Posted by ESPN.com's Brian Bennett

West Virginia coach Bill Stewart speaks in near-reverential tones whenever middle linebacker Reed Williams' name is brought up.

"He brings a mental toughness every day, every time out to the job," Stewart says.

	Charles LeClaire/Getty Images
	West Virginia middle linebacker Reed Williams’ farming past keeps him tough on the field.

Williams is so tough that he played most of the 2008 season with two badly injured shoulders, delaying surgery until after he won Fiesta Bowl defensive MVP honors. So tough that came back and played last year in the Colorado game even though those shoulders weren't healed, providing inspiration to the rest of the team. And he'll try to tough it out tonight against Colorado again, this time on an injured foot that kept him out of the Auburn loss two weeks ago.

Where does that mental toughness come from? Back home on the farm, Williams says.

Williams grew up on his family's farm in Moorefield, W. Va., a town of a little more than 2,000 people in the northeastern corner of the state. It's a place so remote that his father, Robert, describes it as being an hour away from Winchester, Va., and 90 minutes from Cumberland, Md. Oh, sure, those metropolises.

The farm holds about 100 head of cattle, 100 acres of corn and 70 acres of hay. The big money-maker, though, is chicken. The Willams' farm usually has about 100,000 chickens, which are sold to poultry processors once they mature.

Growing up and in the summers, Reed Williams would do all the chores on the farm, which he thinks prepared him well for the rigors of college football.

"You've got to be mentally tough to do both things," he said. "You learn to work on the farm, and it's hard to stop yourself from doing it. My father works 365 days a year, and I respect him more than anybody else in the world."

There's always something that needs doing on the farm, and Williams spent a lot of time working the chicken houses. He had to check on the chickens several times a day, making sure they're fed and healthy. And every few days, the chickens would have to be cleared out of the house for sanitizing. Imagine picking up after 100,000 birds, and you get the idea.

"It's a nasty job, especially when you have to clean the houses up," Williams said.

Williams starred in sports throughout his life, and the physical demands of the farm sure didn't curtail his development into a 6-foot-1, 232-pound wrecking ball.

"They talk about that farmer strength, and it's true," he said. "I know guys who don't even work out who have that natural strength just from working out on the farm every day. My dad has that, coupled with old man strength, so I don't even mess with him."

The fifth-year senior likely will have a shot at professional football. If not, the accounting major who is a former academic All-American and the valedictorian of his high school should have plenty of other opportunities.

But Williams said that more and more, he's missing the life on the farm. He's strongly considering following his father's footsteps into the family business.

"I've been hinting at him to try something else and get a taste of the world other than right here," Robert Williams said. "But that decision is up to him. I could sure use the help."

First up is Colorado. Perhaps later, the chickens.