TALLAHASSEE — There have been plenty of good spirals. Ashton Daniels has, despite his struggles, completed roughly 60% of his college passes.
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But it’s the passes under duress that sent him spiraling into a dark spot at Stanford. Daniels had 20 interceptions in two seasons as a starter at Stanford, including an ACC-leading 12 in 11 games in 2024.
Getting his mind right after the negatives was often too much for Daniels.
“It’s all confidence. Seriously, it really is,” Daniels said. “I have all the confidence in myself that I have the ability to go out there and make every throw, to make every read, whatever it is. But as soon as you make a bad throw, you do something bad, you start to sit there and reflect on it. That’s when stuff starts to affect you, and you get in your head, you start thinking about things, and things don’t go great. Just eliminating that, I think, is really really important this year.”
Daniels’ admission is eye-opening. He’s been humbled but he thinks highly of himself. He is a not-so-rare transfer quarterback who is now at his third school. It’s the third straight year that FSU coach Mike Norvell has picked a quarterback with baggage: DJ Uiagalelei had attended Clemson and Oregon State, Tommy Castellanos had played at UCF and Boston College and now Daniels arrives after three years at Stanford (including a redshirt) and a season at Auburn.
There are plenty of reasons why Daniels is intriguing as FSU tries to improve on last season’s 5-7 record. He won state titles at Buford (Ga.) High and has a degree from Stanford in Science, Technology and Society. (To say he’s smart might be an understatement.) Teammates and coaches view him as an exceptional leader. And he’s elusive as a runner, making plays with his legs or to buy time to throw.
There are plenty of reasons why Daniels is attending his third school. There’s the completion percentage — 58.8% at Stanford in 2023, 62.7% at Stanford in 2024 and 57.1% at Auburn last fall. There are struggles to throw deep passes. And there are the interceptions.
That stat is most closely tied to Daniels. All of the interceptions kept adding up, including three in a 2024 loss when Stanford was playing at Clemson. There were also three interceptions in a loss at San Jose State, two in a win at Syracuse and two in a loss to Wake Forest.
The trend there is those interceptions often lead to his team’s losses. He takes responsibility for all of them. But the turnovers require context, he says.
“To be honest, there were just certain situations where I feel like we just might not have been set up for success, and I’m not gonna sit here and blame anybody,” Daniels said. “No, I take all the blame for that. Regardless, I’m the one out there that’s making the decisions, making the throws. But obviously you get late in games. You’re kind of desperate, and you’re down a lot of points, and you kind of have to force things and just hope things happen to get some points on the board, maybe to create a spark or something like that.
“At the end of the day, it’s me, I’m the one that’s out there making the decision. So I have to take all accountability and blame.”
Multi-school path to FSU
His journey from an Atlanta suburb to Palo Alto to Tallahassee also included a partial resurgence at Auburn. Daniels was finishing up his coursework toward a Stanford degree last spring so he missed out on the Tigers’ spring practices. He lost out on a quarterback competition last August to Jackson Arnold before Daniels later earned the chance to play in four late-season games, helping Auburn to a win at Arkansas before enduring three losses: at Kentucky (with just 108 passing yards), at No. 16 Vanderbilt in overtime and against Alabama.
Two performances in losses are impressive in showing Daniels has the skill set and regained confidence as he led the offense, ran effectively and had moments in the passing game. At Vanderbilt, he completed 70.5 percent of his passes for 353 yards and two touchdowns (no interceptions) plus 89 rushing yards and two touchdown runs in what was a shootout loss. In a home loss to Alabama, he completed just 46.2 percent of his passes for 259 yards, a touchdown and an interception but also 108 rushing yards against a team that played for the SEC title and reached the 12-team College Football Playoff.
The initial sell by FSU’s coaches to Daniels was clear: Gus Malzahn had coached at Auburn and showed Daniels tape of Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Cam Newton. Daniels built a quick connection to the FSU staff, committed and was a month into the offseason before Malzahn retired Feb. 2.
