No. 1 Miami is rolling into Chapel Hill with two names it would love voters to keep at the front of their Heisman ballots: Darian Mensah and Malachi Toney.
The Hurricanes are 7-0 and 5-0 in the Atlantic Coast Conference, and they are making no secret of the fact that they view their quarterback and receiver as elite contenders for college football’s top individual honor. Around the program, the campaign has even produced a nickname: Heismen.
“When your best players prepare and focus a certain way, I think it definitely rubs off on everybody,” Miami offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson said this week. “We're lucky right now that our best players are the ones that prepare a certain way, they are focused a certain way, and they bring a certain intensity to the game.
That definitely filters through the group. It's contagious.”
Mensah and Toney have both made plenty of noise on the field, and they were each asked by The Associated Press on Wednesday to make the case for the other. Neither hesitated.
Toney’s pitch for Mensah was simple: “He's just an unbelievable player. Puts the ball wherever it needs to be.
He's just a leader. The play speaks for itself.”
Mensah, meanwhile, pointed to the part of Toney’s game that often gets overlooked. “The biggest thing that sets him apart from everybody else is his eagerness to go out and block for his teammates.
I think if you turn on the tape, he does it at such a high level that it's different. He's obviously a great person, but he wants to see his teammates win.
And I think he's just a selfless person. I think that's why he should win.”
Mensah’s numbers are hard to miss. He leads the country in yards per attempt at 10.54 and in completion percentage at 81.4%, with the margin over No.
2 Noah Fifita of Arizona so wide that he could miss his next 19 throws and still stay on top. He has also thrown 22 touchdown passes against just one interception.
North Carolina coach Bill Belichick, whose Tar Heels are 4-3 and 2-2, had plenty of praise for the Miami quarterback ahead of Saturday night’s matchup.
“One of the best quarterbacks in the country,” said Belichick, the six-time Super Bowl champion. “I mean, I haven't seen them all, but he's got to be right up there. Can't imagine there's too many playing better than he is.”
Toney has been just as central to Miami’s surge. He leads the nation with 66 catches, ranks third with 11 touchdown receptions, and has 952 receiving yards. Belichick’s evaluation of the receiver covered just about every danger zone a defense can face.
“He can kill you on a screen pass. He can kill you on an intermediate play.
He can kill you on deep balls. Returns, improvised plays,” Belichick said.
“He helps the quarterback out a lot because he gets open, finds ways to get open even when he's double-covered. That doesn't really stop him.
You would think it would, but not really.”
Mensah has even been able to find Toney in a couple of triple-covered situations this season.
“Malachi has the trust of the entire organization - and certainly the quarterback,” Miami coach Mario Cristobal said.
Most sportsbooks have Mensah and Toney among the top three in the Heisman race, behind the presumed favorite, Ohio State wide receiver Jeremiah Smith. Teammates have finished in the top three before, with three examples over the last 50 seasons: DeVonta Smith and Mac Jones for Alabama in 2020, Reggie Bush and Matt Leinart for USC in 2005, and Adrian Peterson and Jason White for Oklahoma in 2004.
Mensah and Toney could join that list soon enough. The connection between them has grown so naturally that Dawson said he can see them adjusting on the fly during games, each understanding what the other is about to do.
“Man, me and Darian have gotten close within these past few months,” Toney said. “It's just been crazy.”
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What makes this intriguing is the collision of styles and expectations around two programs at very different points right now. Miami has to protect what it has built without letting the moment grow bigger than the assignment, while North Carolina gets a home stage and a coach who knows how to turn a single game into a test of discipline and execution. For the Hurricanes, the ranking brings attention, but the bigger question is whether they can keep playing like the team everyone is chasing. [Read more 🡒]