By I.P. Daily | Orange Bowl Boys Staff Columnist | April 3, 2026
Listen here, pally. I’ve been covering this racket since before your grandfather was sneaking hooch behind the bleachers at the Orange Bowl, and I ain’t never seen a club lose this much talent and still have every mug with a keyboard picking ’em to run the table. But that’s what’s happening down at Greentree, and if you ain’t paying attention, you’re dumber than a Florida State diploma.
The Canes opened spring ball last week and I dragged my decrepit carcass down to Coral Gables to see what all the commotion was about. Six practices in, and lemme tell ya, this ain’t your daddy’s rebuilding year. This here is what the scribes are calling a “reload.” And for once, they ain’t wrong.
The Kid From Duke
Darian Mensah. That’s the name, and you better learn to spell it right because every scribe with a press pass is gonna be writing it in bold print from now until January. The kid transferred in from Duke…Duke, for cryin’ out loud, where he threw for damn near 4,000 yards and 34 touchdowns. Shannon Dawson, the offensive coordinator who doesn’t get enough credit according to the big boss Cristobal himself, says Mensah’s got the demeanor of a guy who’s been doing this his whole life. “Nothing really affects him too much,” Dawson told the press. That’s code for the kid’s got ice in his veins, which is exactly what you need when 80,000 lunatics at Notre Dame Stadium are trying to rattle your fillings loose come November.
Now, I’ve seen three quarterbacks waltz into this program under Cristobal, Cam Ward, who went first overall to the Titans and is probably buying a yacht as we speak, Carson Beck, who dragged this outfit to the national championship game and is now doing the Pro Day circuit for a hundred NFL suits, and now Mensah. The man’s got a type, see? He likes ’em experienced, he likes ’em tough, and he likes ’em with a chip. The kids behind Mensah, Judd Anderson, Luke Nickel, and true freshman Dereon Coleman, are scrapping for the backup job, and Dawson says Coleman is “more advanced than I would’ve thought.” The fans are buzzing about that QB room, and rightfully so. It’s deeper than the ocean off Key Biscayne.
The Fellas Headin’ to the Big Leagues
Now let’s talk about the boys who ain’t gonna be around come September, on account of they’re about to become very rich men.
Rueben Bain Jr. That kid is a menace. A genuine, certified, card-carrying menace. Fifty-four tackles, nine and a half sacks, ACC Defensive Player of the Year, and the kind of motor that makes old-timers like me wanna stand up and tip my hat, which I ain’t done since DiMaggio retired. Every mock draft from Mel Kiper to Matt Miller to Field Yates has got Bain going somewhere between picks 2 and 9. The chatter on the fan boards has people arguing about whether the short arms are gonna hurt him. Let me tell you something, the kid’s arms might be short, but his reach extends to every quarterback’s nightmares. Thirty-one inches, thirty-two inches, who gives a damn? The man had 18 and a half tackles for loss. He could have flippers for arms and I’d still take him top ten.
Francis Mauigoa is the other half of this trench warfare act, and he’s a mountain. Six-six, 335 pounds of Samoan concrete who started every single game of his three-year career, 42 straight, and allowed two lousy sacks during the whole championship run. The consensus big boards over at ESPN have him anywhere from 2 to 11 overall. The Dolphins at 11, pally. Could you imagine? A Hurricane protecting a Dolphin? That’s the kind of poetry even a cranky old bastard like me can appreciate.
And don’t sleep on Akheem Mesidor, neither. The draft scribes are tracking him as a possible first-rounder too, Yates has him 15th to Tampa Bay. Keionte Scott ran a 4.33 at Pro Day and might’ve run faster in the Cotton Bowl when he was chasing down Ohio State receivers like they owed him money. The word on the street is this could be Miami’s first draft with 10-plus picks since 2002. Two-thousand-and-two! That was the year after we won the whole damn thing and Terry Porter ruined the sequel. Don’t get me started on Terry Porter. I’ll need a drink and I ain’t supposed to have one on account of my blood pressure, which my doctor says is “alarmingly high,” which I says is “none of your business, doc.”
The Spring Game and Other Business
The spring game is set for April 18th at Cobb Stadium, and it’s already sold out. Sold out. A scrimmage! At Cobb! That joint don’t even seat all that many people and they’re turning folks away like it’s a speakeasy with a fire code. That tells you everything you need to know about where this program is at under Cristobal.
The schedule for the fall is out too, and it ain’t for the faint of heart. You open at Stanford on a Friday night, come home for Florida A&M on a Thursday, go to Wake Forest on another Friday, then Central Michigan at home before the real fun starts at Clemson on October 3rd. Three Friday games and a Thursday in the first month, a full third of the schedule on days that ain’t Saturday. The suits at the ACC clearly don’t give two shakes about our tailgate plans, but what else is new? The ACC has been treating Miami like a rented mule since we joined this godforsaken conference.
But the back half? That’s where the plot thickens. Florida State off the bye, again, then Pitt, at Carolina, at Notre Dame, and closing with Duke, Virginia Tech, and Boston College at home. Three straight at Hard Rock to end the regular season. CBS has already projected the Canes as the No. 1 overall seed in the College Football Playoff. You read that right. Number one. The word around the program is this is the biggest recruiting weekend of the Cristobal era, and the fan chatter is hotter than a plate of croquetas on Calle Ocho.
Mark Fletcher’s back for his senior year after leading the team with 1,192 rushing yards. Malachi Toney’s back and already being whispered about for the Heisman. Cooper Barkate followed Mensah down from Duke. Damon Wilson transferred in from Missouri with 9.5 sacks. Jason Taylor…the Jason Taylor, is coaching the defensive line and telling the young bucks about the standard that Bain and Mesidor set.
And me? I’ll be right here in this press box, drinking coffee that tastes like it was brewed during the Hoover administration, hollering at these kids to hit somebody, and filing my reports for the Orange Bowl Boys like I’ve been doing since before podcasts were even a word.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I gotta go yell at a cloud.
I.P. Daily has been covering Miami Hurricanes football since before you were born, and he’d like you to know he doesn’t care what you think about that. His column appears on orangebowlboys.com. Follow the Orange Bowl Boys on X @OrangeBowlBoys and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.