The Miami Hurricanes are off and running in spring practice. Outside of some film noir style clips there isn’t much to see on Greentree. But one thing that we can watch is All-22 film. Today’s tape is from the Tulane at Charlotte game from 2024. Against the 49ers, Darian Mensah completed 21-of-29 passing on 214 yards. He did not score, but also did not turn the ball over. Mensah was sacked twice.
Above– Mensah completes a deep out on the “Sail” pass concept. Sail (below) has a vertical from #1, The 10y ‘sail route’ or out from #2 and a dig from #3. Your progression is to rhythm the vertical, and read the high-low between the RB swing and the TE’s sail. The 4th progression, 2nd read is the dig route.
In the clip you can see the vertical and swing are covered which left the sail open for Mensah to knock in there.
Above– Tulane in ‘24 ran a lot of Air Raid concepts that are similar for Shannon Dawson to coach Mensah back to. The Tulane OC in ‘24, Joe Craddock, has been attached to Chad Morris and Jon Sumrall and will coach QB’s at Florida this fall.
A typical offensive call, but not Air Raid per se, is the naked boot with the slide route from the TE. If you run enough split zone this can be a deadly concept as the TE normally comes across to kick out the backside DE, but here the DE is left unblocked for the QB to boot off of. The TE slips into the flat.
The amount of “Dawson” calls Tulane ran with Craddock and Mensah should help his transition at Miami. Unlike Carson Beck who struggled to pick up Dawson’s calls, Cam Ward and Mensah have played in much more similar styles than Beck had prior to Coral Gables.
Much like Beck, Mensah finds success here in the intermediate-middle tube of the field with the dig route. While this clip isn’t shallow cross, being able to hit the dig will open shallow up for the ‘Canes. Malachi Toney runs a nasty dig route with so many DB’s expecting him to push vertical he can snap the route off late.
Another Air Raid staple and Dawson favorite is Mesh. Mesh was an adaptation Hal Mumme took from BYU and toyed with it to find even more success at Valdosta State and then Kentucky. Mike Leach took Mesh with him to Oklahoma and beyond.
With the amount of mesh and mesh return Dawson called with Beck I would hope to see even more with Mensah, Cooper Barkate and Toney on the field together.
I have to add in one throw that I didn’t like. Multiple times over the course of the game Tulane dialed up a wide open deep shot and Mensah missed them all. His zero TD’s stat exemplifies not hitting on the big explosives. Above, he misses on a seam shot that bends into a post (go where the DB’s aren’t sort of thing). Mensah has the arm strength, his issue is more about the right zip-arc ratio on these deeper shots.
One last shot here of Mensah against UNC Charlotte. The pressure beats the Tulane OL and he’s able to avoid, extend (space creates time) and still keep his eyes downfield and fire a perfect ball on the Levels Concept to this WR on the in route.
The Wrap
I liked what I saw from Mensah against UNCC from his redshirt freshman year. That’s a young QB who had literally no prior playing experience to that season getting it done with his 2nd OC in two years. If there’s one knock on Mensah its that he’ll now play for his 3rd school and 4th OC and head coach in four years. That’s not the consistency that most QB’s can enjoy to develop under but it’s the modern era of college football.
There will be more All-22 Review including breaking down the Miami Hurricanes 2025 season and the 2026 schedule.
