Florida State named Ashton Daniels its starting quarterback on Tuesday, giving the transfer the Week 1 job against New Mexico State.
Daniels arrived in Tallahassee after one season at Auburn, where he played in four games in 2025 and kept his redshirt intact. He went 68-of-119 for 797 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions, and added 63 rushing attempts for 280 yards and two scores. He also started against Alabama in Auburn's season finale after the Tigers sat him against Mercer in the penultimate week.
The move gives Florida State a clear answer at the position as Mike Norvell enters his seventh season. The Seminoles are coming off a frustrating year in which they lost four straight games after a 3-0 start, dropped three of their last four and missed a bowl game for the second straight season. Norvell was retained at the end of that season, and Florida State is 38-34 under him with 24 of those wins coming in 2022 and 2023.
Daniels beat out redshirt freshman Kevin Sperry for the job, a decision shaped by a career that stretches back to Stanford. Before Auburn, Daniels played in 33 games across three seasons with the Cardinal, throwing for 3,986 yards and 21 touchdowns against 20 interceptions while rushing 282 times for 1,117 yards and nine scores.
Florida State needed a steady hand, and it chose the quarterback with the longest résumé in the room. Daniels now gets the first chance to show whether that experience can settle a program still searching for a clean reset.
