Indiana football’s historic season was full of memorable moments.
The Hoosiers captured their first-ever national championship and became the first team since the 1890s to finish 16-0. The Daily Hoosier has compiled our list of the top 10 plays and moments from IU’s march to the title. If you missed any previous posts in this series, check them out at the links below.
No. 10: Special teams sends Memorial Stadium into pandemonium against Illinois
No. 9: Indiana doesn’t budge at the Rose Bowl
No. 8: Mikail Kamara steps up in the National Championship Game
No. 7: “CHARLIE B.! FROM NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE!”
No. 6: A moment of magic at Iowa
No. 5: A mighty response at Oregon
No. 4: ‘The drive’ and ‘the catch’
No. 3: Setting the tone in Atlanta
Indiana football went into the College Football Playoff semifinals looking to sweep Oregon with a Peach Bowl victory. The Hoosiers figured to have a tight chess match on their hands against an opponent that had seen them earlier in the season.
But with Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta absolutely rocking, with an IU-dominant crowd, Curt Cignetti’s team set the tone right away.
Indiana kicked off to the Ducks to start the game, putting Bryant Haines’ defense on the field first. That unit didn’t need long to make a statement. On the first play from scrimmage, Oregon quarterback Dante Moore attempted a quick pass to Malik Benson on the left side of the field.
But Moore left the ball a little inside, and D’Angelo Ponds made a play on it. He jumped the route, intercepted the pass, and ran it back 25 yards for an opening-play pick six. And the stadium absolutely erupted.
“We play a lot of cover 3. So coming out, I kind of knew it was a RPO type of deal. I played off, so I could break on the ball. Kind of read his eyes and got a jump on it,” Ponds said after the game. “It was an amazing feeling walking into the end zone.”
Ponds and Haines have offered conflicting perspectives regarding whether or not the cornerback knew what was coming on the play.
Haines chalked it up to film work Ponds put in with cornerbacks coach Rod Ojong, while Ponds said he was simply reading Moore and the Ducks offense.
“They had five out receivers. The ball had to come out fast. Nobody was protecting. I seen the quarterback eyes, read it, jumped it, and made a great play on the ball,” Ponds said ahead of the National Championship Game. “To see the crowd going crazy, knowing it was all red in the stands, it was a great feeling just to have that effect on the game.”
“Every offense has tells, whether it be a split, whether it be a formation, whether it be a release. These are things that Rod Ojong and D’Angelo Ponds study, in the same way that I study run fits and different blitz patterns,” Haines said after the Peach Bowl. “D’Angelo Ponds knew that was gonna happen, and he took a shot at it. I’m glad that he did. It was a great play.”
But no matter how the pick six came about, it opened up a CFP semifinal game with fireworks. The Hoosiers still had a long way to go; Oregon tied the game on its next possession, before Fernando Mendoza and Indiana’s offense had even taken a snap.
IU, of course, steamrolled the Ducks in Atlanta, 56-22. But Ponds’ pick six became the lasting highlight from that game. Some players, from that moment alone, knew how the game would play out.
“Game over. GG’s,” safety Louis Moore told The Daily Hoosier after the game, on what went through his mind after the play. “I knew it was going to be over.”
Given the stage and the impact — and the scene it unleashed — D’Angelo Ponds’ pick six is one of the greatest defensive plays in IU football history.
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