'He Lit Up Every Room': Colorado Has Another 'Why' This Season After Tragic Passing Of QB Dominiq Ponder

Deion Sanders sat in front of a room full of Colorado players Sunday night to share the tragic news that their teammate Dominiq Ponder had passed away in a car crash at the age of 23. 

How do you relay such a tough message to a group of young men who had just been with their teammate preparing to start spring practice on Monday morning? 

The question of whether they wanted to hit the field was asked, and was met with a resounding yes, because that's what Dom would have wanted. 

One minute, Colorado is taking the next step to prepare for the 2026 season, and then reality comes barreling towards you in an unexpected way. The 23-year-old quarterback from Pittsburgh joined the Buffaloes in 2024, as a walk-on, working his way onto the field last season for a handful of plays against Arizona last season. 

"He lit up every room he walked into, and brought the best in the people around him," Colorado's Ben Finneseth said on Monday. We gotta keep working, we gotta be there for each other, we still got a goal and a mission, and this is just another ‘Why’ for some of the guys that think their ‘Why’ is not significant. That's your ‘Why’ now. We're gonna be honoring Dom with everything we do now."

TRAGEDY IN BOULDER: Colorado QB Dominiq Ponder Dead at 23

After transferring from Bethune-Cookman, Ponder knew the path toward actually competing for the starting job at Colorado would be a difficult one, though that did not detour him from putting in the effort Deion Sanders and his staff needed from a veteran voice in the quarterback room. 

"He was a special kid. Not once did he complain about the lack of reps in practice or opportunity to get on the field," one Colorado assistant told OutKick. "You could see how much he loved the game of football, and it showed with his mentoring of younger players."

Obviously, the atmosphere around the opening practice in Boulder was different than your normal spring opener. On Monday, the Colorado staff, led by coach Deion Sanders, were already coming up with ways to honor Dominiq during the upcoming season, which included a number of patches that will be worn on the player's jerseys this season. 

Dominiq Ponder Showed Humility, Fighting To Prove He Belonged

Even though offensive coordinator Brennan Marion had only been on the job for two months at Colorado after joining the Buffaloes from Sacramento State, it was easy to notice the impact Dominiq Ponder had already made o his life in Boulder. 

"Great young man. Great leader for this team, had a strong impact on this team," OC Brennan Marion said Monday. "Obviously, getting that call from his dad, very tough to get. But the one thing his dad was most proud about was that his son would be in Heaven and the leader that he was, and the young man that he was. Me and Dom shared some things that made us close. His family is from Pittsburgh, from the same neighborhood as me, and that made us bond together really close these last two months."

As for what stood out the most to Marrion about Ponder, a lot of it came from the humility shown on and off the field. 

"Just his work ethic. He flash-carded my whole entire playbook that we gave him. His humility. You know, he picked up one of our freshman quarterbacks, picked him up every day and brought him to practice," OC Brennan Marion mentioned. "Just the little things. Every person he touched, he had an impact on in this program.. Dom kinda touched everybody, and had an impact on everybody. They saw how hard he wanted it, to prove he could play at the Division I level, and be a college quarterback. 

"It's good to see guys just want it like that. In an era where you have to force people to work hard, you had to tell Dom to stop working so hard. His energy was contagious as far as his work ethic." 

It's fair to say that Dominiq Ponder had an impact on the Colorado football team, and those who fought with him in the trenches on a daily basis. 

Judging by the outpouring of support from across college football, he touched a lot of lives, and certainly inspired many.