Questions to Florida State’s coaches about Ashton Daniels have often been answered less with his physical attributes or strengths and more focusing on who he is as a leader.

On Wednesday, when the Seminoles open up preseason camp, he steps on the practice field as FSU’s starting quarterback. And he will be responsible for guiding an offense that will feature eight or nine new starters — beyond Daniels, that’s five new offensive linemen as well as a running back, a tight end and a third receiver / second running back / second tight end.

“You can say, ‘Hey, I think he's going to be this, I think he's going to be that to a team, to guys in a locker room,’ but when he shows up and he goes and he does it that’s where it becomes his,” FSU coach Mike Norvell said. “He is a tremendous leader, pouring in and building those relationships.”

The viewpoint of Daniels is of a quarterback who played early, struggled with interceptions and throwing the ball deep. But he displayed improvement in his year at Auburn, where he passed for 353 yards and two touchdowns in an overtime loss at ranked Vanderbilt and then threw for 259 yards, a touchdown and an interception and ran for 108 yards in a loss to Alabama.

Daniels said at the ACC Kickoff event that he has struggled with confidence in his career. FSU’s coaches, including quarterback coach Austin Tucker, have spent time reviewing his Auburn film with him as part of the relationship-building.

“As a quarterback, they're all experiences. They're all opportunities to get better. You got to learn from them,” Tucker said. “That's football in general. Whether it's a practice rep or it's a game rep you got to be able to go back and, 'Hey, let's understand what happened. What did you see?' Having those conversations has been really good even with him up to this point.

“We've gone back and watched some of his older film and talked through those things. The quarterback journey that all of these quarterbacks are on, you go through a lot of experiences. There's maturity. I think he's at a great spot right now.”

FSU’s staff has surrounded Daniels with talent. Duce Robinson, a 1,000-yard receiver in 2025, is back and leads a group that includes Micahi Danzy, Jayvan Boggs, Devin Carter and Jasen Lopez. Tre Wisner, a 1,000-yard rusher at Texas in 2024, is an addition to a room that has Ousmane Kromah and Samuel Singleton Jr. There are questions about FSU’s offensive line, from who starts where to how the cohesion will build, but Daniels has a wealth of playmakers.

And much of his success will depend on leading, running and not forcing bad throws that result in mistakes.

“I truly believe if he'll just continue to grow, he's going to put himself in a position to have a tremendous year,” Norvell said.

FSU’s backup quarterbacks

The Seminoles have four backups at different stages of their careers and development. Tucker said he’s liked how redshirt freshman Kevin Sperry has responded after Daniels won the competition. In three games, he completed 12 of 17 passes for 194 yards and two touchdowns along with seven rushes for 27 yards.

“Yes, you could be frustrated,” Tucker said. “But there's a response in that. That gets into how you respond to that. There's growth in that. There's maturity in that. He's continuing to work. He's continuing to put in the time. The work hasn't changed. That's what's expected but you got to go do that as well.”

Malachi Marshall, the NJCAA Division I Offensive Player of the Year, arrived this summer. At Iowa Western in 2025, he completed 201 passes on 319 attempts for 2,750 yards, 33 touchdowns and eight interceptions.

“Malachi has been great since he walked into the door,” Tucker said. “Obviously there's a transition in that. There's things you got to learn, just the new flow of how things go. But he's done a phenomenal job just with the weight room, nutrition, in the film room, getting on the field with the guys, building relationships. There's a lot of things you got to do as a quarterback, especially coming in to a new program.”

FSU also added a veteran transfer in Dean DeNobile from Lafayette, who threw for 6,956 yards and 53 touchdowns and had 10 touchdown rushes.

“Dean's been another experienced guy that's had a lot of reps,” Tucker said. “He's a guy in the room that you can lean on those guys that have lived it and done it, won conference championships. I think he can speak on experiences and that's always great to have that value in your room.”

True freshman Jaden O’Neal will miss 2026 after having offseason knee surgery. O’Neal is using this as a year to learn in the film room.

“I've challenged him to look at this as a positive,” Tucker said. “When we're able to get you back on the field and get you back going through reps, you should be in a much better situation as far as the knowledge of the game and the offense.“

The Osceola will have more coverage from Monday’s interviews with FSU’s coaches later this week. Read all of our position previews in the Osceola’s football archives.