Week 1 Scouting Notebook: Darian Mensah's masterclass, Jide Abasiri's dominance and more

By Jack Brentnall

College football is well and truly back, and it does not ease you in. No matter how many years I have been doing this, nothing quite prepares you for the sheer volume of Week 1: game after game after game, and more prospects on show than you could ever hope to watch in a single weekend. It comes thick and fast, and I love every minute of it. Here is what caught my eye.

Darian Mensah's near-flawless outing against Stanford

Miami’s opener against Stanford went about as smoothly as the Hurricanes could have hoped, and Darian Mensah was a big part of the reason why. He finished 27 of 30 for 400 yards and five touchdowns, good for a perfect passer rating of 158.3. The tape certainly backed up the box score.

Shannon Dawson deserves credit for the game plan. Miami’s OC schemed up a number of easy, open throws, and Mensah took them without hesitation. What stood out though was how comfortable he looked when the situation asked for more. He threw with touch and timing all game and repeatedly made the difficult throw look routine.

The opening drive set the tone. With pressure in his face, Mensah dropped a slot fade to Malachi Toney for the game’s first touchdown. Stanford rarely got home, but Mensah handled it well when they did, finishing 4 of 5 for 123 yards on pressured dropbacks.

His touchdown to Toney up the seam later in the game was the pick of the bunch. Mensah read the Cover 2 shell quickly, identified the mismatch on the pole runner and hit Toney in stride for the receiver’s third score of the day.

Stanford will not be the toughest defense Mensah faces this season, and I am wary of leaning too hard on one game, however clean it was. But he did everything asked of him here, and then some. Scouts will already have his trip to Notre Dame on 8 November circled.

Jide Abasiri dominates Fresno State despite a quiet box score

Of everything I watched in Week 1, I am not sure I saw a more consistently disruptive player than USC defensive tackle Jide Abasiri. That might read oddly given a box score with no sacks and no stops to his name, but the tape tells a very different story.

He was a one-man wrecking crew against Fresno State and, for large stretches, simply unblockable. Abasiri wins with power and quickness in equal measure, and that combination proved far too much for the Bulldogs up front. He is not the biggest interior defender, but a reported 83-inch wingspan gives him rare length, and he pairs it with the kind of pad level that lets him get underneath blockers and collapse the pocket almost at will.

That showed up against both run and pass. He also flashed his athleticism more than once, winning quickly around the edges of blockers and showing the bend to work back to the quarterback.

A former Freaks List member with a reported 1.60-second 10-yard split, Abasiri has never wanted for traits. The question has always been whether he could turn the flashes into something more consistent. On this evidence, he may be getting there. His trip to face Oregon in a few weeks now looms as one of the more intriguing matchups on the calendar, and if he can keep this up, he has every chance of being one of the breakout names of the 2027 class.

Jordan Seaton wins his battle with Will Heldt comfortably

I flagged the matchup between Jordan Seaton and Will Heldt as one to watch in my Week 1 preview. In the end it was no contest. Seaton dominated, and the battle was utterly one-sided.

One of several new additions to a revamped LSU offense, Seaton looked immediately at home. He was comfortable in pass protection throughout and did not concede a single pressure, handling Heldt with an ease few will manage this season. Clemson leaned heavily on stunts, and Seaton read them early and consistently, passing off and picking up his man without any fuss. His anchor held up well against power too.

There were encouraging signs in the run game. Seaton generated some real displacement, washing defenders down the line and landing a couple of clean kickout blocks, and his work climbing to the second level off combination blocks looked promising.

The consistency and refinement of his run blocking is still a work in progress though, and that was always likely to be the case this season. He now needs to focus on turning that into more down-to-down consistency.

Seaton was not the only new arrival to catch the eye. Edge rusher Jordan Ross announced himself with a sack and a pick six, while running back Dillin Jones impressed on debut. This is definitely a team to keep a close eye on in the coming weeks.

A quiet opener for Dante Moore against Boise State

Oregon got the win over Boise State, but it was far from comfortable, and Dante Moore was a big part of the reason why. Widely tipped as a first round quarterback coming into the season, Moore did little in this one to justify that billing.

His numbers on the day were fine, but they only tell part of the story. Too often it felt like Moore was failing to lift those around him.

The bigger concern was how he handled pressure. On several occasions he bailed from manageable pockets unnecessarily, and it cost Oregon a string of missed opportunities. His downfield accuracy also left plenty to be desired.

It would be unwise to overreact to a single outing, and Moore has more than enough talent to turn things around quickly. But this fell some way short of what you would expect from a player of his standing, and it is a storyline worth monitoring over the coming weeks.

Desmeal Leigh holds his own against Kentucky

I highlighted Desmeal Leigh’s trip to Kentucky in my Week 1 preview as one of his biggest tests of the year, and with good reason. Playing at the FCS level, this was Leigh’s only scheduled outing against FBS opposition, making it his one real chance to measure himself against Power Four talent.

The tape showed plenty to like. Leigh plays with genuine power, and his anchor looked strong throughout. When he got his hands cleanly on Kentucky’s rushers he was able to shut reps down, and his pass protection on the whole was good, which is no small thing against a defensive line carrying several notable 2027 prospects. He conceded just two pressures across the game.

It was not flawless. His pad level issues showed up, and on a handful of occasions his base was compromised and he ended up on the ground. There is clear room to grow as a run blocker too, which sounds odd for a player with his frame and raw strength, but the consistency is not there yet.

On balance this was a solid showing. Given how much was riding on his one shot at FBS competition though, you would perhaps have liked to see him take over the game a little more. Playing at the FCS level, he is likely a prospect we will have to wait on until the all-star games to properly assess against NFL-calibre opposition.

Pop Watson catches the eye in UMass's upset of Rutgers

Pop Watson will be an unfamiliar name to many, but the UMass quarterback announced himself in style, leading the Minutemen to a significant upset of Rutgers. Watson finished 20 of 23 for 204 yards and three touchdowns, adding another 38 yards on the ground.

He caught my eye with his natural feel for touch and placement as a thrower. He dropped several passes in with genuine precision, and he showcased the ability to extend plays and create with his legs when the pocket broke down.

It is still a small sample, and there is plenty to prove. I want to see him work through progressions more consistently and do more over the middle of the field, and a poor decision to force a post in the fourth quarter, one that was nearly picked off, was a reminder of the development still ahead. 

That said, for a quarterback making his UMass debut and just the third start of his college career, it was an encouraging performance. Beating a Big Ten side is no small feat and Watson is a name worth keeping on file.

JACK BRENTNALL

HEAD OF NFL DRAFT CONTENT

Previously the founder of The Jet Sweep, Jack joined The Touchdown as head of Draft Content in 2024. A Scouting Academy alumnus, Jack has been Covering the NFL Draft since 2020. Follow him on Twitter @Jack_Brentnall.

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