Some Florida State football fans want redshirt freshman quarterback Kevin Sperry to get his shot at leading the program. However, Auburn transfer Ashton Daniels wasn’t brought to FSU to ride the bench, although that’s what he did at Auburn until the final few games of the season. A former starter at Stanford, Daniels has some tools that can make him problem for most opposing defenses.
He’s athletic enough to do damage with his legs and gets rid of the ball fairly quickly most of the time. However, Daniels has a couple of things to work on if he’s going to be the leader Mike Norvell thinks he’s capable of in 2026.
Two Things Ashton Daniels Must Improve On Big Time in 2026
Daniels has to limit his interceptions, and the other thing he has to do is improve the accuracy on his passes. The interceptions is something Daniels was already aware of, and pointed out it’s something he worked to improve on at Auburn. He threw two interceptions in 119 attempts, but to his credit, both interceptions were not his fault. One was a Hail Mary and the other was a ball that went off his receiver’s hands.
Turnovers are something that has plagued FSU the past two seasons. FSU has 41 turnovers in its last 24 games, which nearly averages out to two turnovers per game. That is insane, and makes it incredibly hard to win. Daniels usually completes about 58 percent of his passes, but had a season at Stanford where he completed 62.7 percent. That’s creeping into Jordan Travis territory and would be a huge step to helping the FSU offense find consistency. FSU moved the ball well between the 20s last year, but struggled in the red zone because Thomas Castellanos struggled with seeing targets and completing passes.
Daniels is a bigger guy who can run, and who has shown he’ll take the checkdown or complete a slant pass. Daniels hasn’t shown he can do it. However, if he can have fewer than eight or so turnovers and complete around 62-63 percent of his passes? FSU will be better than most think. Â