JSU gets 11th-hour commitment from Texas juco quarterback

JACKSON, Mississippi -- Tony Hughes and Hal Mumme have apparently found the guy to run their new offense.

JSU received a verbal commitment from Navarro College (Texas) quarterback Derrick Ponder Monday, a pro-style quarterback who has experience with the air raid scheme that Mumme helped invent.

After playing for his father, Scott Ponder, at Bells High School in Bells, Texas, Ponder redshirted in 2016 and served as a backup this season at Navarro.

He may have been watching at Navarro, but his last year as a starter — his senior year at Bells — the 6-foot-2, 200-pound quarterback attempted 41 passes a game, completed better than 63 percent of them and threw for 4,001 yards, 47 touchdowns and 12 interceptions.

"That's my background, the air raid," Ponder said late Monday evening. "I'm familiar with coach Mumme and I've always followed his career, so getting a chance to play under he and coach Hughes, who I have great respect for, is just too good an opportunity to pass up."

Ponder, who still has three years of eligibility left, visited Jackson for the first time last weekend and got a chance to meet Hughes, check out JSU's campus and sit down and talk offense with Mumme.



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