{"id":210156,"date":"2026-03-29T01:14:23","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T01:14:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/210156\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T01:14:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T01:14:23","slug":"how-miami-hurricanes-will-tailor-offense-for-darian-mensah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/210156\/","title":{"rendered":"How Miami Hurricanes will tailor offense for Darian Mensah"},"content":{"rendered":"

It didn\u2019t take safety Zechariah Poyser very long to figure out just how much of a challenge Miami Hurricanes practices were going to be this spring.<\/p>\n

Having yet another talented quarterback to go against on a daily basis will do that.<\/p>\n

And while it\u2019s early, Darian Mensah has lived up to the hype, according to Poyser and his teammates.<\/p>\n

\u201cTough dude to go against,\u201d Poyser said. \u201cHe can fit the ball in tight windows. A confident dude making shots and throws. Very impressive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mensah, who transferred to Miami from Duke, is the Hurricanes\u2019 third veteran transfer quarterback in the past three seasons. It started with Cam Ward coming in from Washington State in 2024 and transforming Miami into a high-flying offense that shattered the school\u2019s record books. Carson Beck followed and led the Hurricanes to the College Football Playoff National Championship Game.<\/p>\n

Now, Mensah looks to continue in that budding legacy of successful transfer signal callers at UM.<\/p>\n

And with that comes a familiar task for offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson and the rest of Miami\u2019s offense: Figuring out how best to tailor the Hurricanes\u2019 scheme to best fit their new quarterback. Personnel matters in how Dawson calls a game. He\u2019s not scared to change up his approach in order to best benefit his quarterback and skill position players.<\/p>\n

The task over this next month as the Hurricanes go through spring practice is determining what packages and plays and systems will best suit a Mensah-led Miami team.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody\u2019s a little bit different in what their comfort level is,\u201d Dawson said. \u201cCertain people feel really good about these kinds of concepts. Certain people feel really good about these [other] kinds of concepts, so you gravitate to the ones that they\u2019re very comfortable with. Obviously we\u2019re not at that point yet, but ultimately, that\u2019s a journey you take with every quarterback, because every quarterback is different. I mean, I don\u2019t want robots anyway. I want their personality to shine through. And I\u2019ve said this a million times to recruits and our quarterbacks too. The offense will morph around you. I don\u2019t try to force-feed a certain way. However your personality is, this offense is going to morph itself around you. Certain things that you do well will shine because that\u2019s just the way we\u2019ll go. That\u2019s just the process.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Miami Miami Hurricanes quarterback Darian Mensah (10) throws a pass during drills at the Carol Soffer Indoor Practice Facility on the University of Miami campus in Coral Gables, Florida, on Tuesday morning, March 24, 2026. PHOTO BY AL DIAZ adiaz@miamiherald.com <\/p>\n

It helps that Mensah, like Beck before him and Ward before him, comes in with a proven track record.<\/p>\n

The redshirt junior finished second nationally last season with 3,973 passing yards and was tied for second with 34 touchdowns while leading Duke to an Atlantic Coast Conference championship. One year earlier, Mensah completed 65.9% of his passes for 2,723 yards and 22 touchdowns with six interceptions while playing for Tulane.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got an understanding of the game; he really does,\u201d Dawson said. He\u2019s played a fair amount of football, obviously.\u201d<\/p>\n

But what stands out more to Dawson about Mensah is his personality. He\u2019s even-keeled, level-headed, which Dawson said is critical for a succcessful quarterback..<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the number one character trait of really good quarterbacks is being able to move on,\u201d Dawson said, \u201cand he has that demeanor where nothing really affects him too much. That\u2019s important. You look for that in a quarterback. You try to find that character trait. I mean, the ability to throw the ball that matters; the ability to do all the other stuff matters; making the 10 people around you better matters, but the ability to overcome negative things matters probably the most.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal said Dawson\u2019s ability to adjust his playbook to his roster is something he often does not get enough credit for.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not easy,\u201d Cristobal said, \u201cbecause you philosophically come up in a certain tree, and then as you go on, you always pick up new ideas, schematically, philosophically. He’s been tremendously adaptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mensah\u2019s teammates are making sure they are in a position to help him be successful, too. After all, it\u2019s not the first time they\u2019ve had to do this either.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been blessed to have three great quarterbacks here already,\u201d senior running back Mark Fletcher Jr. said. \u201cBut just like anything, I\u2019m coming in here and getting in their head, trying to just learn how he wants me to be there for him. We all want to help him be successful, because that\u2019s going to help everybody else be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for Fletcher\u2019s initial impressions of his new quarterback?<\/p>\n

\u201cHe just came in here like a pro,\u201d Fletcher said. \u201cCame here just ready to work. Humble guy, and everybody\u2019s just ready to roll behind him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s Darian.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was originally published March 28, 2026 at 2:04 PM.<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Jordan McPherson<\/a><\/p>\n

Miami Herald<\/p>\n

Jordan McPherson covers the Miami Hurricanes and Florida Panthers for the Miami Herald. He attended the University of Florida and covered the Gators athletic program for five years before joining the Herald staff in December 2017.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It didn\u2019t take safety Zechariah Poyser very long to figure out just how much of a challenge Miami…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":210157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[143,39630,123,125,5079,124,87097],"class_list":{"0":"post-210156","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami","8":"tag-college-football","9":"tag-darian-mensah","10":"tag-miami","11":"tag-miami-headlines","12":"tag-miami-hurricanes","13":"tag-miami-news","14":"tag-spring-practice"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}