Miami (FL) football already features a record-breaking passer in Darian Mensah. He's deadly accurate and minimizing his mistakes. Highlighted by Mensah's uncanny 14 touchdowns versus 12 incompletions mark before the Clemson showdown.
Mensah sparked Heisman Trophy chatter out of Coral Gables the moment he transferred from Duke. Now it's increasing ahead of Saturday. He rises as the latest prominent College Football Transfer Portal find by head coach Mario Cristobal and the Hurricanes.
Except now Mensah can join past Miami quarterback rental Cam Ward in another category: Potential top overall pick in the NFL Draft.
League scouts are locked in on Mensah's continuous development behind center. Now this Saturday showdown against the Atlantic Coast Conference's second-place team certainly can cement Mensah's top five potential. Here's what Mensah must do to seal his draft fate here.
Go straight after a stout secondary with no fear
Mensah has looked so poised and comfortable behind center. It obviously helps when Cristobal and Miami spent NIL money to boost the front line. And it additionally helps that wide receiver Malachi Toney is on your side too.
But Clemson presents one of the better secondaries Mensah and this air attack will face this season. Cornerback upgraded during the offseason and now, Elliott Washington II and Ashton Hampton have combined for four interceptions. Both also have swatted 10 passes, with the latter leading the way there through seven pass breakups.
So Mensah now has, arguably, the best cornerback duo he'll face on deck this Saturday. He's also dealing with leading tackler Corey Myrick at safety, who has 35 tackles including 19 solo stops.
But Mensah can go straight after their weaknesses and become the one who exposes them, not the other way around.
Article Continues BelowHow Darian Mensah can attack Clemson Secondary and boost NFL stock
Starting with Washington, he may bring strong ball production and sticky speed in the secondary. But he's stiff with his hips at the top of the route. Almost as if his hips tighten up when receivers make their cuts.
Toney comes in handy for Mensah here. He can force Washington into bad hip placement by undercutting the cornerback when he's locked into Toney. And Mensah can take full advantage from there.
Hampton enters the picture as the larger CB at 6-foot-3, 205-pounds. Plus he shows an offensive lineman-like hand punch at the numbers during press coverage, so you know Clemson and coach Dabo Swinney wants him to be physical with Miami's wideouts.
However, Hampton becomes grabby with wideouts when he's down the field. He's even gotten caught moving with the wrong foot in press coverage. So Mensah can force Hampton to bite on the pump fake to free up his wideouts who face the big CB.
Lastly at safety, Myrick excels in zone coverage more than man. Miami offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson can put a smaller receiver, including Toney, on Myrick to exploit his man coverage flaws. Fellow Clemson safety Jerome Carter III is another who brings better skills in zone, but suspect man coverage. Mensah can even test Carter as a past Group of 5 standout from Old Dominion and hand him a “welcome to the Power Four” moment.
Mensah exposing each member of the secondary will show NFL teams how surgical he is when it comes to going after the weak spots. And doing it against the current second-best team in the ACC.