Transfer Mensah is the Hurricanes’ QB, but Cristobal said whole room is ‘talented’
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.
It was Cam Ward in 2024. It was Carson Beck in 2025. And now it’s Darian Mensah in 2026.
That leaves Miami’s three quarterbacks from its past three signing classes — Judd Anderson in 2024, Luke Nickel in 2025 and Dereon Coleman in 2026 — tasked with waiting their turn and competing among themselves to be the new backup quarterback.
Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal, speaking after spring practice Thursday, acknowledged the quarterback room is a “talented” one and that, “in a perfect world, you like to keep your program always going from within, with the high school ranks.”
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.
“It’s up to them,” Cristobal said, “and for us, it’s up to us and them together to develop to a point where we have confidence to go and play winning football. They’re off to a great start. Judd, with another year in the system, same thing with Luke. You can tell it’s just showing up, right? They’re quicker on their reads. The ball’s out. It’s more accurate. They anticipate better. They understand protections better. And Dereon’s a quick study. You’ve seen the way he throws the ball now. He is ubertalented.”
Anderson and Nickel essentially served as Miami’s options to be their No. 3 quarterback during last season’s 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.
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’s system as he enters his third season learning from Cristobal and offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson.
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.
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.
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.
“That competition in itself has been extremely high,” Cristobal said. “We’re 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.”
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