Darian Mensah‘s whirlwind experience in the NCAA transfer portal back in January raised a lot of eyebrows around the college football world. But, according to a new report from Yahoo! Sports‘ Ross Dellenger, it was an even more stressful experience than previously known.

Mensah, who was fresh off an ACC championship with Duke, formally entered the portal on Jan. 16 — the final day of January’s two-week portal window — and did so with hours to spare. According to Dellenger, Mensah had less than six hours to make up his mind.

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But even before he formally announced his plan to transfer, On3 insider Pete Nakos immediately connected Mensah to ACC rival Miami, which was just days away from playing in the College Football Playoff national championship game against top-ranked Indiana. Initial speculation was the Hurricanes were offering to make Mensah the highest-paid player with an expected $6 million offer on the table.

The criticism was immediate, with college football fans blasting Mensah for the perceived money grab. Except, according to his mother, the decision to transfer was more about opportunity than money.

“People were dragging Darian for thinking it was all about money. It wasn’t. There was money either way,” Mensah’s mother Naomi told Dellenger on Wednesday, citing the two-year, $8 million agreement he signed with Duke in July. “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 (at Duke), but could he get to a natty (national championship) and win the Heisman?”

Ultimately, Mensah determined his best chance to achieve some of those personal goals was at Miami. And, despite an attempted legal fight from Duke to force their star QB to reverse course, Mensah’s mind was made up and he officially committed to the Hurricanes on Jan. 27.

Of course, such a controversial move didn’t come without some visceral pushback on social media, especially from within the disappointed Duke fanbase. It eventually forced Mensah’s mother to give up social media altogether.

“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 told Dellenger. “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.”

For his part, Mensah has repeatedly cited the opportunity to join Miami’s potent offense, where he’d work under veteran ‘Canes offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson and follow in the footsteps of fellow former transfers Cam Ward and Carson Beck. Ward was a Heisman Trophy finalist in 2023 before becoming the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, while Beck led Miami to within a touchdown of winning last season’s national championship. Mensah believes all of those experiences are within his grasp in 2026.

“That was a huge factor, deciding to transfer, seeing what those guys did,” Mensah said Wednesday during Day 1 of the 2026 ACC Football Kickoff Media Days in Charlotte. “My OC, Coach Dawson will form the offense around the quarterback, around the stuff he likes to do. That also made it something I wanted to be a part of. It was one of the two most important factors as far as transferring goes, just seeing what Dawson’s done with those two quarterbacks, it’s special.”

— On3’s Daniel Hager contributed to this report.