Dionte Ruffin has provided depth for WKU in the defensive backfield his entire career, but this season he is making noise with his turnover creating ability.
The Dallas, Georgia native was rated a two-star prospect by Rivals coming out of high school and committed to WKU on January 29th, 2017. He chose the Hilltoppers over Marshall, Middle Tennessee State and Georgia Tech among six others.
At Paulding County High School, Ruffin's prep career was filled with success. In his junior season he totaled 49 tackles, four interceptions and six pass deflections.
Ruffin's senior season saw him build off of that recording 58 tackles, one interception and three pass deflections on his way to class 5A All-Purpose Player of the Year.
In his true freshman season on The Hill, Ruffin saw action in 11 games recording two tackles. His sophomore season in 2018 included appearances in 12 games in which the defender racked up 28 tackles and three pass breakups.
Last season the 5-foot-11, 185-pound playmaker started in all 13 games for the Hilltoppers, on his way to 25 tackles, one for loss, nine pass breakups and two forced fumbles.
Thus far in 2020, Ruffin has made 14 tackles along with one interception and one fumble recovery. Coming into the season he knew he would have a big role in the Tops' defense.
“Personally I’ve just been trying to get better day in and day out," Ruffin said. "Just sharpen the sword as much as I can and as a defense we got to continue to come together and keep building the communication and the chemistry we have.”
With nine returning starters on the defense this year, chemistry has been what Ruffin believes is the key to shutting teams down.
“It really starts with the communication and the chemistry," Ruffin said. "The young guys, we’re teaching them day in and day out and we just try to stay together as much as we can so that the younger guys know it’s more of a brotherhood than just a team.”
WKU has certainly seen it's ups and downs in 2020. Currently at 2-5 on the season, Ruffin was able to come away with a few positives after a rivalry win over Middle Tennessee last month.
“If all 11 men do their job, everything should work out exactly as we want it to and that’s what we did," Ruffin said. "We made a lot of corrections from the Liberty week and we came into this one with better intentions and we got it done.”
The Hilltopper defense has most definitely been a disappointment in seven games on the year. Improvement needs to be made at each and every position to set up the Tops for more wins and Ruffin holds himself accountable.
“I’m trying to develop day in and day out. I got to continue to get my hands on the ball...I got to come up with more interceptions, force more turnovers to give our team a better chance in winning," Ruffin said.
With 10 penalties for 96 yards in the loss to BYU last week, it is clear Ruffin and his defensive teammates need to step up their discipline. This will be key to grab a win from Willie Taggert and Florida Atlantic on Saturday.
“Against a great team like BYU, penalties play a huge role and we have to be better...blatantly, we have to be better, because there’s many times we could’ve been off of the field and we ended up getting a 15 yard penalty or a targeting," Ruffin said. "We got to minimize all the penalties as a whole.”
