Mario Cristobal didn’t want to talk about who could be playing quarterback for the Miami Hurricanes in 2026.

As rumors swirl that Miami is pushing hard for Duke quarterback Darian Mensah, Cristobal’s team is also prepping for Monday’s College Football Playoff national title game against Indiana. During media day on Saturday, Cristobal was asked about what his team’s quarterback situation could look like in 2026 and he wanted nothing to do with it.

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“Anything related to the future, we choose respectfully not to comment on because, for us, all that matters right now is this team and this opportunity,” Cristobal said.

“So we’ll leave it at that, if that’s OK. Respectfully.”

Miami QB Carson Beck’s final college game is set to be Monday night, and the Hurricanes hadn’t added his successor in the transfer portal — yet. As the portal closed Friday night, Mensah was a surprise entrant. The former Tulane QB had been signed with Duke for the 2026 season after he was one of the most high-profile transfers of the 2025 offseason.

Mensah led Duke to the ACC title in 2025 as Miami missed out on the title game but still snuck into the College Football Playoff. He was one of the best quarterbacks in the ACC this past season and was 334-of-500 passing for 3,973 yards and 34 TDs with just six interceptions.

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He could be a first-round pick in the 2027 NFL Draft. And he looked set to play his fourth season of college football with the Blue Devils. Instead, he could have an even bigger NIL offer coming his way from Miami or someone else — and now the defending ACC champions are left to scramble for a replacement as the portal has officially closed.

“The calendar, we all know, needs work,” Cristobal said. “We need a remedy that works for everybody and makes sense for everybody and allows for both student athletes to pursue their best opportunities while somehow, some way, maintaining their principles and values that come with college football, which I think we all know we’ve lost that a little bit. We have.

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“Then obviously we’re up against a different clock, being that we’re still playing, and all the focus for us is on playing, and then all the extra time, which you have to make, you have to cut into your own time, to continue to build your team for the future.

“We feel we’ve done the best that we can thus far, and we’re going to keep going.”