The early returns of his first month in Tallahassee, even before spring practice begins, have him feeling confident.
The start of Ashton Daniels’ time at Florida State probably hasn’t been what he expected.
Two days before his introductory press conference as a Seminole and one day before the team began its Tour of Duty offseason program, FSU offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn announced his retirement.
That has created a somewhat seismic shift surrounding a potential 2026 starting quarterback the Seminoles brought in out of the portal.
Daniels has always been somewhat limited as a passer, with nearly as many interceptions (22) as passing touchdowns (24) and a 60.2% completion percentage over stops at Stanford (2022-24) and Auburn (2025).
His strength historically has been as a dual-threat athlete, amassing 1,401 career rushing yards and 11 scores.
That’s more Malzahn’s offense than Norvell’s, with the head coach set to take over playcalling once again in 2026.
That has sent Daniels back to the drawing board a bit, looking at “introductory stuff” in Norvell’s offense.
“Obviously, finding out what guys in our offense do best and kind of building an offense around that has been a big thing for us. At least for this past week,” Daniels said Wednesday when asked about the offense. “Obviously, things are happening really fast, and there’s a lot of moving parts to it, but I think going back and looking at some of my film is what I’ve been doing. Trying to pick things that I do really great and also things that I need to work on for this offseason and trying to build something around that.”
Now, it does bear mentioning that Norvell found his greatest success as Florida State’s head coach with an extraordinarily mobile quarterback in Jordan Travis, who grew from an inconsistent passer who could only run reliably to one of the best quarterbacks in program history.
Obviously, Daniels shouldn’t be compared to Travis for a number of reasons. Not the least of which is that he has just one year of eligibility left.
However, it shows the possibility, as does some of Daniels’ recent upside. He ran for 245 yards in just three starts last season at Auburn, including 108 against rival Alabama. In his prior game against Vanderbilt, he threw for 353 yards and two scores, running for two more scores.
The early returns of his first month in Tallahassee, even before spring practice begins, have him feeling confident.
“I think we’re off on the right foot, just with the way they’ve come into the offensive meetings and approached the mindset we’re going to have for this season and for this offseason,” Daniels said. “It’s really promising for this offense.”
However, Daniels knows he will have to win the job. He’s not arriving all-but-assured of the starting job like the last few transfer quarterbacks FSU has taken.
With the praise we heard about Kevin Sperry during his freshman season and his promise in very limited game action last season, the rising sophomore figures to factor into the conversation.
That competition is not something that Daniels is backing down from whatsoever.
“Anywhere you go in college football nowadays, you’re going to have to compete,” Daniels said. “Nothing is just handed to you. So, I’ve always had that mindset everywhere that I’ve gone: High school, Auburn, Stanford. I’ve had to compete. And that’s the mindset I come in with here.
“I know nothing is given to me. So, I’m going to go in there and we’re going to compete, we’re going to do our best to sharpen each other every single day. So no matter who goes out there on the field on Saturdays, we’re going to be prepared to go.”
Category: General Sports
