Welcome to Duke Darian Mensah !

AustinDevil said:
We need more than a couple of billionaires who care a whole lot about football, but otherwise, yes. The other advantage SMU has is recruiting territory; DFW >>>> The Triangle and Texas >> North Carolina, but if Duke can be enough of a national brand in football, that disadvantage can be minimized.
Click to expand...

Well, if I can just win the lottery Saturday night, I can pitch in. 😁
 
BlueDevilC said:
It could be that Manny Diaz is doing exactly what Jon Scheyer did last year — upgrade the roster. Mark Mitchell was good but Maliq Brown is better. Murphy was good, but it looks look Diaz believes Mensah is better. It is amazing to see Duke investing the resources to move toward football excellence.
Click to expand...
Which came first? Did Murphy leave because he saw Mensah coming or did Mensah come because Murphy left?

SoCal
 
SoCalDukeFan said:
Which came first? Did Murphy leave because he saw Mensah coming or did Mensah come because Murphy left?
Click to expand...
Mensah entered the portal on Sunday the 8th. It is fairly well known that Duke began talking to Mensah as soon as he did so, Murphy entered on Monday the 9th. A Mensah visit was in place by Tuesday the 10th with Mensah committing on Wednesday.

I think one can pretty fairly surmise that Duke knew Murphy was not coming back prior to talking to Mensah on the 8th. Whether that was because Murphy told Duke he would not be back or because Duke told Murphy they wanted to look at other QB options is impossible to discern from public information.
 
Is it fair to guess that players interested in leaving for hopefully greener pastures are contacting schools before they hit the portal, to gauge interest, perhaps through their agent? Because they wouldn't want to burn their bridges by declaring for the portal and then finding out they aren't as attractive to other coaches as they thought.
 
Maged said:
Is it fair to guess that players interested in leaving for hopefully greener pastures are contacting schools before they hit the portal, to gauge interest, perhaps through their agent? Because they wouldn't want to burn their bridges by declaring for the portal and then finding out they aren't as attractive to other coaches as they thought.
Click to expand...
sure, like Leonard, Riley.....he knew where he was going pre-portal.
 
Maged said:
Is it fair to guess that players interested in leaving for hopefully greener pastures are contacting schools before they hit the portal, to gauge interest, perhaps through their agent? Because they wouldn't want to burn their bridges by declaring for the portal and then finding out they aren't as attractive to other coaches as they thought.
Click to expand...
My initial reaction is that “but that would be against the rules.” But then I remembered that there no longer are any rules.
 
SoCalDukeFan said:
Which came first? Did Murphy leave because he saw Mensah coming or did Mensah come because Murphy left?

SoCal
Click to expand...

Mike Petrik said:
There is plenty of speculation, but I don’t think Manny et al have said or want us to know, which strikes me as appropriate.
Click to expand...

JasonEvans said:
Mensah entered the portal on Sunday the 8th. It is fairly well known that Duke began talking to Mensah as soon as he did so, Murphy entered on Monday the 9th. A Mensah visit was in place by Tuesday the 10th with Mensah committing on Wednesday.

I think one can pretty fairly surmise that Duke knew Murphy was not coming back prior to talking to Mensah on the 8th. Whether that was because Murphy told Duke he would not be back or because Duke told Murphy they wanted to look at other QB options is impossible to discern from public information.
Click to expand...
Very interesting (to me) tidbit in ESPN's update on the transfer portal, published this morning:
Duke made Mensah a major priority, knowing it would cost them starter Maalik Murphy.
Click to expand...
This very much makes it sound like the coaching staff made it clear to Maalik that they were going to recruit against/above him, and that he in turn opted to leave. Says nothing about Belin and Loftis's situations, which I'd also be interested to know more about.
 
Has Mensah stated if he is playing in the Tulane-Florida Gasparilla Bowl game on December 20th? I have not seen mention of it in this thread or any game previews. He can't enroll at Duke until January.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top