Florida State football did not have the season that it wanted from the quarterback position with the pick-up of former UCF and Boston College signal-caller Thomas Castellanos from the transfer portal.
Castellanos started the year with a bang as he made questionable comments about the Crimson Tide. Initially, the fan base was nervous that the quarterback went out of his way in that interview with On3's Pete Nakos to say that Nick Saban couldn't save Alabama now.
Florida State ended up beating the Crimson Tide by a score of 31-17, which left the fan base thinking that they could compete for the College Football Playoff. The Seminoles also defeated lesser opponents, Kent State and East Texas A&M, but they stumbled to the finish line, where they lost seven of their last nine games.
Quarterback transfer Ashton Daniels was added by Florida State's coaching staff this offseason
Thomas Castellanos declared for the NFL Draft after his eligibility expired. As a result, the Seminoles knew that they would be looking for a new starting quarterback in 2026.
Redshirt freshman Kevin Sperry was already on the roster, and he was a former four-star prospect that the coaching staff was familiar with. However, head coach Mike Norvell has a track record of bringing in transfer quarterbacks.
Sperry is someone that they are high on, but the staff had to add transfers to the roster with only having him and signee Jaden O'Neal (who has been rumored to be injured). They decided to acquire veteran options in Ashton Daniels, Malachi Marshall, and Dean DeNobile.
Daniels has been someone that the fan base has criticized since he didn't do anything special during his time with Stanford and Auburn. The Seminoles hosted quarterbacks from the portal, such as Colton Joseph, Anthony Colandrea, and DJ Lagway, but it became apparent that Ashton Daniels was their guy.
On3 dropped their transfer portal quarterback rankings for the ACC, and it was surprising that Ashton Daniels was listed at No. 10.
Top ACC transfer portal QB commits🎯https://t.co/Ph2146pYmk pic.twitter.com/DJXDkosxGx
— Transfer Portal (@TransferPortal) March 2, 2026
This isn't suggesting that Daniels has proven to be an elite option during his time in college football. However, the fact that they include both Virginia Tech quarterbacks, Ethan Grunkemeyer and Bryce Baker, is ridiculous. Honestly, I could see him being in the 7 or 8 range of this ranking.
Nonetheless, Ashton Daniels will be looking to prove the doubters wrong in 2026 if he is awarded the starting job.