A six-pack of notes on new Hurricanes quarterback Darian Mensah, who signed with Miami on Tuesday night after finishing second in the nation in the regular season in both touchdown passes and passing yardage while guiding Duke to an ACC championship and Sun Bowl win:
▪ Allow Atlantic Coast Conference coaches to tell you the type of player the Canes are getting:
Clemson’s Dabo Swinney: “He’s elite. He is an elite player. I did not know much about him prior to him coming to Duke. Just hadn’t seen him very much on tape, but he is a special player.”
NC State coach Dave Doeren: “He’s very accurate, a really good passer. He sees the field. He’s got a strong arm and throws catchable balls.”
North Carolina’s Bill Belichick, before UNC and Duke played in November: “This guy’s a really, really good quarterback. I think he’s the best quarterback we’ll face. And we faced some good quarterbacks, but this guy really reminds me of an NFL quarterback.”
Belichick said that Mensah’s presence in the pocket and ability to grasp defensive coverages stand out, along with his accuracy and his throwing mechanics.
“He’s not out there running around trying to be a running back. He’s a quarterback — and a really good one,” Belichick said. “The more I watched him play [at Tulane], the more impressed I was. Then we caught him in some crossover games this year. The closer you look, the more impressive he is to me.”
▪ Draft analysts had projected him as a potential second-day or early-third day pick.
“Mensah is an intriguing player, but he needed another year of experience,” ESPN’s Field Yates said.
ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. had rated him fifth among all draft-eligible QB prospects in December.
Todd McShay called him an “absolute assassin” with his acumen for making off-platform throws, his accuracy on the run, and his downfield touch.
An NFC scout said Mensah is “a solid college quarterback. Better athlete than Carson Beck. He got better as last season progressed.”
He’s 18-9 as a starter the past two years, for Tulane (2024) and Duke (2025).
▪ There’s a lot to like about Mensah’s play for Duke last season, and here’s one that jumps out:
He was one of the nation’s best quarterbacks when blitzed, completing 65.3 percent of 199 passes with 22 touchdowns and two interceptions. Those numbers are extraordinary.
When he wasn’t blitzed, he was also very good: a 67.4 completion percentage, 12 TDs and 4 interceptions.
And it’s not like most of his passes were short dump-offs when he was blitzed. He averaged 7.9 yards per attempt when he was not blitzed, 7.8 yards per attempt when he was blitzed.
But one caveat with this: If the pass rushers got in his face before he released the ball, then his accuracy plummeted, which isn’t uncommon. He completed only 44 percent of his throws (64 of 145) with pass rushers caving in on him, though he threw only one pick (compared with six TDs) on those 145 passes, per PFF.
When kept clean, he threw 28 TDs and five picks and completed 75.7 percent of his passes.
To his credit, Duke offensive coordinator Jonathan Brewer said Mensah became progressively more conscientious about “throwing the ball away” instead of forcing plays or taking sacks, which was a problem early last season.
“You look at his first five games of the season, and it showed up in our self scout, he didn’t do a good job of wasting the ball,” Brewer said. “Sometimes you call plays and the defense has a good beat on something, or you call something and maybe the quarterback misreads it. Instead of taking a sack or taking a loss on a scramble play or forcing it, just waste it.”
▪ UM offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson would be wise to use Mensah a lot in play-action. He had 15 touchdowns, one interception and a 68.1 completion percentage on 144 throws when play-action was utilized.
Without play action, he had 19 touchdowns, five interceptions and a 66 completion percentage.
▪ He was effective on intermediate throws, completing 68.3 percent of his 101 passes thrown between 10 and 19 yards, with 15 touchdowns and three interceptions and a sterling 134.5 passer rating.
When throwing those 10 to 19 yard routes in the middle of the field, he was exemplary (36 of 50 for 625 yards, 8 TDs, one pick and a 145.4 NFL passer rating). He had a 127.4 passer rating on those throws to the left side and a 120.8 passer rating on those throws to the right side.
“The sky’s the limit for him,” Brewer said last season. “He doesn’t care about stats. He couldn’t care less if we led the country in [statistical categories], as long as we win games.”
What about his deep throws?
On passes thrown at least 20 air yards, his accuracy wasn’t great but his production was generally good. On those 20-plus-yard shots, he had 13 touchdowns and two interceptions, while completing 37.2 percent of those throws (32 for 86) for 1085 yards and posting a very good 115.1 passer rating.
On those deep passes, he was at his best on throws to the left side of the field (12 for 24) compared with the middle of the field (7 for 19) or the right side (13 for 43).
Among quarterbacks who threw at least 50 passes covering at least 20 air yards, Mensah’s 37.2 percent accuracy was 30th in the country. The top three in that metric: Ohio State’s Julian Sayin (62 percent), Oregon’s Dante Moore (54.5) and Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza (52.7).
As perspective, UM’s Carson Beck completed 44.4 percent of his 20-plus-yard passes and Texas’ Arch Manning completed 40 percent.
So Mensah’s touch on the deep ball needs improvement.
▪ He has only 12 interceptions (compared with 56 touchdowns) in 787 college throws — six at Tulane in 2024 and six at Duke in 2025.
Last season, he threw one apiece against Illinois and Tulane, two in a game at Connecticut and then single picks in wins to close out the season against Virginia (ACC championship) and Arizona State (Sun Bowl).
But fumbles were an issue. His eight fumbles tied for third most in the country; he lost four of them.
Incidentally, Mensah’s 56 combined touchdown passes the last two seasons are tied with new Indiana (and former TCU) starter Josh Hoover for the most among returning FBS quarterbacks.
The final word goes to ESPN’s Louis Riddick, the former NFL personnel executive: “Darian Mensah is as skilled of a passer and great young man to talk to with a great story as you will find in college football. 2026 he will be on a very good team with a great program. Has Heisman Trophy potential written all over it.”
Here’s more on standout wide receiver Cooper Barkate, who’s accompanying Mensah in the move from Duke to UM.
This story was originally published January 28, 2026 at 1:11 PM.
Barry Jackson
Miami Herald
Barry Jackson has written for the Miami Herald since 1986 and has written the Florida Sports Buzz column since 2002.