Norvell announced that wide receivers coach Tim Harris Jr. would expand his role, adding the offensive coordinator title. But Norvell will be the play caller again, with Daniels in the driver’s seat.
“As I did my research, getting to know him, the coaches I worked with, the people around him, so many incredible qualities of the young man, the talent, the ability,” Norvell said. “When he joined the program in January, the words then become secondary because you see it in his actions, just the passion that he has for who he gets to work with. He’s not somebody that comes in having to wave the towel and give a speech. But when he talks, people listen just because of all the things they see from him.”
Daniels’ commitment and signing wasn’t met with much fanfare. His name isn’t among the national media’s list of top transfers in the ACC (let alone nationally). His skillset is tantalizing even if his resume is underwhelming.
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Seminoles back Daniels
Norvell noted Daniels’ command of the offense, decision making and third-down passes in FSU’s first scrimmage of preseason camp. FSU’s coach said he can see Daniels’ understanding of the offense grow from January through the spring, offseason and into camp.
From Norvell to the Seminoles, there is confidence in Daniels. And he’s surrounded by playmakers on offense. Daniels has a wealth of talent around him at receiver, led by 1,000-yard receiver Duce Robinson and football-track standout Micahi Danzy. The Seminoles also added true freshmen Devin Carter and Jasen Lopez, and Jayvan Boggs (the most productive receiver in Florida prep history) is back after injuries sidetracked him as a freshman in 2025.
“He is everything you would want a quarterback to be in my opinion,” Robinson said. “He’s a guy that makes plays on the field. He’s a dual-threat guy. He has an incredible arm, as fast as anyone on the team. He can run.
“But then the way he carries himself, the way he presents himself. He is a professional in every sense of the word.”
The blueprint to putting points on the board at FSU will likely be with a tough, physical ground attack. FSU will likely start four or five transfer linemen, but Daniels’ athleticism is a big positive. Daniels the runner can take pressure off Daniels the passer if he makes good run-pass option decisions and gets the ball to backs like Tre’ Wisner (a 1,000-yard rusher at Texas in 2024), Ousmane Kromah and Samuel Singleton Jr.
There is a big “if” to the discussion with the offensive line, a third straight season when the Seminoles will start five new linemen in the opener. The lack of consistency in personnel raises the usual cohesion and communication questions, ones that won’t be answered until FSU takes the field in a Week Zero matchup against New Mexico State.
New QB will be at the heart of the matter
But Daniels will be the central figure of the offense. FSU will defeat a rival and go to a bowl game for the first time since the 2023 season if Daniels limits mistakes, makes better decisions and leads. He showed that in games last season against Vanderbilt and Alabama, putting Auburn in position to win — albeit falling short.
“I’m confident in myself that when I get in flow state, that I can go out there and do whatever I want,” Daniels said. “So now it’s just, how do I go about getting into that flow state and building that confidence every single day?”
Daniels has talked a few times about his flow state. Teammates say they’ve seen it in the offseason and camp.
“That boy is special,” Kromah said. “When he’s in his mode, he’s different. He’s fluent. He plays natural. He makes things happen. I feel like he’s going to have a great impact on us this year.”
The year ahead is one of risk. FSU’s administrators opted to retain Norvell after back-to-back losing seasons. Norvell and new general manager John Garrett, who was FSU’s director of scouting on offense in 2022-23 before spending two seasons at Duke as general manager, have reshaped the roster with more than 60 new players.
Choosing Daniels was a risk. But he also sees a chance to revitalize his career with Norvell, who had success as a play caller with Jordan Travis as the quarterback that guided FSU to 19 straight wins over the 2022-23 seasons.
Travis was far more polished as a passer. But he also struggled early in his career until Norvell helped rebuild his confidence.
“I saw that when he was a play caller, watching games back then,” Daniels said. “I know that I can go out there and be put in a position of success. Now it’s, ‘Can I go out there and do it?’ “
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