$10 Million QB Clearly Doubted After Transferring to Major College Football Program

The chaos across college football caused by the 2026 NCAA transfer portal is nearly one month in the rearview mirror.

From the beginning of December all the way up until the final day of the portal's two-week entry window, thousands of players from all levels of college football scanned the horizon for new destinations in 2026. The transfers who received the most attention in the cycle were the quarterbacks who decided to hop from one Power Four program to another.

One of the very last transfers in the 2026 cycle was former Duke quarterback Darian Mensah, who reached a legal settlement with the Blue Devils that allowed him to transfer to Miami. He will have two seasons of eligibility with the Hurricanes.

Miami is the third program Mensah will suit up for in his college career. The 6-foot-3, 205-pounder started his journey under Willie Fritz at Tulane in 2023, using his redshirt as he sat behind Michael Pratt.

Mensah stayed put at Tulane following the coaching change from Willie Fritz to Jon Sumrall, and the Green Wave named Mensah its starter in 2024. In his lone season as the Green Wave's starter, he passed for 2,723 yards, 22 touchdowns and six interceptions while guiding Tulane to a nine-win regular season.

Prior to Tulane's trip to the Gasparilla Bowl, Mensah decided to enter the NCAA transfer portal. He committed to Duke, where he replaced the Oregon State-bound Maalik Murphy. In one season as the Blue Devils' quarterback, Mensah threw for 3,973 yards, 34 touchdowns and six interceptions in a season where Duke won its first outright ACC title since 1962.

There is confidence from Miami fans that Mensah is a worthy successor in the line of transfer quarterbacks it has acquired over the past two seasons, the previous two being Cam Ward (Washington State) and Carson Beck (Georgia). However, not everyone is convinced that Mensah will be the next star at quarterback for Miami.

J.D. PicKell and Zak Herbstreit of On3 workshopped early predictions for the 2026 college football season on Friday. One of Herbstreit's predictions for 2026 was that Mensah is going to be a step back at quarterback for the Hurricanes.

"He was phenomenal at Duke. You play really well against Elon and these mid-tier ACC teams, and credit to him, his numbers are phenomenal. He played well in the ACC Championship (and) beat Virginia, great season," Herbstreit said.

"My thing is, when you have a quarterback like Carson Beck who's a veteran guy, played at Georgia, played against the SEC (and) Big Ten teams, (he) knows what to expect. Darian Mensah hasn't really gone through that. He played Illinois and got blown out by Illinois. I just don't see him doing well right now."

Fortunately for Mensah, "mid-tier ACC teams" are much of what lines Miami's nine-game conference schedule in 2026. The Hurricanes will travel to Notre Dame on Nov. 7, a game the Fighting Irish are desperate to win after it cost them College Football Playoff berth last season.