Florida State football finished with a 5-7 record after beating Alabama in the opener. The fan base and outsiders of the college football landscape thought that the Seminoles would have been contenders for the College Football Playoff.
However, losing seven of the last nine games of the year shut down that thought process. Head coach Mike Norvell is now on many hot seat lists and is trying to get Florida State to have sustainable success.
The landscape of college football has changed. Heck, even the Indiana Hoosiers (considered one of the worst teams in the history of the sport) won a national championship this past season. The Miami Hurricanes even made an appearance in the national championship game after twenty years of irrelevance.
Coach Norvell has gone to work this offseason with acquiring talent in the transfer portal and high school recruiting ranks. This has made the fan base nervous because they are having to add many new pieces in the transfer portal again.
Mike Norvell has a quarterback competition on its hands for the 2026 season
One of the headliners in the transfer portal class is former Stanford and Auburn quarterback transfer Ashton Daniels. This is the third straight offseason that the Seminoles have gone after a signal-caller in the portal (DJ Uiagalelei, Thomas Castellanos, and Ashton Daniels).
The thought process is that the battle will be between redshirt senior Ashton Daniels and redshirt freshman Kevin Sperry since JUCO quarterback Malachi Marshall doesn't come until the summer.
Analyst Josh Pate on his College Football Show highlighted the Florida State quarterback battle between Daniels and Sperry, and suggested that if FanDuel Sportsbook releases odds on who wins the starting quarterback job, then Ashton Daniels would be the favorite.
Many fans think that Norvell will side with the veteran over Sperry, even though the former four-star prospect might be the better long-term option. Florida State has to win now in 2026 to keep Coach Norvell around with all of the pressure that he is facing, which makes sense why Daniels would be the favorite to start.