Blake Renaud

Early years

Renaud attended De La Salle High School in Concord, California, where he was a three-year varsity letterwinner who was voted first-team All-East Bay Athletic League as a junior and senior at linebacker, as well as second-team all-league as a sophomore. He was selected to the CalHi Sports All-State Sophomore Team in 2008. As a junior, he was named first-team All-EBAL and first-team All-Bay Area by the San Francisco Chronicle. He was also named to the MaxPreps Junior Class All-America Second Team in 2009 and was voted East Bay Defensive Player of the Year by the Contra Costa Times. He served as team captain during his senior season in 2011 and was named to the CalHi Sports All-State Seniors First Team.

Freshman Season

Renaud would begin at Boise State University in 2011. He would redshirt to begin the season but would lose his redshirt status playing on special teams in the season opener against #22 Georgia. In a week 8 matchup against Air Force he would have a season-high 3 tackles. Again, the next game, he would match his season-high in tackles against UNLV. On November 11 he would force a fumble against San Diego State. Renaud would finish his freshman season with 10 tackles, 5 solo, and a forced fumble.

Sophomore Season

Coming into 2012, Renaud's role with the broncos would expand. He would be placed in the linebacker rotation and against UNLV he would post a career-high 10 tackles. He would finish his season sixth on the team with 46 tackles, and 26 solo tackles.

Junior Season

After returning in 2013, Renaud would finally get his first career start. He would start the season opener against Washington and finish the game with 7 tackles and a tackle for loss. He would continue to start the first six games until an injury would sideline him for the next three games. After returning, he would finish the season with only 25 tackles, with 12 being solo tackles.

Senior Season

After only starting 6 games the previous season due to injury, Renaud would come back for his senior year. In a week 3 matchup with UConn, he would amass a team-high 9 tackles, and 2.5 tackles for loss. The next game he would rack up 5 tackles and his first sack of the season in Boise State's third straight win against Louisiana-Lafayette. On September 27, he would have another 5 tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss against the Air Force. In week 11, he would have 4 tackles and a sack against San Diego State. Renaud would have 2 tackles in his last collegiate game against #10 Arizona in the Fiesta Bowl. He would finish his last year with 39 tackles(20 solo), 6.5 tackles for loss, and 2 sacks in 10 starts and 13 games.

Renaud would finish his collegiate career with a total of 120 tackles, 63 solo, 8 tackles for loss, 2 sacks, 2 forced fumbles, and a fumble recovery in 46 career games. He would earn 3 varsity letters and graduate with a diploma in communications.

Professional career

Without any eligibility left Renaud's only choice was to declare himself for the draft although he was highly unlikely to be drafted as a linebacker. Since he wasn't a highly touted prospect coming out of college, he wasn't invited to perform at the NFL scouting combine. After a good showing at Boise State's Pro Day and going undrafted in the 2015 NFL Draft he signed an undrafted free agent contract with the Minnesota Vikings on May 8, 2015 to play fullback. On September 3, 2016, he was released by the Vikings as part of final roster cuts.