Florida State football has plenty of questions that it has to answer before it kicks off its opener against New Mexico State on Saturday, August 29th, in Doak Campbell Stadium. Head coach Mike Norvell is on the hot seat after having a combined seven wins in two years.
The administration decided to keep him around for the 2026 season, which surprised many individuals around the program because of the Seminoles losing seven of their last nine games of the year.
Coach Norvell can still find a way to turn it around in the right direction, and the administration seems to have some type of faith that he could resurrect the program as he did in 2022 and 2023.
Head coach Mike Norvell speaks more on the Florida State quarterback battle
Florida State started former UCF and Boston College quarterback transfer Thomas Castellanos last year. This pickup was largely because former offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn (who unexpectedly retired this offseason) had experience with coaching him.
Castellanos's eligibility has ended, and the Seminoles decided to bring in former Stanford and Auburn quarterback Ashton Daniels to provide depth in the room and maybe even a veteran who could start for the Seminoles.
Mike Norvell spoke to the media after Thursday's practice, and he was asked about redshirt freshman Kevin Sperry and how he was performing. Norvell mentioned that the former four-star prospect in the 2025 cycle had good moments but wanted to see more consistency.
Then, Norvell brought up the transfer quarterback Ashton Daniels unsolicited after his comment about Kevin Sperry.
"Ashton (Daniels) has been really good. He has been everything that I wanted him to be when he came in. He is even getting better in the areas that we ask him to improve on. "
Norvell bringing up Daniels in the media session tends to make me believe that he is the favorite to start for the 2026 season. He has a track record of starting transfers at the position when it didn't involve Jordan Travis: McKenzie Milton, DJ Uiagalelei, and Thomas Castellanos.
We have seen the homegrown recruits get snaps in Garnet and Gold, and it hasn't been pretty under Mike Norvell, such as Tate Rodemaker, Chubba Purdy, AJ Duffy, Luke Kromenhoek, and Brock Glenn. This isn't to say that Ashton Daniels is something of note with his 24 passing touchdowns and 22 interceptions in his college career.
To be honest, the hope from all of the fan base is that he picks the quarterback that gives Florida State the best chance to win football games, even though the fan favorite is probably Kevin Sperry, since they are tired of the transfer experiments.