“I’m into production over potential.”
New IU football coach Curt Cignetti has said variations of that phrase on multiple occasions during his seven months in Bloomington.
And it showed as the new head Hoosier assembled his first roster in Bloomington.
At several positions Pro Football Focus has said IU has players among the highest-graded returners in the Big Ten. When PFF says returners, they mean players returning to college football from any school and playing in the Big Ten in 2024.
According to that measure, IU has three of the top-10 returning wide receivers (Elijah Sarratt, Donaven McCulley, Ke’Shawn Williams), two of the top-10 interior defensive linemen (CJ West, James Carpenter), a top-10 edge rusher (Mikail Kamara), a top-10 linebacker (Jailin Walker), and a top-10 quarterback (Kurtis Rourke).
All but McCulley are transfers from non-Power 5 schools.
And at cornerback, PFF says Indiana has two of the highest-graded returning players in Cedarius Doss and D’Angelo Ponds. That duo hails from FCS Austin Peay and Group of Five James Madison and give Cignetti the second and third highest graded returners in the Big Ten, respectively.
Both Doss and Ponds announced transfers to Indiana in the spring.
The 5-foot-8 and 176-pound Doss was a 2023 PFF FCS All-America, and the highest-graded corner in FCS with a 90.4 score.
Doss ranked 27th in the FCS and second in the UAC with three interceptions during the 2023 season, that mark also led Austin Peay. Doss ranked fifth in the UAC with 10 total passes defended and ranked 14th in the league with seven pass breakups.
Meanwhile, Ponds comes to Bloomington after a stellar freshman season at James Madison. He was named to several freshman All-American teams, and was a second-team All-Sun Belt selection. Ponds finished third in the conference and tied for 11th in the nation with 15 passes defended last season — more than any Big Ten player. He added two interceptions and 51 combined tackles, including two tackles for loss.
By any measure — production, potential, or PFF grades — Indiana appears to have landed two very talented corners.
The only question for Doss, Ponds and the rest of the highly-graded IU transfers coming in from lower levels of college football is, will their production translate in the Big Ten. And at 5-8 and 5-9, respectively, it seems reasonable to at least wonder about that.
Around the game his entire life and a coach for 41 years, including 13 seasons as a head coach, Cignetti has learned to trust his instincts, and ignore the number of stars next to a player’s name when it comes to assessing talent.
“I’ve never looked at stars,” he said. “Ever. I get focused on certain things, on evaluation. When it comes to worrying about stars, that’s not how we operate. We want good students who have good habits.”
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