Indiana Hoosier junior All-American cornerback D’Angelo Ponds, recently appeared on the latest episode of Nightcap with NFL Hall of fame tight end Shannon Sharpe and NFL legend Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson.
D'Angelo Ponds started in 12 games last season appearing in 13. He had 55 tackles with 4.5 tackles for loss. In his sophomore season and first with Indiana, Ponds also had three interceptions and broke up nine passes, including two pick six int's against Nebraska and Washington.
This season after leading Indiana to the College Football Playoffs with an 11-2 record, Ponds and Indiana return a top ten defense for the second year in a row. Ponds and the Hoosiers are ranked No. 2 in the country and are looking to head back to the CFB Playoffs for a second season in a row.
When it comes to the success that Curt Cignetti, who also coached Ponds at James Madison and his Indiana teammates have had it comes down to a lot of factors but one main success story is their recruiting and ability to develop out of the transfer portal.
“Most of the time you look at the Nick Saban years, you look at Kirby Smart and and some of those coaches that have always had those great teams,” Ochocinco explained. “Where are most of the kids from that are on Indiana’s team?”..the south
“They from the south,” Ponds replied. “They from the south. Somewhere down south.”
Shannon Sharpe, a native of southern Georgia, and Ochocinco, a south Florida native are both from southern states and have both said the best talent always comes from the southeastern region.
“How do they get some of the players that are coming from down south to actually go to Indiana when they have when we have so many other options to choose from when it comes to going to playing college football?” Ochocinco asked.
Ponds’ responded with a simple but powerful recruiting pitch that’s transformed the program under Cignetti.
“See, we winning,” Ponds said. “So I think we got the upper hand with recruiting. Like okay, everybody want to win. ... it’s not that hard to tell them like, ‘Yeah, we going to win.’ So you just come come join like you going to play.”
“I ain’t going to lie. When I first got to college I had to adjust. It took some adjusting to do, but it’s little tricks,” Ponds explained. “I figured out like some Vaseline and stuff like that that’ll get me right. But I just got used to it just by going out there and putting Vaseline on. I don’t feel nothing when I put Vaseline on. So, I think that’s one of the tricks I learned.”
For the full episode of "Night Cap" click the video below. Ponds segment starts around the 29:40 minute mark and he is on the episode for about 15 minutes before Johnny Manziel takes over as guest.
Indiana and D'Angelo Ponds are set to face Penn State on the road, airing on Fox. Kick off is Saturday at Noon E.T.