If anyone was wondering whether Darian Mensah and Duke had put the offseason drama behind them, they haven’t. Throughout the course of ACC Media Days last week in Charlotte, Mensah spoke candidly about his transfer to Miami while Duke coach Manny Diaz and several Blue Devil players offered responses.
Back in January, Mensah entered the transfer portal just before it closed, leaving the Blue Devils shorthanded at the quarterback position. With Mensah entering the second and final year of a two-year contract with Duke, the two sides ultimately settled in court, and the second-team All-ACC was cleared to sign with the Hurricanes.
Mensah will face his former team this season when Duke travels to Hard Rock Stadium on Nov. 14, but fans didn’t have to wait that long for the rivalry to get a little spicy. Making the rounds at Charlotte last week, Mensah spoke to ESPN and said that his massive $4 million salary caused ” friction” within the Duke locker room, something that has been a non-issue at Miami.
“At Duke there was kind of some friction when I first got there because my dollar amount was released,” Mensah said. “Everybody sees that, and it was just hard for me to be the new guy, and everybody said, ‘Oh you’re getting paid more than me, and I’ve been here for X amount of years.’ At Miami, the culture is different, and it just feels like family and actually feels like I’m at home.”
When Mensah made his sudden leap to Miami, most outsiders assumed that decision came as a result of a massive pay raise. Mensah told reporters in Charlotte that the Hurricanes’ roster and national championship aspirations were the deciding factors
“Just seeing the type of roster Miami has,” Mensah said. “I wanted to compete for a national championship. I set a lot of personal goals for myself, and I believe Miami was the spot to do that.”
Echoing that sentiment, Mensah’s mother and manager, Naomi, said the star quarterback would have gotten paid at either school.
“People were dragging Darian for thinking it was all about money. It wasn’t. There was money either way,” Naomi told Yahoo.
Last fall, Mensah led the ACC with 3,973 passing yards and 34 touchdowns while leading the Blue Devils to a conference championship. The expectations entering 2026 will be sky high as Mensah now leads a Miami team with eyes on a national championship after coming up one win short in 2025.
Duke wrestles with ‘surprising’ departure
Two days after Mensah and Miami took the podium at ACC Kickoff in uptown Charlotte, it was Duke’s turn on Friday. Diaz and running back Nate Sheppard said Mensah’s transfer was “surprising,” but the former was pleased with how his leadership group held strong in the aftermath.
Asked whether Miami was guilty of tampering in its pursuit of Mensah, Diaz took a diplomatic route, but he didn’t exactly shoot down the allegation either.
“That’s an unanswerable question,” Diaz said told WRAL. “… You can only say what you can prove. To me, it doesn’t matter. That’s why our issue was never with any other school. Duke was very consistent. The whole situation was simply about a contract that had to be honored. It wasn’t honored. Then what are the ramifications of that? All parties were satisfied, and all parties moved on.”
As for whether Mensah’s large paychecks created a rift in the locker room, tight end Jeremiah Halsey flatly denied that.
“No, Darian’s contract was no problem in the locker room,” Hasley said, per ESPN. “He was a great quarterback for us. He earned everything he got. There was never a problem.”
Diaz said his bigger concern in the immediate aftermath of Mensah’s transfer was finding another quarterback for the 2026 season. The Blue Devils ultimately landed San Jose State transfer Walker Eget, and Diaz was pleased with that outcome.
“The 11th hour thing, there’s not really a solution for that,” Diaz said. “The portal is open when the portal is open. The emotion doesn’t help solve it. You’re instantly like, ‘What do we have to do? Who’s available? How do we solve this?’ To have it solved as quickly as we did was massive for us.”
Eget is still recovering from offseason surgery for an ACL injury he suffered in 2024 — but continued to play through in the 2025 season. Despite playing on one leg, Eget was still relatively productive for the Spartans last year, completing 59.0% of his passes for 3,051 yards, 17 touchdowns and nine interceptions.
Diaz said Eget should be back to full speed in time for fall camp, but the SJSU transfer will still have to beat out redshirt freshman Dan Mahan, who is also in the mix to win the starting job.
