Quarterback Ashton Daniels is entering year five of his college football career. In 2026, he'll be the Florida State Seminoles' starting QB during a season Mike Norvell needs to succeed to keep his head coaching job.
Norvell denied that he's coaching for his job in 2026. He did give his QB some preemptive excuses if he underperforms, though. Norvell claimed at ACC Media Days 2026 that Daniels' career has involved situations with the Stanford Cardinal for three years and the Auburn Tigers last year that needed to be "worked through."
“He’s a guy that can really do it all. Ashton’s had a great deal of experience around his college career. He’s been put in a lot of different situations that he’s had to work through," Norvell said.
Norvell is not totally wrong.
In Northern California, Daniels was essentially asked to run the offensive engine himself. The trench play under Troy Taylor was abysmal, and Micah Ford's 309 yards during the 2024 season were the best running back performance in any Daniels-led backfield at Stanford. Daniels truly never had a chance, particularly in 2023, when the Pac-12 was a strong conference before the Big Ten and Big 12 raided it. There was simply never any investment in the program. In a sense, Daniels knew what he was getting with the Cardinal in the 2020s.
As for what went wrong at Auburn, well, he simply didn't get the chance he probably deserved.
Ashton Daniels should've been handed the baton sooner at Auburn
Jackson Arnold was showing signs early in SEC play that he couldn't be the guy on the Plains. It seemed Hugh Freeze was hellbent on going down swinging with Arnold before truly considering Daniels.
Arnold wasn't always bad, but even strong performances in the first halves against the Missouri Tigers and Arkansas Razorbacks unraveled quickly. Daniels could've gotten a full-fledged chance sooner had DJ Durkin taken over sooner.
The games Daniels did play provided hope. A 45-38 OT loss to the Vanderbilt Commodores in Nashville was one of the best QB performances of the entire season from the Tigers. Daniels had 442 yards of total offense and four touchdowns during an uncharacteristically bad defensive performance from AU that day.
Who knows what Daniels could've accomplished had he gotten the baton sooner? Ultimately, it's clear the Tigers would've probably landed on a coach like Alex Golesh, who was going to bring his own QB for the 2026 season anyway. Auburn may have always been a springboard for Daniels, who might've known that he would never be the Tigers' full-time starter.
We'll see if Daniels springboarded himself to a home where he doesn't have to "work through" things in Tallahassee. With the way Norvell's program has been run the past few seasons, that's a gargantuan ask.
Norvell, as the lead play-caller in place of the retired Gus Malzahn, will have the most direct influence over Daniels' success at FSU. Time for Norvell to show that he has worked through a disastrous offseason that's followed two disastrous campaigns.
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