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Darian Mensah could have been complimentary of his time playing at Duke, where he led the Blue Devils to an improbable ACC title last season.
He could have credited Manny Diaz, the Duke coaching staff and his former teammates in helping him raise his game to another level, one that made him so valuable that Miami came in and swooped him away at the last minute this past offseason.
Heck, he could have passed on any question regarding his old team, and that would have been better than what came out of the quarterback’s mouth at ACC media days last week. Instead, the California native decided it was best to use his platform to blast Duke and the environment he found himself in last year in Durham.
“At Duke there was kind of some friction when I first got there because my dollar amount was released," Mensah said. "Everybody sees that, and it was just hard for me to be the new guy, and everybody said, 'Oh, you're getting paid more than me, and I've been here for X amount of years.' At Miami, the culture is different, and it just feels like family and actually feels like I'm at home."
Point taken.
For all of the goodwill that Mensah built up during his one year at Duke, and despite the way he left, his words were the last nail in the coffin of his name ever coming up with the greats who played in a Duke uniform. While it is one thing to hype up your new team and the atmosphere that surrounds it, it is another to take pathetic shots at a school that gave you a considerable amount of money to come to the ACC and shine in a Power 4 conference instead of tolling away at a mid-major.
Maybe it’s part of the maturation process for Mensah, who is only 21 years old. Maybe it is a lack of preparation by Miami’s sports information team that led him down this road. Or, maybe, it is precisely how the quarterback feels about his former school.
Whatever the reason, it doesn’t matter. Mensah representing the Hurricanes at media days should have been a highlight for the program. Instead, the quarterback comes across as a complainer, a “what have you done for me lately?” type of player that, let’s face it, is more and more present in today’s college football.
Mensah’s last-second departure for the ACC-rival Hurricanes has already been controversial. Tampering by Mario Cristobal and the Miami coaching staff hasn’t been exactly ruled out, but after everything died down, both teams seemed to move on.
It seems the only one who hasn’t is the one guy who got exactly what he wanted: Mensah. It’s a shame, too, because those are the kind of quotes that will haunt him when he starts going through the NFL draft process, likely after this season. Scouts and management will want to know why he chose that route in his answer, when being complimentary would have been the smarter choice.
But, before that happens, Mensah’s former teammates will have those words on their minds when the Blue Devils take on Miami in November. The quarterback might end up regretting it.
This article originally appeared on Duke Wire: OPINION: Darian Mensah shows immaturity, no humility by bashing Duke
