DURHAM, N.C. — Darian Mensah is ready for what awaits as he leads Duke on the road to face his former program at Tulane.
“Yeah, I’ll probably be the opposite of a fan favorite this week,” Mensah said.
Mensah was one of the top quarterbacks to change addresses through the transfer portal. He left a Green Wave team that was in contention for a College Football Playoff bid until late last season to play for the Blue Devils, an Atlantic Coast Conference program coming off a nine-win season in its first run under Manny Diaz.
“It’s definitely going to be a little bit weird going over there with my old team,” he said.
Mensah spent two years at Tulane, redshirting in 2023 before taking over as the starter for a nine-win team last year. At Duke, he ranks second in the Bowl Subdivision ranks by averaging 361.5 yards passing per game and has thrown five touchdown passes.
Managing emotions will be part of the gameweek tasks alongside getting in practice reps and film study ahead of Saturday’s trip to New Orleans. It’s a dynamic that has long been common in the NFL with players moving around as free agents or through trades, but it’s becoming more common in college’s era of free player movement through the transfer portal.
“In college, it’s probably a little bit newer with the era we’re in,” Tulane coach Jon Sumrall said. “I love Darian to death. I’ve said this publicly: if you play one snap, 100 snaps, 1,000 snaps for me, I’ll love you for the rest of my life. I care about him, wish him well, saw him this summer. I’ve got nothing but love for Darian.”
Diaz has experienced opposite-sideline reunions before, as recently as last year against the Miami program he coached from 2019-21. He called it “awkward” ahead of the game before settling into normalcy by the first play.
Or there’s Duke offensive coordinator Jonathan Brewer, who experienced it last year by coaching against SMU – his previous stop working under Mustangs head coach and close friend Rhett Lashlee.
“You’d be lying to say you weren’t emotional in that game,” Brewer said. “Just what it is, human nature, and how to control your emotions, how to control adversity, and when things happen bad that you don’t over react because there’s going to be so much emotion in the game.
“So we’ve talked about it, we’ve addressed it. It’s something we’ve been talking about really since he’s been here to be honest.”
Mensah threw for 2,723 yards and 22 touchdowns last year to help Tulane get off to a 7-0 start in the American Conference, pushing the Green Wave to the league title game for the third straight year and into contention for a bid to the expanded 12-team playoff.
But Tulane lost to Memphis then followed with a loss to Army in that title game in what turned out to be Mensah’s Green Wave finale. Within a week, Mensah had entered the transfer portal, popped up at a Duke men’s basketball game during a quick campus visit – even being serenaded by the famously rowdy “Cameron Crazies” to sit with them before joining their section – and committed to the Blue Devils.
Duke had been seeking an upgrade at the position after running with Texas transfer Maalik Murphy, who threw for 2,933 yards and 26 touchdowns but offered no real running threat while lacking consistent accuracy as a passer (60.3%). Mensah offered more mobility and a better completion percentage (65.9%), a combination that would increase the Blue Devils’ chances of sustaining drives.
Mensah arrived in Durham as the 247Sports’ No. 7 quarterback transfer nationally, behind only a few notable names like UCLA’s Nico Iamaleava, Miami’s Carson Beck and Oklahoma’s John Mateer. He’s moving the ball through the air, though he’s also coming off a three-turnover performance – twice losing fumbles on hits from behind while looking downfield – in last weekend’s loss to now-No. 9 Illinois.
“I’m trying not to make it bigger than what it is,” Mensah said of playing Tulane. “Once the ball’s snapped, it’s just going to be ball.”
