Coach Mario Cristobal hails Darian Mensah as the "right guy," praising his accuracy and leadership, believing he'll ignite the Miami Hurricanes' explosive offense.
The Miami Hurricanes have a great combination of transfer portal and high school talent coming in for next season, but it doesn't come together without quarterback Darian Mensah. After adding top-market transfer portal quarterbacks in Cam Ward and Carson Beck over the last couple of years, the trend continues.
Coach Mario Cristobal is excited to work alongside the 21-year-old and believes he's "the right guy."
"He [Mensah] was the best one," he said in an interview with WQAM on Monday. "He was deadly accurate, creating explosive plays on schedule and off schedule, pocket presence. After meeting him, unbelievable personality, made of the right stuff, alpha."
Mensah is coming off a spectacular season with the Duke Blue Devils: completing 334 of 500 passes, 66.8 percent, throwing for 3,973 yards and 34 touchdowns, only having six interceptions in 14 games. He led the program to its first ACC football championship since 1989 with a 27-20 overtime victory against the Virginia Cavaliers.
Coach Cristobal mentioned how the leadership and examples set by Mensah will be beneficial for the development of the younger quarterbacks, such as Luke Nickel and incoming freshman Dereon Coleman.
"That young quarterback room is really impressive," he added. "We think those guys are going to be great players. It's the same as the previous quarterbacks; you surround them with an elite supporting cast, you have a great chance for success."
"We can't wait to watch him [Mensah] cut it loose."
Mensah shares qualities that both Ward and Beck possessed: the ability to throw down the field with great accuracy and extend drives with his legs.
After joining the Hurricanes, his most-targeted wide receiver from the Blue Devils, Cooper Barkate, joins the team as well from the transfer portal.
"He's [Barkate] explosive," coach Cristobal said. "Another thousand-yard guy. It's kind of neat."
Mensah and Barkate have tremendous offensive talent surrounding them. The Hurricanes retained all running backs in Miami star Mark Fletcher Jr., CharMar Brown, Girard Pringle Jr., and Jordan Lyle. Barkate joins a wide receiver room with rising star Malachi Toney, Vandrevius Jacobs, and Cam Vaughn.
The Hurricanes have three players on the roster who finished with over 1,000 yards in rushing or receiving last season: Barkate, Toney, and Fletcher Jr.
The offensive line will look vastly different as four starters have declared for the upcoming NFL draft. However, the protection is expected to be relatively similar for Mensah to what Beck had. If that ends up being the case, the offense may roll over opponents.
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