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MORGANTOWN -- When West Virginia defensive back Malachi Ruffin arrived in Morgantown as a freshman, no one knew his name, not even the football coaching staff.
He was an uninvited, unheralded and unknown walk-on, the 100-to-1 shot that came home a winner and this year finds himself in a battle for a starting spot in a revised defensive backfield.
His first few years he lived in the obscurity he arrived with as he tried to make a name for himself and his first real introduction to the Mountaineer faithful it was more a taste of infamy than fame, but this is a young man driven to make good who has overcome all the obstacles that stood in his way.
That moment of infamy came when he finally got himself a chance at meaningful playing time last season. It was the final game of the season against Oklahoma State and he found himself one-on-one with receiver Bradon Johnson. His coverage was perfect as the pass came his way, the ball, the receiver and himself converging on one moment in time.
Ruffin yanked away at the ball and thought he had wrested it free and began celebrating, only to suddenly realize that Johnson not only had caught the ball but was running downfield, turning it into a 46-yard gain.
Oops.
"I thought I got it out. I felt it hit my hands and that's why I thought it was dropped. Then I saw him turn. I thank Marcus Floyd for saving me that day, because I think he ran him down," Ruffin recalled on Thursday in the final interview session before Saturday's 1 p.m. spring "game"..
"I remember thinking 'I'm going to get the chewing of a lifetime from every coach over there on the sideline,'" he explained.
And there was more.
"I heard fans yelling, 'You're trending on Twitter,'" he said.
And he was. He was all over the Internet, but he knew he'd work through it.
"I was like, OK, it happened, get over it. I went in at halftime, cleared my mind. Got to move on," he said.
And move on he did, making a key interception in the victory.
Even his family rode him a bit about the moment.
"My dad, he looked at me and said, 'Great plays, those last two but you know better than to celebrate before you know the ball is out," he said.
Turns out, though, that Ruffin over those final few games of the season proved he could play, had a key touchdown for an interception against Kansas State, another against TCU, not at all bad for a kid who no one wanted out of high school.
"I wasn't recruited out of high school. I didn't have any offers," he said.
If no one else believed in him -- and they didn't -- he did,
"My coaches tried to help me. One coach made multiple calls to West Virginia. I guess not being recruited, they weren't interested," he said.
"One person would say straight to my face, 'You're going to go Division III. You're not Division I,. You can't play Division I,'" he recalled. I just looked at him, said, 'OK, that's fine', I'll go handle it myself. Now he tries to compliment me and I say, 'Fine, you're the reason I pushed myself further because of what you said.'"
He enrolled at WVU and the first day of classes showed up at open tryouts for the team.
"I remember the date, August 20, 2018," he said.
"I was nervous. First, seeing how many people were there," he said, estimating 50. "I was thinking, 'OK, what if you don't make it.' But I was thinking, 'You can't think like that. I have to think I'm going to make this team. Do something to make myself stand out and the thing that made me stand out was my speed.
"We did the 40-yard dash and I started slightly late but I guess my catch-up speed to the other three players was what caught their eye. They asked me to run the 40 again. Didn't tell me my time."
But they asked him to come out for the team.
"It was a big risk I took for myself. It was, OK, I'm going to go walk on at West Virginia. They may not know who I am, but I'm going to make a name for myself," he recalled.
Why West Virginia, coming from the small high school Nash Central in Nashville, N.C.?
"Something stood out for me in West Virginia. One player I used to watch all the time was Tavon (Austin). Him and Karl Joseph and Kyzir White. I did my research on them, noticed the traditions and it just attracted me more than any other school," he said.
It proved to be the right choice and there was another moment in his career when a YouTube video went viral.
That was a year ago when Neal Brown surprised him by awarding him with a scholarship in the locker room before the whole team … a guest.
"I was shocked at first, especially to see my mom. Telling me that was like a special thing for me. It's something I carry with me and sometimes I even go back and watch it myself," he said. "It was a special moment for me."