Florida State safety Ashlynd Barker has turned his offseason into a full-time early-morning grind, and the Seminoles are taking notice.
Barker is up at 4:30 a.m. these days, well before sunrise in Tallahassee, and he’s using those quiet hours to get extra work in at the football facility. Some mornings that means the jugs machine.
Other times it’s film study or rehabbing his body. However he spends it, the redshirt junior is making a deliberate push to squeeze more out of every day as he eyes a bigger season with FSU.
“I set my bedtime for 9 p.m., I make sure I get a shower at 8 p.m., hydrate before that,” Barker said of his routine. “Just go to bed and cut everything off.”
That kind of structure didn’t come easy at first. Barker said the early alarm was an adjustment, but he’s settled into it now and feels the payoff. He’s trying to build on a breakout year that included 48 tackles, 3.5 sacks and two pass breakups, while also growing into one of the team’s leaders.
The leadership piece matters even more now because Florida State has 57 new players on the roster. Barker said he used to lead mostly by example, but this offseason pushed him to be more vocal. That shift has been helped by the overall tone inside the locker room, which he described as open and ego-free.
“It’s great. They work super hard.
There is no egos when people are talking to them, along with them saying stuff to other people,” Barker said. “Everyone wants to help each other out.”
He’s not making the early mornings alone, either. Ma'Khi Jones and CJ Richard often join him, and Barker said former Seminole DB Jerry Wilson inspired him by following a similar routine last season.
The work has earned Barker more responsibility. He was chosen to break the rock to finish summer workouts, an honor reserved for the most impactful player. Head coach Mike Norvell said Barker has taken ownership of his actions and the way he’s approaching the season.
Norvell also addressed Barker’s brief flirtation with the transfer portal. Barker ultimately stayed put, even after publicly criticizing the FSU roster on social media during the offseason. Norvell said he viewed that as part of a young player’s growth.
“It’s through his ownership of all things. Sometimes we forget that these are 18 to 22-year-olds; there are a lot of different situations, whether social media, whether it’s things that are out there. But at the end of the day, you still learn from every experience you go through,” Norvell said.
Blue Adams has been just as direct in his praise, calling Barker the “standard” for other players to follow. That’s a strong label for a player who had already been tagged an “NFL player” by safeties coach Evan Cooper.
Norvell said Barker’s daily habits have stood out all summer, from pulling younger players along to getting extra work on his own.
“In his daily regimen of tasks that he's doing, whether he's grabbing younger guys, whether it's him coming in, getting extra [work], I don't know of a time this summer where I'm coming in, I get here pretty early and I mean he's out there doing extra things, whether it's on a jugs machine, whether it's film study, whether it's doing just prepping his body to be the best that he can be,” Norvell said of Barker.
“During the workouts, you felt him. His willingness to challenge everybody, starting with himself by what he was, what he was willing to do, then, if there was something that wasn't to the standard, I mean, he wasn't waiting for a coach to correct it or waiting for somebody else.”
Barker has already said he believes Florida State will be “super good” this year, and he’s focused on helping a defense that needs to improve, especially against the run. The Seminoles have gone 7-17 over the last two seasons and have not won on the road.
Florida State’s 2026 schedule includes New Mexico State on Aug. 29, SMU on Sept. 7, a bye, Alabama on Sept.
19, Central Arkansas on Sept. 26, Virginia on Oct.
3, Louisville on Oct. 9, Miami on Oct. 17, another bye, Clemson on Oct.
31, Boston College on Nov. 7, Pittsburgh on Nov.
13, NC State on Nov. 21 and Florida on Nov. 27.
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