Cornerback D’Angelo Ponds proves he can play at the highest level

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana was in danger of falling behind and giving up points in the first quarter for the first time all season against Washington on Saturday.

As he led the Huskies to the Indiana 31-yard line, quarterback Will Rogers appeared to whip out a quick screen pass. But defensive lineman Tyrique Tucker and cornerback D’Angelo Ponds, a pair of James Madison transfers, teamed up for a game-changing play.

“I saw he wasn’t falling, so I thought, ‘Oh, he’s still here.’ So I just reached out and I grabbed his arm and a little bit of his hand, and it affected his throw, and D-Lo did the rest,” Tucker said. I was hype. I thought, ‘Yeah, let’s go.’ I ran with him to the end zone. I almost guided him to the end zone.”

“I was blitzing and someone tipped the ball and it came right at me,” Ponds said. “That’s just a vote of confidence in the process and that you are where you need to be, and the ball will come to you. It honestly felt surreal, that was my first career choice. I prayed about it.”

Ponds returned the interception for 67 yards and a touchdown, giving the Hoosiers a 7-0 lead with 7:41 left in the first quarter. And that was just the beginning of Ponds’ heroics on Saturday.

Early in the second quarter, Rogers threw the ball to wide receiver Denzel Boston, with Ponds providing one-on-one coverage. It may have seemed like a mismatch in favor of the 6-foot-1, 209-pound Boston against the 6-foot-1, 170-pound Ponds, but the second cornerback didn’t back down.

Ponds credits his good technique on the play, picking off Boston and jumping to contest the pass. Both players had a hand on the ball, but Ponds kept his focus after it was tipped and intercepted the ball as it fell to the ground.

“His size really didn’t affect the stride or anything like that,” Ponds said. “… If we go against those guys, I want to go against those guys. That’s the reason I came to the Big Ten, just to compete against guys like that and play against top competition. I feel like if I can do that, I can definitely go to the next level.”

“His technique, his mentality, whatever it is. I don’t know what it is because if I’m a quarterback there too, I throw the ball to him too, seeing some of the receivers here,” Indiana defensive lineman Mikail Kamara said. “But he just has the dog in him, and he knows that when the ball comes, he’s going to make a play on it no matter what.”

Ponds finished Saturday’s game with five tackles, two interceptions and an assisted tackle for loss. He aimed to intercept more passes this year, and on Saturday alone he matched his 2023 interception total when he was named a freshman All-American at James Madison.

He credits the preparation during the week with giving him a good feeling about Saturday’s game against Washington. That performance led to Ponds being named Bronko Nagurski National Defensive Player of the Week on Tuesday.

“He has good talent, but he has a competitive nature,” Indiana coach Curt Cignetti said. “He’s a competitor and he wants to be great. He has consistency day in and day out. He does the things every day that help him improve, and that is his goal. He wants to be the best football player he can be, and he loves the process and everything that comes with it, and he’s intelligent.”

Through eight games at Indiana, Ponds has totaled 40 tackles, five pass breakups, three tackles for loss and two interceptions – fourth or higher in all categories among Hoosiers. Among qualified cornerbacks nationally, Ponds ranks sixth in Pro Football Focus in defense (85.7) and sixth in coverage (87.8).

In addition to his coverage skills, Ponds has proven to be a reliable tackler in the open field. He made six solo tackles in Indiana’s win over Nebraska, and he has the third-highest tackle grade at 78.0 among Hoosiers with at least 180 snaps this season, per PFF.

“People see my size and think I can’t tackle, but I think that’s something they see during the game that shocks them,” Ponds said. “So that definitely plays a big role in my game.”

Kamara said Indiana’s defense takes pride in winning their one-on-one matchups. Looking at the tape, Ponds isn’t losing, even against much bigger opponents like those in the Washington game.

Kamara really started to notice Ponds last season during James Madison’s 16-14 win over Troy in Week 3. As a true freshman, Ponds made four tackles and two pass breakups, helping the Dukes’ defense limit Troy to a 54 completion percentage. 3%.

“I was rushing, I saw the ball come out and then Ponds just knocked it down,” Kamara recalled. “Every time they tried Ponds, it never worked. Keep doing it, but it never works. So I just love ponds.”

Ponds originally committed to James Madison in the Class of 2023 out of Chaminade-Madonna Prep in Hollywood, Florida, where he won back-to-back state championships during his junior and senior seasons. He was rated as a three-star recruit, No. 1,966 in the country and No. 170 among cornerbacks, according to 247Sports. His only Power Five offer after high school came from Syracuse.

Cignetti said players from that area take great pride in being a “baller,” and he characterized Ponds as exactly that.

“It made me who I am today,” Ponds says. “South Florida is a football town. In my opinion, the best football is played there and it certainly helped me a lot. I’ve been playing football since I was four, so that’s about all I know. People call it Florida Water, I don’t really know what it is. There are a lot of people who grow up with football and, like me, that’s all they know.”

Since transferring from James Madison to Indiana, Ponds hasn’t noticed much of a difference between playing in the Sun Belt and the Big Ten, other than the game slowing down for him as he gains more experience. Cignetti said Ponds, along with 12 other James Madison transfers, wanted to play at the highest level and has shown he is more than capable.

Ponds thanked Cignetti for believing in him when others did not.

“He believed it from the first day I walked in here. When he recruited me, he said this was possible,” Ponds said. “He said we would go undefeated, and he said that when he recruited me here.”

Ponds attributes part of his development to going against Indiana’s wide receiving corps every day, something he views as iron sharpening iron. High expectations surrounded Ponds when he joined the Hoosiers after earning several freshman All-American honors and making second-team All-Sun Belt last year.

He embraced that.

“People call it busy, but that’s the way I like it,” Ponds said. “Pressure is a privilege, as they say. But there was definitely pressure on me, but I didn’t really accept that. I’m just being myself.”

Ponds and the Hoosiers travel to Michigan State this weekend with a chance to tie the program record with nine wins in a season and get off to the best start in program history. They will face a Spartan offense with quarterback Aidan Chiles, who Ponds said likes to throw the ball deep, run play-action and mix in some option plays.

Humble and eager to extend Indiana’s undefeated season, Ponds said he would grade his play this season as a B or a C. He wants to continue to prove people wrong against the Spartans on Saturday.

“We are not satisfied. We are not done yet,” Ponds said. “It definitely means a lot, now that people are saying what they said at the beginning of the year. … But we didn’t come here to say we wanted to go 8-0. We are not satisfied at all.”