Stout Defense Ready for College Football Playoff
Pete DiPrimio | IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - For Indiana’s rock-your-world defense, it’s about appetite and opportunity; it’s about the relentless pursuit of dominance by attacking from every position and angle, the expected and the surprising, all designed to disrupt offenses to the breaking point.
The top-seeded Hoosiers (13-0 and Big Ten champions) have done all of that and more to help set up this second-straight College Football Playoff opportunity. They will play in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1, 2026.
“It’s fun to see the guys up front go eat,” Walter Camp Football Foundation All-America cornerback D’Angelo Ponds says.
Or, as linebacker Isaiah Jones puts it, when the Hoosiers force offenses into third-and-long situations, “That’s when the dogs can start eating.”
Under defensive coordinator Bryant Haines, there’s been a lot of eating. The Hoosiers led the Big Ten during the regular season with 103 tackles for loss and were second with 34 sacks. Their 25 forced turnovers (16 interceptions and nine forced fumbles) also led the conference.
They rank second in the Big Ten in points allowed, at 10.8 per game. They lead the conference in rushing yards allowed (77.6) and were third in total yards allowed (257.2). Nine Hoosiers earned All-Big Ten honors – Ponds, Jones, linebackers Aiden Fisher and Rolijah Hardy, defensive linemen Stephen Daley, Tyrique Tucker and Mikail Kamara, and safeties Louis Moore and Amare Ferrell.
This is no fluke. Haines’ defense ranked among the nation’s best last season, his first at IU after coming from James Madison with head coach Curt Cignetti, who has won consecutive national-coach-of-the-year honors.
Jones says it starts with all the hard work done in the film room breaking down film to provide cutups of opponents. He says that gives the Hoosiers an edge during games.
“Then, it’s using angles and attacking the offense,” Jones says. “We don't want to sit back and react to the offense; we want to get after them, get after the quarterback, and get them off schedule.”
Beyond film work, Ponds offers another dominant-defense reason:
Fun.
“(Haines) has a good scheme,” Ponds says. “He schemes up every team very well. There are a lot of sacks. That's very fun to watch.”
In October’s defining 30-20 victory at Oregon, fun started on the game’s first play from scrimmage with a sack of standout quarterback Dante Moore by defensive linemen Kellan Wyatt and Mario Landino. Moore had only been sacked once before the game. IU got him six times.
“(Haines) prepared us well,” Ponds says. “We hit (Moore) with stuff he hadn’t seen before.”
The Hoosiers can do that, Ponds adds, because Haines “knows his personnel and puts everyone in the right position.”
“Then he finds out what (opposing) teams do well, and he eliminates it. He attacks their weaknesses. That makes us play faster. It takes a weight off our shoulders. It makes the game easier.”
So does an approach based on generating extreme offensive discomfort. In other words, attack, attack, attack.
“If you let (offenses) do what they want to do,” Jones says, “it’s third and three, and they’re in good shape. We want to get them to third and eight, third and nine.”
That it all works comes from veteran leadership provided by Ponds, Jones, linebacker Aiden Fisher, defensive lineman Mikail Kamara and so many more. They all buy in to Cignetti’s no-letup-ever approach.
“That’s always the mindset under Coach Cignetti,” Ponds says. “We don’t dwell on the past -- good, bad, or indifferent. We’re on to the next game. We get a big win, we enjoy it and it’s on to the next one.”
Hardy leads IU with 86 tackles and 8.0 sacks. Fisher has 77 tackles, 7.0 tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks, and two interceptions. Moore has 74 tackles and a team-leading six interceptions. Daley ranks second nationally with 19 tackles for loss. Jones has 66 tackles, 14.0 for loss, and 7.0 sacks.
At 5-foot-9 and 173 pounds, Ponds is as good a shutdown cornerback as there is in the country. He has 47 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, 8.0 pass breakups, one interception, and one blocked kick.
“He’s a great competitor and player,” Cignetti says. “If you look at him, he doesn’t look like an All-American. He goes a million miles an hour every play. He has great skills and is a great tackler.”
None of that matters now that the playoffs have begun. Amid one-and-done pressure, it’s all about doing what’s necessary, which in Cignetti’s world, means playing hard from the first play to the last, no let up.
“Coach Cig doesn’t have to say anything,” Ponds says. “The whole building is bought in. We all have that mindset.”