Two other Hoosiers from Miami are coming home, too — and could play a big role
They’re Miami guys who share a long bond, coming home wearing Indiana University’s cream and crimson, both trying to complete an unlikely odyssey, one of them across two schools, to winning the College Football Playoff national championship at Hard Rock Stadium.
“I watched a lot of games get played in that stadium growing up,” Indiana All-America cornerback D’Angelo Ponds said. “It’s a full- circle moment to be in my hometown, in the stadium I grew up five minutes away from. I drove past it every day going to school.”
Oh, you thought we were talking about Indiana’s Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza and his younger brother, backup quarterback Alberto Mendoza? We were talking about the Hoosiers’ starting cornerbacks, Hollywood Chaminade-Madonna graduate Ponds and Miami Northwestern graduate Jamari Sharpe.
READ MORE: ‘He always believed’: Fernando Mendoza’s storybook path made him a hometown hero
While the angles of the Cuban-American Super Bowl have dominated the University of Miami vs. Indiana CFP Championship Game pregame media noise, there’s also the Washington Park Homecoming from much closer to the stadium.
Being overshadowed is OK with Ponds and Sharpe, who have known the North Miami-Dade/South Broward area, each other and combustible Hurricanes freshman wide receiver Malachi Toney for a decade.
Sharpe has started all 15 games for Indiana this season and leads the Hoosiers, who produce turnovers at Diana Bakery pastelito volume, with four forced fumbles. Ponds does for the Hoosiers what Toney does for the Hurricanes — make big plays.
Ponds’ blocked punt and touchdown return kicked off IU’s 63-10 annihilation of then-No. 9 Illinois, the first sign this year’s Hoosiers upgraded from the 2024 version that got bum rushed out of the CFP. His Rose Bowl hit on Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson knocked Simpson out of the game while causing a fumble that Indiana quickly converted into a 17-0 halftime lead. And, the 56-22 CFP semifinal Peach Bowl thrashing of Oregon began with Ponds’ interception return for a touchdown on the first play from scrimmage.
Indiana’s defense — allowing only 11.1 points per game — can get overshadowed by Indiana’s Mendoza-led offense just as nobody seemed to notice until late this week that Ponds and Sharpe were coming home, too.
“Fernando’s getting all the credit he deserves,” Ponds said. “He’s that guy. He’s the reason we’re here today. We’re not looking for story lines, we’re here to win a game.”
Sharpe agreed: “I’m just here to play football.”
READ MORE: ‘One more chapter to write’: It comes down to Miami vs. Indiana for national title
Reunion in Bloomington
That’s what Sharpe, a Miami Northwestern High graduate, was doing in Bloomington, Indiana, starting nine games as a redshirt freshman for a dismal-as-usual 3-9 Indiana team. Then, the school hired Curt Cignetti from James Madison as head coach. Cignetti towed 12 transfers from JMU. One delayed tethering himself to Cignetti — a Football Writers Association of America Freshman All-America defensive back.
“I was a freshman, comfortable where I was at,” Ponds said. “I’d just gotten to JMU. I was playing. I wanted to stick it out. But, after thinking about it, I felt like the best decision for me was to go the guy who trusted me out of high school. He recruited me and trusted me to play as a freshman, so why wouldn’t I play with him?”
Ponds said despite matching up in high school practice and games with some of the best receivers in the nation, such as current Ohio State beast Jeremiah Smith, he got few college offers because he’s relatively small (5-foot-9, 173). Among Power 5 conference schools, only Syracuse offered him a scholarship.
Ponds said Cignetti “didn’t look at size, he looked at the film.”
Indiana also had Sharpe.
“D’Angelo and I went to middle school with each other,” Sharpe said. “When I first heard he was transferring to Indiana, I was happy because I get my friend back.”
Ponds said, “It’s a blessing to be on the team with someone of that caliber.”
“I would say definitely, Jamari and I make each other better with little things,” Ponds said. “We correct each other. When he sees something, he lets me know. I see something, I let him know. That makes each other better. We keep the same standard and are competing every day.”
Park football life
Sharpe and Ponds played together in South Florida’s hypercompetitve youth football leagues for the Washington Park Buccaneers in Hollywood. Both saw a kid a few years younger at Washington Park who played cornerback and quarterback like Ponds did. The kid got the nickname “Baby Jesus” from someone on Facebook at age 8 — Toney.
(”I don’t feed into it,” Toney said when asked about the nickname.).
“I went to school with his sister, so I’m familiar with him,” Sharpe said. “What he did this year as a true freshman, a really amazing job. He’s a fantastic football player, and I’m so proud of him.”
When asked about matching up with Toney, Sharpe gave an answer as Miami as Jamaican patties and cafecito:
“It’s a competition. We’re all from Miami. We’ve got that Miami blood in us. We just want to battle.”
This story was originally published January 19, 2026 at 8:00 AM.
