Former Auburn Tigers quarterback Ashton Daniels seemingly isn't actually in a QB competition with his new team this spring. It appears Daniels will be the starting quarterback from the start of the season, just like he was with the Stanford Cardinal, and unlike he was at Auburn.
That's Chop Chat's Corey Long's take on the situation, anyway. Long sees no real competition unfolding this spring and into fall camp, believing Florida State Seminoles head coach Mike Norvell essentially lied about Daniels' need to "compete" for the job in Tallahassee.
"Mike Norvell never really said there would be a quarterback competition this spring, but rather there would be a competitive environment at all the positions, including quarterback. It's a lot of word salad, but the safe assumption is that Ashton Daniels will at least start the season as QB1," Long wrote.
Ashton Daniels committed to FSU under different circumstances
As Long would later go on to explain, "some key pieces of that offensive staff that was watching Daniels last year are gone. Guz Malzahn is retired. Tony Tokarz took a job at Buffalo." Daniels joined FSU with an entirely different coaching structure in January.
Obviously, he's not complaining about being thrust into a starting role after transferring to Auburn under the pretense of competing for the job last year with Jackson Arnold. Daniels won the starting job, but he got it in late October. By then, though, the locker room was seemingly fully checked out.
Daniels' final year of eligibility looks like it'll be spent with as much uncertainty as his time with Stanford and hectic one year under Freeze and DJ Durkin had. If he was sold on stability, Daniels was lied to by Norvell.
If he was sold on being QB1, it looks like Daniels is getting what he bargained for with Florida State.