Darian Mensah has nothing to prove to the voters that refuse to respect his accomplishments

Darian Mensah was not one of the quarterbacks on the AP Preseason All-American team and if you ask him he'll say it's no big deal. And it might not be. 

But it is a little head scratching, and it makes you wonder exactly what people are watching. I know that last year I saw a player that carried DUKE to an ACC championship in football, which happens once in a lifetime, and led the Power 4 in passing yards.

His numbers were very good — 3,973 passing yards, 66.8% completions, 34 touchdowns and just six interceptions. There isn't a metric where Mensah isn't one of the clear best quarterbacks in college football right now. But it feels like the voters don't want to let him into the party despite the likelihood that the Miami Hurricanes starter will be the VIP!

READ MORE: SEC legend puts the highest expectations possible on Miami Hurricanes entering 2026

Darian Mensah is still auditioning to be placed among the elite QBs

This is no respect to the players that did make the Preseason All-American team — Oregon's Dante Moore and especially Ole Miss' Trinidad Chambliss. There's absolutely no hate for Chambliss, who rose from D2 to absolutely wreck many of the best teams in the country and gave the Hurricanes a game in the Fiesta Bowl. 

But why isn't Mensah in this discussion with Moore? The Ducks quarterback is a nice player, but he wasn't better than Mensah game-to-game last year. He wasn't special in the playoff wins over James Madison and Texas Tech, and the Ducks lost to Indiana by roughly 6,000 points in the Peach Bowl. 

There is definitely some disrespect for the ACC there. No question. The fact that Mensah led the Blue Devils to a conference championship is probably looked at as a demerit because the ACC has no traction. But are you telling me that if Mensah wasn't the quarterback of the Ducks last year he couldn't match what Moore did? 

READ MORE: ACC coaches echo why Darian Mensah is so scary in Miami's high-octane offense

And there might be a little bit of a sour taste that Mensah, and maybe a few other players, are being slighted because they transferred. Mensah's transfer to Miami was controversial and wasn't received by much of college football. It wouldn't be the first time voters decided to be petty with a player. 

This isn't so much about Mensah proving a bunch of voters wrong. If they can't see that he's one of the top players in college football, that's just them being in denial. Mensah is a special player and seems like a good young man. This also isn't about Miami being slighted as Malachi Toney (1st team WR) and Mark Fletcher (2nd team RB) both made the cut.

Voters simply want Mensah to prove something he's already shown many times. He is an elite quarterback in college football, and now he's just going to make them all look like fools for not giving him the accolades he's earned. 

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