Florida State football head coach Mike Norvell said he had likely seen enough in spring camp to be close to deciding on the starting quarterback for 2026.
It took less than a week for that decision to become public as Florida State names transfer quarterback Ashton Daniels as the starting quarterback over redshirt freshman Kevin Sperry:
QB1️⃣#NoleFamily pic.twitter.com/rpu1J5vExF
— FSU Football (@FSUFootball) April 21, 2026
I thought Daniels should have been the starter, considering his experience and skillset unless Sperry just found another gear to perform in the spring. Sounds like the latter didn't happen.
Who the starter is shouldn’t come as a surprise. Kevin Sperry played in four games last year as a freshman, threw 17 passes, and rushed seven times. Most of that action came against Kent State and East Texas A&M before getting thrust into the Stanford game after Thomas Castellanos went down with an injury.
Daniels was the backup at Auburn last year, before starting at Stanford the two years before that. He played a good bit as a freshman at Stanford as well.
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His stats are not great historically, but he has much more experience, closer to the mold of Jordan Travis, and not as injury-prone as Sperry, who’s of a slighter build. Daniels seemed to be the most consistent of the two during spring camp. The biggest issue for Daniels has always been the turnovers, and if he can hone in on how to limit those? The Florida State offense has a chance to be better than advertised.
Daniels is quite capable of using his legs to do damage by extending plays or giving defenses something else to defend in the run game. Personally, I would have waited until fall camp to make the announcement, but if the players and everyone already feel like Daniels is the starter, there’s no sense in waiting to announce the decision.
It at least gives him time to try to become the leader over summer/fall camp before the season starts. However, it also gives Sperry a chance to come off the bench and prove what he can do should the season go sideways early or Daniels doesn’t perform well.
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