STANFORD, Calif. (AP) — Darian Mensah and Malachi Toney took almost no time to show how lethal a combination they can be this season for Miami.
Mensah threw five touchdown passes in his Miami debut, Toney set a school-record with 234 yards receiving and the seventh-ranked Hurricanes opened their season with an 45-6 victory over Stanford on Friday night.
“I was just eager to get on the field,” said Mensah, who transferred this offseason from Duke. “It’s been a long offseason. It took a lot to get to where I’m at today so I was just was ready to go.”
Mensah and Toney connected on touchdown passes on the first two drives of the game for Miami (1-0, 1-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) and then again on a 47-yarder in the third quarter that set the school record. Eddie Brown had 220 yards receiving in 1984 against Boston College in what was known as the “Hail Flutie” game.
“It means a lot knowing how many greats played at this university,” Toney said. “For me to be the player to break that record and set a new one, it just means a whole lot.
Mensah took little time to show the impact he could have on the Hurricanes by throwing a 48-yard pass to Toney on his first snap to set the tone against Stanford (1-1, 0-1).
Mensah capped that drive with a 23-yard touchdown pass to Toney and the two connected on a 2-yard score on the next possession with Toney punctuating both TDs with a Heisman pose for the Hurricanes fans in that corner of the stadium.
“You couldn’t draw it up any better,” Mensah said. “If you got one on one, if you’re leaving No. 1 one on one, that’s a problem. So just seeing that pre-snap just made it that much easier for me. … You want to go out and punch a team in the mouth.”
Mensah added another touchdown pass to Daylyn Upshaw in the second quarter, a 34-yarder to Cooper Barkate in the third and the deep strike to Toney. He finished 27 for 30 for 401 yards, setting records for the most yards and TDs in a debut for Miami.
Mensah led all power conference quarterbacks last season with 3,973 yards passing last season and now is teamed with one of the most dynamic receivers in Toney, who had 109 catches for 1,211 yards last season as a freshman when he helped Miami reach the College Football Playoff title game.
Davis Warren threw for 214 yards for Stanford but couldn’t get the Cardinal in the end zone after leading them to a 37-27 win over Hawaii in his Cardinal debut last week.
“There were spots tonight where we move the football,” coach Tavita Pritchard said. “We got down in the red zone a couple of times. We got to finish. I think that’s what that spoke to. We got to find consistency and we got to finish in the end zone.”
The takeaway
Miami: The Hurricanes figured to be one of the top offenses coming into the season and nothing they did in their opener would dissuade that thought as they scored touchdowns on six of their first seven drives. … CB OJ Frederique left the game with an injury on the opening drive and coach Mario Cristobal had no update on his status.
Stanford: After beating Hawaii in coach Tavita Pritchard’s first game, the Cardinal were unable to keep up with the Hurricanes as the level of competition rose significantly. Stanford hasn’t started a season 2-0 since 2018.
Up next
Miami: Hosts Florida A&M on Thursday night.
Stanford: At Duke on Sept. 19.
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