Darian Mensah enters transfer portal
Duke moved quickly to get Darian Mensah from the transfer portal 13 months ago.
He waited until the final day the portal was open this year to leave the Blue Devils.
Duke’s returning star quarterback is returning no more, as On3 can report he is planning to enter the transfer portal. The deadline for players to enter — or at least inform their current program of intentions to enter — is midnight Friday.
Mensah was in line to make roughly $4 million from Duke for the 2026 season. That would have been the second season of a two-year deal he signed with Duke in Dec. 2024.
He announced on Dec. 19 that he was returning to Duke.
It’s appropriate to note that fellow ACC member Miami reportedly offered Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson a deal worth $6.5 million before he entered the NFL draft.
Miami and Tennessee are the two biggest NIL spenders who don’t have an obvious starter lined up at QB going into next season.
Mensah completed 334 of 500 passes (66.8%) for 3,973 yards and 34 touchdowns this past season. He only threw six interceptions. He was the MVP of the ACC championship game, Duke’s first conference title since 1989 (and first outright since 1962).
It leaves Duke with three scholarship quarterbacks on next season’s roster. Only one of them, Ari Patu, has taken a college snap. He spent three seasons at Stanford, making one start as a freshman, and the past two seasons at FCS-level North Alabama.
The other two scholarship quarterbacks set to be on Duke’s roster are redshirt freshman Dan Mahan and incoming freshman Terry Walker III.
