Tulane's Mensah Takes Top Spot in Quarterback Rankings After USF Blowout
In this story:
The Tulane Green Wave absolutely dominated South Florida on Saturday afternoon in New Orleans by a score of 45-10, largely due to a spectacular effort from Wave redshirt freshman quarterback Darian Mensah.
Mensah was absolutely on fire, completing 18 of his 22 attempts for 326 yards and three touchdowns en route to the blowout of a good Bulls team. Mensah's performance was so good that he was the No. 1 rated quarterback in the entire country for the week in terms of quarterback rating, coming in ahead of superstars such as Jalen Milroe of Alabama, Cam Ward of Miami, and Shedeur Sanders of Colorado:
Darian Mensah was the #1 quarterback in college football in ESPN’s QBR metric after the rout of USF.
— not Fear the Wave (@FearTheWaveBlog) September 29, 2024
With a 99.4 rating yesterday, he’s ranked 19th in FBS for the season. pic.twitter.com/VbqjcZ8Tak
Mensah's performance moves him into the top-20 in the same category for the season. In 2024 thus far, he has completed 72 of his 112 attempts, good for a completion percentage over 64 along with 1,122 yards, 9 touchdowns, and just 2 interceptions. Playing against two of the better defenses in the country in Kansas State and Oklahoma in back-to-back weeks, Mensah was able to keep the Green Wave competitive in both, even taking the Wildcats down to the wire in what was a brilliant performance from the young quarterback.
The San Luis Obispo, California native was a three-star prospect in the class of 2023, committing to Tulane over offers from Boise State, Arizona State, and San Diego State. 247 had Mensah rated as the No. 112 overall quarterback in the country and ranked him outside the top 2000 prospects overall in the class.
Redshirting his freshman season last year, Mensah was able to sit and learn and become a better player, winning the job this fall over Oregon transfer Ty Thompson and redshirt junior Kai Horton. After Mensah's huge Saturday, head coach Jon Sumrall offered serious praise.
"The kid's got really good poise good, awareness, good anticipation on the throws that we asked him to make," Sumrall said. "He's growing right in front of our eyes I think my most exciting thing was watching him tuck the ball a couple times and go get the first down on a scramble...That's a pretty good stat line for the day in a first conference game."
Next week, Mensah will try to take another step as the Green Wave hit the road to Birmingham, AL to take on UAB.
Michael Brauner is a 2022 graduate of the University of Alabama with a degree in Sports Media. He covers various MLB teams across the On SI network and you can also find his work on Yellowhammer News covering the Alabama Crimson Tide and Auburn Tigers as well as on the radio producing and co-hosting 'The Opening Kickoff' every weekday morning on 105.5 WNSP FM in Mobile, Alabama.