Save this story Save Story Save this story A decade ago, an interview with the quarterback of the unbeaten, top-ranked team in college football might have involved the player, the reporter, and the team’s sports information director. Maybe the player’s dad stood nearby, keeping guard. But when I talked to Darian Mensah on the Sunday before Halloween, there were five other people on the call, plus a few more sitting in the room with the Miami Hurricanes’ smooth but press-shy signal-caller.
Mensah is the most modern sort of college star, a two-time transfer now at his third school who has navigated a bevy of NIL deals . “I’ve got a great group of people who I think truly want to see me win,” he tells me.
The most notable among them is Malachi Toney, the sophomore receiver who caught 16 balls from Mensah the day before we spoke. By throwing tons of on-target passes, Mensah is comfortably pacing to set college football’s single-season record for completion percentage. As the Canes get ready to travel to South Bend to face No. 4 Notre Dame this weekend, the 21-year-old Heisman Trophy frontrunner is at 80.7 percent, several points clear of second place all-time.
At first glance, Mensah has a simple job: just throw the ball to Toney, who has unparalleled open-field maneuverability. In a 52-point outing against Pittsburgh last month, the two accounted for 194 yards and three way-too-easy scores. “I mean on the first touchdown, I gave a little signal to Mali,” Mensah recalls. “You can see there's only one guy over the pod of three guys.” The film confirms it: Pitt didn’t put enough defenders near Toney, and Mensah identified it. “You got to keep going to it,” he says.
Luis Cuna Mensah loves talking football, though he’s just as happy to get in-depth about how chaotic his life is right now. Mensah is trying to deliver Miami back to its glory days as he manages a variety of commercial arrangements, prepares for his professional future, and, yes, even going to class, contrary to popular ideas about the NCAA football player experience. “I have to go to class,” he confesses. “Transferring [two] times kind of messed with my credits.” He has three classes per day, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and has had to keep himself eligible at Tulane (which “set the standard for me”), Duke (“probably even a little bit harder”) and now Miami: “Balancing that, school and football, was tough. But I think it set me up for where I'm at now, where maybe it's not as rigorous as far as academics go.”
Mensah gets particularly excited to discuss fashion, which I bring up because most athletes who sit for GQ have at least a moderate enthusiasm for clothes. Mensah, for what it’s worth, is wearing a cropped Adidas T-shirt—the brand is one of his many partners, alongside Dr Pepper and Sling TV. Miami has a roughly $50 million roster, one of the five biggest budgets in the sport. And Mensah, as the team’s star quarterback, is probably its top earner. But I wondered, more specifically, how much money Mensah is set to earn this year between football and his various NIL agreements. “I don’t know,” he demures. “As much as God allows me to.”
Market rate for a Power 4 starting QB is in the low to mid-seven figures, and Mensah is almost certainly on the high end of that spectrum. I’m not interested in pocket-watching, but just a few weeks ago, the United States did pass a bill that would cap how much someone like Mensah can make. The “Protect College Sports Act,” a bill developed by Sen. Ted Cruz and his Democratic counterpart, Maria Cantwell, may come up for a House vote in the upcoming lame-duck session of Congress. (It passed the Senate with a bipartisan array of 77 votes.) The bill would cap school pay to athletes at about $50 million per university, essentially freezing the market right where Miami’s football team currently stands.
The bill’s backers, including seven-time National Champion Nick Saban , have argued that college football player pay is out of control and endangers the integrity of college sports writ large. Essentially, the bill is coming for Mensah’s money, more than practically anyone else among the hundreds of thousands of NCAA athletes. So how does that sit with him?
“I grew up in a single-parent household, and my mom providing for all my siblings was not easy,” he explains. “So to be able to take care of my family in a way that I wasn't able to before has only been a blessing. I don't really know what to say about that other than I'm blessed to be in the position I'm in.”
Luis Cuna Mensah doesn’t preoccupy himself with the weight of Miami football's illustrious tradition. He knows the program was “like a dynasty and a powerhouse back then,” and he’s gotten to meet plenty of legends of The U. “Me and the guys always strive to follow in their footsteps,” he says. “But yeah, I was born in 2005...”
In his relatively short life, Mensah has packed in a lot. After playing high school ball in Santa Maria, California, he started his college career as a three-star true freshman at Tulane in 2024. His only other college offer, he told me, was from FCS Idaho State. He entered the transfer portal to play at Duke in 2025, then reentered after winning the ACC Championship last year. In addition to climbing the economic ladder, Mensah has lived in four cities over the past four years. He’s only 21, but he’s got the palette of a washed-up 32-year-old like me. Maple Street Café in New Orleans, which has a chicken lemon dish that is “some of the most amazing pasta I’ve ever had in my life,” is a standout.
Come 2027, there’s a good chance Mensah will make it five cities in five years. He’s eligible for the NFL draft, and should he declare, he’s expected to be taken early in the first round by one of the league’s many QB-needy teams. But I’m a college football guy at heart, so near the end of our call I ask Mensah what he thinks of the impending 24-team playoff format that’s likely to be instituted next season. "If everything goes to plan," he says, "it won't really concern me." Why not, I ask?
Source: Celebrities
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