Keeler: CU Buffs say Dominiq Ponder’s death gives them a ‘why’ for 2026 season
BOULDER — Dominiq Ponder was Deion Sanders’ MVP when the cameras were turned off.
He turned up early for 5:30 a.m. meetings. He drove freshmen quarterbacks to practice. He drew up flash cards for one of the funkiest offenses in college football. He scaled 10-foot fences to open up hot tubs for teammates.
OK, about that last one …
“We’re hanging out at my apartment complex,” rehabbing CU safety Ben Finneseth, who walked into the Champions Center with a heavy knee brace and a heavy heart, recalled Monday. “We’ve got a hot tub there. One of my roommates had the key to the clubhouse, so (we) couldn’t get in. And obviously, my knee was a little stuck.”
No problem. Dom being Dom, he volunteered to climb a fence, Jason Bourne style, and eventually let Finneseth in from the inside.
“He did it without hesitation,” Finneseth said. “He was always just serving his teammates. And that’s just the kind of person he was.”
CU held a news conference to commemorate the opening of spring ball late Monday morning. It was unlike any news conference the Buffs had held in the Coach Prime Era.
It wasn’t even really a news conference — more a series of personal testimonies on Ponder, the 23-year-old Buffs quarterback who had been killed early Sunday during a single-vehicle crash in Boulder County.
“Especially nowadays, with the transfer portal in college football, you’ve gotta come together. You gotta have a ‘why,’” Finneseth continued. “At the end of the day, it’s just a call sheet for these coordinators. The players are what make it come alive. And you’ve got to have a ‘why’ for your brothers, and for doing it for each other. And so that’s been my biggest focus.”
As word spread, CU’s football players met Sunday night. The news, the scars, were still fresh. Sanders gave them the option of practicing on Monday or taking a day off.
The Buffs practiced.
Not always crisply. Or all that brilliantly. But they practiced.
“And we decided as a team, Dom wouldn’t miss the day,” Finneseth explained later. “He wouldn’t miss the day of workouts. And that’s what he would have wanted for us.
“He would have said, ‘Life’s gotta move on. We’ve got championships to win, and we still have goals, and the clocks are still rolling. The world’s still going to spin. Don’t stop just because I’m done, you know?’
“So, obviously, there (were) a lot of emotions (Sunday) and a lot of guys breaking down and tearing up. But we’ve got to keep working. That was the biggest thing. We’ve gotta be there for each other, gotta keep working. We’ve still got a goal, still got a mission … That’s your ‘why’ now, you know? And we’re gonna be honoring Dom with everything that we do from now on.”
New CU offensive coordinator Brennan Marion, whose “Go-Go,” high-tempo, option scheme was expected to be the subject of the day, instead talked about Ponder’s impact, fighting back tears valiantly as he went.
“(Other Buffs) saw how hard (he) worked, how hard he wanted it,” Marion said of Ponder, whom he’d only known a few months. “To prove that he could play at the collegiate level and be a college quarterback.
“In an era where you have to force people to work hard, you had to tell Dom to stop working so hard. Just being around a kid like that, his energy was contagious as far as his work ethic.”
Marion admitted that those 5:30 meetings wouldn’t be the same without Ponder already there, ready and waiting to go to work.
“He flash-carded my whole entire playbook that we gave him,” Marion said, marveling at the attention to detail. “I mean, he flash-carded every play.”
Ponder picked up one of CU’s freshman quarterbacks and brought him to practice. The Buffs have a ton of new faces, old and young alike. People knew they could go to Dom for help. Dom would set them straight.
“We have the type of group that adversity won’t break us. It’ll help us break records,” Marion said. “So I know that we’ll find a way to get through it and and and honor Dom in the way that we work every day.”
CU running back DeKalon Taylor had just left church on Sunday when he heard about the crash.
“I (felt) like I got hit by a train, almost,” Taylor said.
Still. They practiced. They even said his name when they broke the huddle on Monday.
DOM!
“It was almost like a boost of energy,” Taylor recounted. “Like he was there with us.”
He always will be. Marion said that the QB room would keep a seat open in Ponder’s name. Team leaders are discussing a more permanent commemoration for the upcoming season.
“He always was joking, playing around, and that’s just kind of what we’ve got to do this season, kind of just (be) playing for Dom,” cornerback RJ Johnson said. “Just not taking anything that we go through this year for granted. Because you never know when it’s your last time you can step on the field and put those cleats on.”
Marion had been playing with his son on Sunday when Ponder’s father called to tell him what happened.
“And I just stopped,” the coach said. “I couldn’t move. And my son’s like, ‘Daaaaaaad!’ And I’m like — I was speechless talking to Dom’s dad.”
Eventually, the tears won.
“We’ll just save a spot for him in the room,” Marion said, voice cracking.
The Buffs have their “why.” The next nine months are about building a “how” to sail them the rest of the way, the wind and Dom at their backs.