Darian Mensah Sets FBS Record, Builds Heisman Case with Historic Start

Miami's 1991 national champions returned home Saturday night to be honored and celebrated, as their legend grows with each passing year.

"Those '91 guys, as the years go by, they get bigger than King Kong and Godzilla, man," said Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal, who played on that team.

On the field, Darian Mensah was building his own legacy as the Hurricanes (4-0, 1-0 ACC) demolished Central Michigan 52-3 to remain undefeated.

"We've come a long way and we've shown some good things," Mensah told reporters. "But like Cristobal always says, we've got a long way to go."

The Miami quarterback went 23 of 27 for 338 yards and three touchdowns, and ran for another. Somehow, the flashy stat line was a normal night for him. His record-chasing start to the season enters the second month with an eye-popping stat: 14 touchdown passes against only 12 incompletions.

Mensah is the only FBS quarterback in 30 years with more touchdown passes than incompletions through his first four games, according to CBS Sports Research. A CBS Sports review of box scores for every FBS quarterback since 2004 found no one else who had done it through three games — except one quarterback, and he did it alongside Mensah this season.

Georgia 's Gunner Stockton had matched Mensah entering Week 4, throwing nine touchdown passes against only seven incompletions. Mensah had 11 TDs and eight incompletions at the time. Since 2004, the only other quarterback with more touchdowns than incompletions through three games was Baylor 's Robert Griffin III in 2011, the year he won the Heisman Trophy.

This fall, two starting FBS quarterbacks did it at once for the first time.

FBS QBs with more TDs than incompletions (through three games)

QB

Team

Season

Comp/Att

TD

Inc.

INT

Robert Griffin III

Baylor

2011

69/81

13

12

0

Darian Mensah

Miami

2026

71/79

11

8

0

Gunner Stockton

Georgia

2026

38/45

9

7

0

Stockton got there with efficiency, never throwing more than 16 passes in the first three games. Then Oklahoma arrived, and the run ended Saturday as Stockton went 14 of 25 for 171 yards with one touchdown and his first interception of the season, leaving him at 10 touchdowns and 18 incompletions. Stockton still holds a stellar 209.1 passer rating.

Mensah's early-season tear is unmatched. In Week 3, he completed his first 24 passes, an ACC record, in a win at Wake Forest . His completion percentage never dropped below 85% in his four games, which have included at least three touchdown passes. He has thrown at least one touchdown in 22 straight games, the sport's longest active streak, and he has yet to throw an interception at Miami.

"His skill set really fits what we do," Cristobal told reporters after Mensah threw for a career-high 401 yards and five touchdowns in his season debut at Stanford . "His ability to read the field and his ability to digest concepts and to continue to evolve is really, really impressive. Sky's the limit."

Mensah's 88.7% completion rate is the best through four games by any FBS quarterback since at least 2004, a full 5.3 points ahead of Geno Smith's 2012 start at West Virginia . The gap between Mensah and Smith is as big as the gap between Smith at No. 2 and Jaxson Dart at No. 10.

That company is a good sign for Mensah. Of the 16 quarterbacks in the top 20 no longer playing college football , five won at least one major national award, including three Heisman Trophy winners. Thirteen of the 16 were selected in the NFL Draft (81.3%), and 10 of them were first-round picks.

Best completion percentage through four games (min. 60 attempts)

Rank

QB

Team

Season

Comp/Att

Pct.

TD

INT

1

Darian Mensah

Miami

2026

94/106

88.7

14

0

2

Geno Smith

West Virginia

2012

141/169

83.4

20

0

3

Robert Griffin III

Baylor

2011

92/112

82.1

18

1

4

Dillon Gabriel

Oregon

2024

110/135

81.5

9

1

5

Zach Wilson

BYU

2020

80/99

80.8

8

1

6

Joe Burrow

LSU

2019

100/124

80.6

17

2

7

Dan Persa

Northwestern

2010

85/106

80.2

8

1

T8

Colt McCoy

Texas

2008

80/100

80.0

14

1

T8

J.J. McCarthy

Michigan

2022

48/60

80.0

5

0

10

Jaxson Dart

Ole Miss

2024

95/119

79.8

12

2

Mensah enters October with the second-best odds to win the Heisman Trophy, according to FanDuel . The Duke transfer, who won the ACC title with the Blue Devils last season, credits the people around him for his success.

"My whole (offensive) line, I think they do a great job in protection up front. And I think that I've got elite pass catchers," Mensah said Saturday. "And so I don't feel like I have to press or do anything spectacular. I just got to put it in play and my guys will do the rest.

Malachi Toney , one of those pass catchers, said he is not surprised by Mensah's incredible start.

"No, not really," he said Saturday. "The stuff that I see him doing on the field, I mean, he did it on Greentree first, so I saw it before the world had a chance to see it.

After four games, nobody since 2004 is close to Mensah in touchdowns-against-incompletions. Griffin missed by two in 2011. Everyone else missed by five or more, including Joe Burrow, Jalen Hurts and Tua Tagovailoa during their record runs in 2019, arguably the best collection of elite quarterbacks in the modern era.

TD passes minus incompletions through four games since 2004 (min. 60 attempts)

Rank

QB

Team

Season

TD

Inc.

Margin

Rating

1

Darian Mensah

Miami

2026

14

12

+2

228.2

2

Robert Griffin III

Baylor

2011

18

20

-2

231.5

3

Carlos Del Rio-Wilson

Marshall

2025

9

14

-5

206.5

4

Colt McCoy

Texas

2008

14

20

-6

209.7

T5

Jalen Hurts

Oklahoma

2019

12

19

-7

249.9

T5

Joe Burrow

LSU

2019

17

24

-7

225.6

T5

Sam Bradford

Oklahoma

2007

14

21

-7

215.4

T5

J.J. McCarthy

Michigan

2022

5

12

-7

204.5

T9

Tua Tagovailoa

Alabama

2019

17

25

-8

225.3

T9

Gunner Stockton

Georgia

2026

10

18

-8

209.1

T9

Geno Smith

West Virginia

2012

20

28

-8

208.4

That 2019 season is still the standard for a group. Hurts, Burrow and Tagovailoa each posted a passer rating above 225 through four games, an average of 233.6, the best in at least 22 seasons.  Burrow won the Heisman and Hurts finished second. This year's top three of Mensah (228.2), Stockton (209.1) and Indiana 's Josh Hoover (204.6) average 214.0, ranking fifth over the last 23 seasons.

Box scores and other data compiled from CollegeFootballData.com.

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_Originally reported by [CBS Sports](https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/darian-mensah-miami-historic-start-heisman-campaign/)._