One of the stars of Florida State’s fall camp so far has been true freshman four-star wide receiver Jasen Lopez. The two-sport athlete has split time with the basketball team during his brief stint in Tallahassee so far, but with his focus purely on football this month, he’s emerged as the Seminoles' potential starting slot receiver.
Anytime a true freshman is pushing for playing time, it’s a good thing, but his rise is complicated by the fact that last year’s starting slot was also a true freshman, Jayvan Boggs, who, after entering the transfer portal this offseason, returned to Florida State.
Boggs missed the start of fall camp with an injury, which helped to facilitate Lopez’s rise, but on Wednesday, Norvell announced that the Cocoa, Florida native is back at practice and is already making big plays.
“Jayvan Boggs, he got back this week,” Norvell revealed at the end of his Wednesday media availability. “We limited him just a bit, just for himself, but he had three or four really, really good plays yesterday. So, I’m excited about that room, as well as some of the guys that we’ve talked a lot about: Jasen, Tae(‘Shaun Gelsey), and Devin (Carter) coming along.”
There may not be enough WR snaps to keep a deep position room happy
Last season, in a run-first offense led by Gus Malzahn, who was in a one-year stint as FSU’s play-caller, Boggs had 15 targets head his way through the eight games he was able to play and caught nine for 103 yards and a touchdown. LaWayne McCoy was the top option in the slot and caught 27 of his 37 targets.
The top two targets in the offense, Duce Robinson, who was first-team All-ACC with a 56-catch, 1,081-yard campaign, and Micahi Danzy, who reeled in 27 grabs for 571 yards and three touchdowns, are both back. So, there won’t be a huge number of vacant targets to go around.
Even with Norvell back on the headset after a one-year hiatus, it’ll still be a run-first offense, and Boggs and Lopez may be fighting over even fewer opportunities in the slot this year than there were in 2025.
Mike Norvell is leaning into a heavy-personnel approach
Along with raving about his deep wide receiver room and announcing Boggs’ return during his media session, Norvell spoke about his tight end room, which could be even more important to the identity he wants this unit to have. 12 personnel usage is up across the board in college football, nearly 10 percent from 2016, and it sounds as though Norvell is going to follow those trends and potentially even incorporate some 13 personnel as well.
“It’s a group that I definitely think you’ll see two, maybe three of those guys on the field at a time,” Norvell said after praising Desirrio Riles, Landen Thomas, and Chase Loftin, his veteran tight ends. “In my history, there have been a lot of times we’ve been 21 personnel (2 running backs, 1 tight end), been able to utilize multiple guys,” Norvell said, shifting focus to the running back room.
That scheme's versatility will likely be a strength of the offense, especially with a physical runner at quarterback in Ashton Daniels. Still, every snap with two tight ends or two running backs is a snap without a slot receiver, and that makes every opportunity for either Boggs or Lopez that much more precious.
Both players will find their way onto the field this season; that seems inevitable at this point. But that doesn’t make their fall camp competition any less interesting, especially now that Boggs is getting back to 100%.
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