Darian Mensah led the Duke Blue Devils to the ACC Championship in football last season. You can fault conference tiebreakers for enabling Duke to be in that game all you want, but that’s a fact. Mensah left Duke for a chance to win a national title for the Miami Hurricanes. And through two games, nobody’s denying Miami’s contender status, thanks to Mensah.
The Hurricanes’ quarterback has completed 91.1% of his passes (41/45) for 653 yards, eight touchdowns and no interceptions this season. For those of you tracking at home, that’s twice as many touchdown passes (8) as incompletions (4). Not interceptions; incompletions.
On3’s Brett McMurphy pointed this out on Saturday afternoon, during the start of the Week 2 slate. Fans, for better or worse, did not appreciate it. They pointed to Mensah’s opponents — Stanford and Florida A&M — as reason for the insane production.
People can bash Mensah all they please, but the third year starting quarterback has been exceptional at every stop. He led the American Athletic Conference in completion percentage at Tulane in 2024, then paced the ACC in yards (3,973) and touchdown passes (34) with the Blue Devils in 2025. He has thrown 64 touchdown passes to just 12 interceptions in his collegiate career.
Miami’s weaker schedule could leave the Hurricanes’ November matchup with Notre Dame as Mensah’s only chance to truly change his perception among fans on a national scale. Until then, he’ll try to keep doing his thing. Miami faces the Wake Forest Demon Deacons on Friday, Sept. 18 at 7:30 p.m. E.T. (ESPN) in Week 3.
