QB Darian Mensah to enter transfer portal despite signing 2-year contract with Duke

By Sam Khan Jr., Stewart Mandel and Ralph D. Russo

Duke quarterback Darian Mensah has notified the school that he intends to enter the transfer portal, Mensah announced Friday.

Mensah, a second-team All-ACC pick in 2025, is one of the top returning quarterbacks in college football heading into the 2026 season. The former Tulane transfer led Duke to an ACC championship this season in his first year with the Blue Devils. Mensah’s decision comes less than a month after he announced his intentions to return to Duke for the 2026 season.

Miami is considered the leading candidate to land Mensah. After previously missing out on Arizona State transfer Sam Leavitt, the Hurricanes reportedly offered former Alabama QB Ty Simpson a deal worth at least $6 million to withdraw from the NFL Draft and transfer, but Simpson turned it down. The Hurricanes also showed interest in Brendan Sorsby, the No. 1 player in The Athletic’s transfer quarterback rankings, but could not wrangle him for a visit before he signed with Texas Tech.

Mensah’s move comes on the final day of the opening of college football’s transfer portal window. All FBS players who wish to transfer before the 2026 season must notify their schools of their intention by the end of Friday. Once notified of a player’s intent to transfer, a school has two business days to place the player’s name in the transfer portal, which allows other schools to recruit them.

Duke’s ability to land Mensah made headlines a year ago when the Blue Devils committed to a two-year revenue-sharing contract worth more than $3 million annually, which was around the top of the market for transfer quarterbacks in 2025. A team source at Duke said that the school was working diligently on Friday to determine the ramifications of Mensah backing out of the two-year contract he signed with the school after the 2024 season.

Rules related to a new revenue-sharing system that allows schools to pay their athletes directly could create an extra cap hit for a school that signs Mensah. However, his deal was signed before the rules were implemented via the approval of a $2.8 billion lawsuit settlement. The player could also be responsible for the value of a buyout and the tax liability. There was even a question about whether Duke exclusively holding Mensah’s NIL rights could preclude another school from paying him through revenue sharing without Duke’s approval

Mensah had one year remaining on his deal, so it’s unclear where the buyout terms stand. More schools have been writing buyouts into their players’ revenue-sharing contracts with varying degrees of success. Washington retained its starting quarterback, Demond Williams — who briefly considered entering the portal — because of a $4 million buyout that would have been owed to the school and would have also been counted against his new school’s revenue-sharing cap, according to Collegiate Sports Commission rules.

Sorsby’s departure to Texas Tech triggered a $1 million buyout that is due within 30 days of his transfer. It is unclear how that situation will be resolved, and spokespersons for Texas Tech, Cincinnati and Sorsby’s agent, Ron Slavin, declined to comment when asked about it.

Mensah began his career at Tulane in 2023, redshirted and became a starter in 2024, where he had a breakout season as a redshirt freshman.

In his first season with Duke, Mensah threw for 3,973 yards and 34 touchdowns, with just six interceptions in 500 pass attempts. He won MVP honors in the ACC title game and led the Blue Devils to a 9-5 finish with a win over Arizona State in the Sun Bowl on Dec. 31.

Mensah’s late decision leaves the Blue Devils in a somewhat bind. Henry Belin IV, Duke’s backup quarterback in 2025, transferred to Missouri State earlier this month. The Blue Devils brought in Ari Patu, a quarterback who began his career at Stanford and spent the last two years at North Alabama in the FCS

as a transfer earlier in January.

Patu appeared in 12 games and started 10 in the last two seasons at UNA, but attempted just 181 combined passes in those appearances. He spent the 2021, 2022 and 2023 seasons at Stanford. With Mensah originally expected to return, Patu was signed primarily for depth purposes. Duke is also expected to return Dan Mahan, a true freshman on the 2025 team, and the Blue Devils signed Terry Walker III, a three-star recruit, in their 2026 high school signing class.

If Miami is Mensah’s landing spot, it fills a huge need for the Hurricanes. Starting quarterback Carson Beck, who led the Hurricanes to the national championship game, is out of eligibility after the season ends. Some inside the program are high on Emory Williams, who backed up Beck and Cam Ward the last two years, and there’s a lot of optimism around their incoming freshman, four-star recruit Dereon Coleman from Orlando. Yet, neither Williams nor Coleman has extensive starting experience.

The Hurricanes have had significant success with transfer quarterbacks. Before Beck’s arrival, Ward took Miami to a 10-3 record, and he became the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.

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