Indiana Football CB D'Angelo Ponds Makes NFL Draft Decision

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana football cornerback D'Angelo Ponds intends on foregoing his final year of eligibility and declaring for the 2026 NFL Draft.

"I haven't officially announced it," Ponds told reporters Thursday in an appearance at Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers in Bloomington, "but, yeah, that's the plan."

Ponds accepted an invite to the Panini Super Bowl, one of the premier pre-draft showcase events, on Wednesday, which seemingly indicated his intentions to head to the next level. Ponds is projected as a Day 2 draft pick, meaning he'll likely land between the second and third round.

The 5-foot-9, 173-pound Ponds not only leaves Bloomington as a College Football Playoff National Champion, but as one of the most decorated cornerbacks in program history.

Ponds, a Miami native, was an unheralded recruit from Chaminade Madonna High School and began his college career in 2023 at James Madison under coach Curt Cignetti. Ponds earned freshman All-American honors, and when Cignetti took over as head coach at Indiana, Ponds followed suit in April of 2024.

Together, they flourished.

A first-team All-Big Ten and second-team All-American selection in 2024, Ponds collected 55 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss, three interceptions, 12 passes defensed and one blocked punt.

He delivered one of the most iconic moments in Indiana's first-year turnaround under Cignetti, getting a pick-six in the first quarter against Washington after the Hoosiers hosted a full College GameDay episode that morning.

Ponds had an even stronger 2025 season while Indiana finished with college football's first 16-0 record since Yale in 1894. Ponds played in 15 games, missing one due to injury, and collecting 61 tackles, four tackles for loss, two interceptions, 12 passes defensed, one forced fumble and another blocked punt.

In the Hoosiers' 63-10 win over then-No. 9 Illinois in Week 4, Ponds not only blocked a first-quarter punt, but he picked up the ball and scored, sending crimson-clad fans into a frenzy at Memorial Stadium.

Ponds had already developed a reputation for prompting loud fan explosions when he delivered one of the largest in Hoosier history. On the first play from scrimmage in Indiana's 56-22 win over No. 5 Oregon in the College Football Playoff semifinals, Ponds undercut a route and intercepted quarterback Dante Moore's pass, returning it 25 yards for a touchdown.

Within 11 seconds, Indiana had the lead. The Hoosiers never trailed.

“They be saying, ‘Try five, get six,’” Indiana safety Louis Moore told Indiana Hoosiers On SI postgame, referencing Ponds’ No. 5 jersey. “So, that's what happened.”

Cignetti, who capped his 15th season as a head coach with Indiana's first-ever unblemished record and the program's first national championship, delivered considerable praise to Ponds.

"Ponds is a great player," Cignetti said Jan. 17 in Miami. "He might be the best player I've ever coached that was with me throughout his entire career in terms of consistency, production."

Now, Ponds is off to the next level, where he hopes a new wave of fans, and opposing quarterbacks, will learn the phrase forever ingrained in Bloomington: Try five, get six.