Darian Mensah's late decision to leave Duke in the Transfer Portal for Miami put a damper on what should have been a triumphant offseason for Manny Diaz's Blue Devils.
Duke had just come off the program's first outright ACC Championship since 1962, and there was plenty of optimism that 2026 would be even better than 2025 with the Blue Devils potentially making a serious push toward the College Football Playoff as repeat conference champions.
Instead, Mensah is off to Coral Gables, and Diaz was forced to take a major downgrade at the game's most important position.
To make matters worse, Mensah is garnering serious hype as the quarterback of a legitimate national championship contender, while media experts predicted Duke to come in 10th in the league from a vote held at ACC Media Days.
On Thursday, On3's JD Pickell lit the fuse for more hype for Mensah, not only predicting the now Miami QB to be a Heisman Trophy finalist, but for him to take home ol' stiff-arm:
NEW: College Football Heisman Trophy Finalists Prediction via @jdpickell⭐️
— On3 (@On3) July 30, 2026
Miami QB Darian Mensah takes home the hardware🙌 pic.twitter.com/01af7Puq6d
On3's JD Pickell adds insult to Duke's injury with Darian Mensah Heisman prediction
This would not be great. Mensah winning the Heisman would probably mean that the Hurricanes captured the ACC Championship and are right in the thick of the national title race. Obviously, it doesn't take much of a leap of faith to get there. Miami made it to the National Championship Game last season and enters 2026 as the runaway favorite in the ACC race.
That doesn't mean watching Mensah lead Miami to major success this year wouldn't be hard for Duke fans to stomach. It certainly would be.
It's difficult to move on. Soon enough, the season will start, and there will be no choice. All eyes will be on San Jose State transfer Walker Eget as he looks to provide quality play at QB. Diaz needs to get things figured out on the defensive side of the ball, too, or Eget's performance won't matter as much as it should.
But throughout the year, Duke fans will have trouble keeping an eye off Mensah's performance at Miami. That's just human nature.
But Duke has become a quality football program. Diaz's vision for the program has been endorsed by the administration in Durham. The Blue Devils were winning before Mensah transferred in from Tulane, and they'll continue to win in the aftermath.
Just maybe not at the level that would have been possible if he stayed put for another season.
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