Continuity is tough to achieve in college football. We have seen that all too often across the country, and Florida State has welcomed 50 or more new players each of the last two offseasons.
If you theorize that there’s a high correlation between continuity and on-field success, recent data from ESPN college football analyst Bill Connelly probably had Florida State fans bummed about the team’s 2026 outlook. Connelly counts FSU with 77 returning starts, the lowest among any ACC team, and far fewer than fall opponents like Virginia (137), Miami (131), SMU (128) and Clemson (111).
When separately factoring in transfer starts, FSU has 103 (third-highest in the ACC to Virginia at 146 and Louisville at 114).
Two things immediately jump off the page: FSU suffered some massive losses in the offseason as a result of expired eligibility or transfer. And FSU coaches prioritized transfers with experience in the portal.
Among the new wrinkles of college football: How do you weigh returning starts vs. the total starts of everyone on the roster? After a spring and a preseason camp, will you feel better about FSU’s total of 180 returning starts? And how do we weigh the retention of younger Seminoles who didn’t earn that many starts yet are projected to be full-time starters / rotational players this fall?
Reflecting on retention
The reality is we won’t know until the season opener against New Mexico State and then the ACC opener vs. SMU what FSU really looks like. In the transfer portal era, and with FSU closing down practices, it’s tough to gauge the team by filtering the coach speak and what sources have told us.
Days after the 2025 season ended, the Osceola emphasized the importance of retention in December as part of the broad roster management planning — before FSU general manager John Garrett had officially started his job — and prior to evaluating the transfer portal options. We were right about how critical retention was in December, but we didn’t forecast how much retention would still be necessary once the portal came open in January.
At the top of the list from a retention standpoint: Wide receiver Duce Robinson, running back Ousmane Kromah, cornerback Ja’Bril Rawls, and defensive linemen Mandrell Desir and Darryll Desir. The Seminoles were also able to keep defensive tackle Kevin Wynn, tight end Landen Thomas and wide receiver Jayvan Boggs (all three flirted with the portal). Add in running back Samuel Singleton Jr., who had a few impressive games.
FSU wasn’t able to keep some key pieces, among them tight end Randy Pittman (SMU), wide receiver Lawayne McCoy (Louisville), running back Gavin Sawchuk (Northwestern), safety Earl Little Jr. (Ohio State), defensive end Amaree Williams (Mississippi State), linebacker Justin Cryer (Texas) and cornerback Shamar Arnoux Jr. (Auburn).
The retention could have been better. And it could have been far worse.
Here’s where Connelly’s data is very useful but lacking the precision specifically with FSU in 2026 to provide the full picture. FSU retained a number of younger players who didn’t start all that much: Boggs had four starts, Kromah started against Miami and Florida, Singleton had two starts and the Desir twins each had two starts. Thomas didn’t start once.
When you zoom out, look at some snap counts:
Mandrell Desir: 339
Darryll Desir: 300
Boggs: 190
Kromah: 159
Thomas: 114
Singleton Jr.: 88
Wynn: 40
While not starts, those snap counts reflect a good amount of experience earned in 2025.
FSU retained just 77 starts. But the combined start total of Boggs, Kromah, Singleton and the Desir twins is just 12. Thomas and Wynn had zero starts. Essentially the data says that’s one player competing in a full season in 2025 that is returning when we’re instead discussing (and projecting) seven players. We could argue those seven are at worst rotational players, yet we think many will be starters.
Lack of retention at QB, OL, DL
While delivering some healthy optimism here, let’s acknowledge that we don’t know enough about the transfers on FSU’s offensive line to have defined takeaways post-spring and pre-camp. There were also massive losses on the defensive front. How the pieces fit are tough to see right now and likely not until FSU’s first few games.
There’s little to change the fact that FSU will start a new quarterback for a fourth straight season in 2026 (from Jordan Travis, Brock Glenn and Tate Rodemaker in 2023 to DJ Uiagalelei, Glenn and Luke Kromenhoek in 2024 and Tommy Castellanos in 2025). That lack of continuity hurts chemistry on offense.
Retention and continuity won’t benefit Ashton Daniels (although it could help Kevin Sperry, despite the newer wrinkles from the Gus Malzahn offense to the Norvell offense). Regardless, Norvell and FSU’s staff valued surrounding the quarterback with playmakers like Robinson, Kromah, Singleton and Micahi Danzy while also adding Texas transfer running back Tre Wisner (a 1,000-yard rusher in 2024).
Another continuity discussion is one of the head coach or coordinator. That’s yet another dynamic of continuity. We’ve argued this is a plus for FSU’s defensive players in year 2 with coordinator Tony White. And if the offense limits the wholesale changes in the shift from Malzahn’s scheme to Norvell’s version, that could benefit returning players.
FSU’s retention for 2026 was far from great. Or smooth. In an ideal world, FSU has an experienced blocker like Pittman at tight end (for example). But the Seminoles were able to retain Robinson, Rawls and enough younger players for the fall as they battle ACC teams with more returning starts / starters.
The Osceola has wrapped up its state of the program series, in which we evaluated each of the football team’s position groups. Read them here in the Osceola’s football section.
