Blake Ruffin holds the STAR · Backup spot in Louisville Cardinals’s safety room. Where he sits among the room’s front-line roles:

Blake Ruffin, a 6'3" safety from Louisville, Kentucky, transferred to the Cardinals from Eastern Illinois. At Eastern Illinois, he started all 11 games during the 2023 season and earned second team All-America honors from the Associated Press, along with first team All-Big South/OVC selection. That year he finished second on the team with 63 tackles including 45 solo stops, recorded four interceptions, and added four tackles for loss and one sack. He missed the entire 2024 season due to injury. In 2025, Ruffin made his Louisville debut against Eastern Kentucky with two tackles and has appeared in multiple games as a graduate transfer with two seasons of eligibility remaining.

Eastern Illinoisthrough 2023

Louisville2024 — present