{"id":216484,"date":"2026-04-02T20:11:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T20:11:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/216484\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T20:11:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T20:11:17","slug":"mario-cristobals-message-to-miami-hurricanes-backup-quarterbacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/216484\/","title":{"rendered":"Mario Cristobal\u2019s message to Miami Hurricanes backup quarterbacks"},"content":{"rendered":"

For a third consecutive year, the Miami Hurricanes dipped into the transfer portal to nab a veteran starting quarterback while the players they signed from the high school ranks wait their turn or eventually transfer out themselves.<\/p>\n

It was Cam Ward in 2024. It was Carson Beck in 2025. And now it\u2019s Darian Mensah in 2026.<\/p>\n

That leaves Miami\u2019s three quarterbacks from its past three signing classes \u2014 Judd Anderson in 2024, Luke Nickel in 2025 and Dereon Coleman in 2026 \u2014 tasked with waiting their turn and competing among themselves to be the new backup quarterback.<\/p>\n

Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal, speaking after spring practice Thursday, acknowledged the quarterback room is a \u201ctalented\u201d one and that, \u201cin a perfect world, you like to keep your program always going from within, with the high school ranks.\u201d<\/p>\n

His hope is that the quarterbacks they have brought in under his time leading the program are getting to a point where it could be feasible there in the not-too-distant future.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s up to them,\u201d Cristobal said, \u201cand for us, it\u2019s up to us and them together to develop to a point where we have confidence to go and play winning football. They\u2019re off to a great start. Judd, with another year in the system, same thing with Luke. You can tell it\u2019s just showing up, right? They\u2019re quicker on their reads. The ball\u2019s out. It\u2019s more accurate. They anticipate better. They understand protections better. And Dereon\u2019s a quick study. You\u2019ve seen the way he throws the ball now. He is ubertalented.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Miami Miami Hurricanes quarterback Darian Mensah (10) and quarterback Luke Nickel (5) set up to 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

Anderson and Nickel essentially served as Miami\u2019s options to be their No. 3 quarterback during last season\u2019s run to the College Football Playoff National Championship Game, with Beck the starter and Emory Williams, who transferred to East Carolina this offseason, the backup.<\/p>\n

Anderson was a three-star recruit in the Class of 2024, has size at 6-6 and 230 pounds and has the most time in Miami\u2019s system as he enters his third season learning from Cristobal and offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson.<\/p>\n

Nickel was a four-star prospect in the Class of 2025 and the No. 19 overall quarterback in that recruiting class, according to the 247Sports composite rankings. He has been highly touted by Hurricanes coaches who said he made tremendous growth in the system after his first year on campus.<\/p>\n

Coleman, an Orlando native, was a four-star prospect in the Class of 2026 who Cristobal on signing day said reminded the Hurricanes of Ward, who in 2024 set essentially every UM single-season record available for quarterbacks on his way to being a Heisman Trophy finalist and the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft.<\/p>\n

And while Miami used the portal to get its starters the past few years, the Hurricanes are remaining aggressive on targeting quarterbacks at the high school level. Israel Abrams, ranked by the 247Sports composite as the No. 3 overall quarterback in the 2027 cycle, was on UM campus earlier this week for a multi-day visit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat competition in itself has been extremely high,\u201d Cristobal said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to keep ramping it up there. A lot of confidence in that room. And again, we see nothing but continued development, and the onus is on the coaches to make sure we get that out of our players.\u201d<\/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":"For a third consecutive year, the Miami Hurricanes dipped into the transfer portal to nab a veteran starting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216485,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-216484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216484","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=216484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216484\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}