Darian Mensah unfazed by critics after controversial move from Duke to Miami: 'Why would I worry about it?'

CHARLOTTE — In the midst of an interview on Wednesday here at ACC football media days, Darian Mensah tugs at the collar of his green button-down shirt.

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He needs a bit of breathing room.

After all, the Miami quarterback has been on a whirlwind the last few months. Just last year at this very event, he wore a gray suit and blue tie as a representative of the Duke Blue Devils. Now, here he is in an off-white suit jacket, textured tie and that green shirt.

After one of the most controversial and stunning transfers in the modern era of the sport — a last-minute, contract-breaking, intraconference, multi-million dollar, lawsuit-triggering move — he’s now the face of the Miami Hurricanes.

And he really doesn’t care what you think of his decision to leave Durham for South Florida.

“Why would I worry about it?” he asks.

“Business is business,” he later told a group of reporters gathered around him here.

The ACC kicked off its three-day football media days with a banger: its most talented team and reigning national championship runner-up, Miami, parading the league’s most visible player around the downtown Charlotte Hilton just six months after he left one conference member for another and was then sued by the latter.

It sounds incredibly spicy. But that’s one thing that Mensah is not. In an interview setting, he’s a bit bland and dry. That’s something he readily acknowledges. Two-sentence answers. Humble talking points. Polite and calm. Cerebral and unexpressive.

“I probably won’t ever be the biggest fan of doing all this,” he said, tugging on that collar and gesturing across a bustling lobby of media members. “But gratitude is something I hold close. I know I have to be grateful for every moment or else. I know how fast stuff can be taken away from me.”

Miami quarterback Darian Mensah speaks to the media during ACC media days. (Jim Dedmon/Reuters)IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect / REUTERS

Mensah’s meteoric rise is well documented: From an overlooked, under-recruited California kid raised by a single mother of four who at one point declared bankruptcy, to one of the top-paid players in this new compensation era of college football who’s on his third school in three years. He’s the shimmering example of talent and determination, but also ideal timing in this rudderless era of the sport, where free-spending programs are desperately seeking quarterback competence, even if it means promising upwards of $6 million annually to a college-aged kid.

But his move from Duke to Miami — he was asked a dozen times here why? —wasn’t about cash, his mother Naomi told Yahoo Sports on Wednesday by phone from Miami. Her son thought he’d have the best chance of accomplishing his goals — a national championship and Heisman Trophy — with the Hurricanes.

Darian didn’t plan to leave. He’d already decided to bypass the NFL Draft and re-committed to coach Manny Diaz and Duke. But on the last day of the transfer portal in January, Miami showed enough interest with a potential offer to make this a decision.

Darian and his family had six hours to decide: enter the portal or not. His support and management team of a family — two older siblings, a younger college-aged sister and his “momenger,” mother Naomi — hunkered down, weighed the positives and negatives and then decided to do it.

“People were dragging Darian for thinking it was all about money. It wasn’t. There was money either way,” Naomi said, a nod to Darian’s two-year contract at Duke worth roughly $4 million annually. “We looked at the big picture of where Darian wants to go. That ultimately was the choice. What was going to get him to his end goal? He could go and win the ACC again but could he get to a natty and win the Heisman?”

The decision came a year into his two-year contract, resulted in Duke filing a lawsuit to recover what was believed to be a multi-million dollar buyout and sparked a wave of criticism so ugly that Naomi left social media behind.

“I’d see people saying he is a traitor and has no heart and he’s not loyal and jumping from school to school,” Naomi said. “There was hate like, ‘F*** that guy.’ It was hard to see. The people who really matter understood his reasoning and were actually encouraging him to go.”

Six months later, the Mensah family is settling into their new home. Darian bought his mother and siblings a house in the Kendall area of Miami, just south of campus. They’ve all moved to South Florida: his college-aged sister Grace, who transferred from the Oregon soccer team to Miami; older sister Anela; and half-brother Elvis, who came to the United States when he was 13 from Ghana.

Though he calls the transition “seamless,” there has been some adjusting. Darian passed off to his sister the Mercedes with Duke blue interior that he bought in Durham last year. He no longer has agent representation for football, instead allowing his mother and family to prepare for the jump to the NFL, at least for now.

He plans to purchase real estate in Miami and make it more of a permanent home. Sure, he’s uncertain where the NFL will take him next year, but he’ll visit often, he says.

He, of course, also swapped those suits — from gray and blue to cream and green. His outfit, from the clothing brand State & Liberty, is an ode to one of his favorite people, Dennis Smith, Miami’s general manager and recruiting guru who’s often known for his trendy fits worn around the facility.

Darian says Miami players embraced him from his very arrival. There was no talk of his surprising transfer or lucrative contract. Focus is on ball only.

“He never shies away from competition,” said Miami coach Mario Cristobal. “You know how it is in our locker room. Our guys love to compete. They are going to test you right away. Right away, he didn’t back down. He ran into the fight.”

Cristobal says he knew Darian was “a dude” based on his film, but he didn’t know about his personality and competitive nature until this spring.

“At the end of the day, you know what he is? A great human being,” the coach said. “He has a high care factor for other people.”

But don’t sleep on his humble, calm demeanor. On the field, he’s different.

“He takes a play that wasn’t so good and gets pissed off and comes back and makes it,” Cristobal said.

Football is a relief now for him. The “rough patches” of the transition from Duke are now “smoother,” as Naomi describes it. “It wasn’t the prettiest. Nobody wants to make enemies or hurt people and cause commotion.”

A half a year later, Darian has, finally, got some much-needed breathing room now.

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