IU CB D’Angelo Ponds wins the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week

With his first-career multi-interception game, sophomore defensive back D’Angelo Ponds earned Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week from the conference office on Monday.

Ponds grabbed a pair of first half interceptions against Washington, with his first Hoosier interception going 67 yards the other way for the game’s opening touchdown. It was his first career pick-6 – college or high school – and is the longest defensive touchdown scored by an IU player since Jameel Cook Jr. took one for 96 yards against FIU in 2015.

His second interception came in the second quarter and set up Indiana’s second scoring drive of the game. The two interceptions versus Washington mark the first multi-interception game by a Hoosier in Big Ten play since Jamar Johnson had two at Ohio State in 2020.

He was the highest-graded defensive back in the Power 4 during Week 9 (93.5) per Pro Football Focus. Ponds was only targeted four times and Washington had just one completion against him for four yards. His four-career interceptions are tied for No. 2 among active FBS true sophomores.

“He’s got good talent, but he’s got competitive character. He’s a competitor, and he wants to be great,” IU coach Curt Cignetti said of Ponds on Saturday. “He’s got day in, day out consistency. He does the things that help him improve on a daily basis, and that’s his goal. He wants to be the best football player he can be, and he loves the process and everything that goes into that, and he’s intelligent.

“He comes from an area down there in Miami where those guys growing up, high school, a lot of pride down there in South Florida about being a baller, and he’s a baller.”

Ponds is the sixth Indiana defensive back to win Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week since the awards began in 1987 and the first since Johnson in 2020 versus Penn State. Others include Brian Dewitz (1987), Mike Dumas (1989), Curtis Randle El (1998), Herana-Daze Jones (2004) and Johnson.