer ground game that consistently ranked among the top 20 in the nation and a scoring offense that produced points in bunches.
A Stanchek story former Mountaineer coaches were fond of telling happened at Rutgers during his junior season in 2007 when he made a key block to spring White out into the open field on the way to a long run.
Instead of remaining on the ground to observe White perform his downfield magic, Stanchek got back up on his feet and sprinted down the field as fast as he could and was able to make another key block.
“One of the things Coach (Rick) Trickett always stressed was play to the whistle and when No. 5 (White) had the ball you better play to the whistle or you’re going to get embarrassed,” said Stanchek.
It was a play the offensive coaches stored on their laptops to frequently show the rest of the team as a reminder of the type of effort needed to win football games.
And during Stanchek’s Mountaineer career West Virginia won a lot of games – a lot!
“Up front we were just a blue-collar group,” Stanchek recalled. “There were no three-stars on that line. There were no two-stars – we were no stars.”
Perhaps, but Stanchek was the prototypical offensive lineman West Virginia was seeking at that time: athletic, agile and aggressive. All of them were driven and capable of handling Trickett’s military style of coaching.
“One of his philosophies was to make it so hard in practice that the games were easy,” said Stanchek. “He gets a reputation for being so fiery and in practice he was on you really hard, but the games he is the calmest guy in the stadium.”
Stanchek said the secret to their success as an offensive line was mastering the simple things they did each day.
“You might only have six steps but he might work them 200 times just to perfect it,” Stanchek explained. “It was the old military deal where you did it 3,000 times to learn it.”
Among his peers, Stanchek was probably better known for his brawn than his technical mastery of the position, but he was plenty technical enough to twice earn first team All-America honors.
Stanchek was also the guy who owned the team’s “Knockdown Board.” That was the chart the offensive linemen used to keep track of their pancake blocks.
“The one thing we had so much fun with was the ‘knock-down board,’” Stanchek said. “My goal was to win that ‘knock-down board’ every time and try and get 10 a game.”
Many times he did.
“There was a genuine caring for each other,” Stanchek said of West Virginia’s 2005 team. “We were a family. We practiced harder than any place I’ve ever been but when practice was over, we made our circle, high-fived and the day was done.”
One of the things that used to drive Stanchek and the rest of West Virginia’s offensive linemen nuts was when outsiders referred to the Mountaineers’ spread offensive attack as “finesse.” That couldn’t have been farther from the truth, according to Stanchek.
“You ask a lot of those defensive coordinators that we played if they wanted to play us again or ask them if we were a finesse offense,” he pointed out.
Frequently in 2005 Stanchek and the rest of the offensive linemen were required to block a heavy box stacked to stop the run because the freshman White was still developing as a throwing quarterback.
“That was the best part of being an offensive lineman,” he admitted. “If there were 10 guys in there we had to move the ball because that’s what we were supposed to do. That was a fun atmosphere to be around.”
After graduating from WVU in 2008, Stanchek played a little Arena League football before joining Trickett’s Florida State offensive-line staff in 2011 as a graduate assistant coach. Today, he coaches the offensive line at Alcorn State.
Stanchek admits he recruits the same type of players he played with at West Virginia in the mid-2000s – hard-working, driven guys who can handle a little coaching and are willing to see the bigger picture.
“I think everyone in this profession gravitates toward a version of themselves,” Stanchek explained. “I like the 6-foot-3 scrappy guy. If I could have five of them I’d take them. But it’s also nice to have those very talented guys as well.”
He continued.
“Everybody is looking for the tough kid who is going to out-work everybody, and to me, attitude and work ethic are more important than how fast you run a 40 or how many bench reps you do. You can’t measure heart,” he said.
If you could, Stanchek’s heart measurement would have been off the charts – it was that big.
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