Florida State got the result it wanted in its Week 0 opener, but Ashton Daniels’ first night at Doak Campbell Stadium came with plenty of wrinkles attached.
The Seminoles opened the season with a 34-17 win over New Mexico State, yet the story at quarterback was a little more complicated than the final score. Daniels flashed the mobility Florida State has been talking about all offseason, but he also spent too much of the night dodging pressure and dealing with an offensive line that didn’t give him steady protection.
His best early moment came on a second-quarter bootleg, when nothing opened up and he turned the play into a touchdown run himself. Daniels finished with eight carries for 30 yards and that score, though his rushing total could have been higher if not for a sack that stalled Florida State’s first drive and forced a field goal.
“There was some good and bad in all of it,” head coach Mike Norvell said. “With Ashton, he’s got an ability to extend plays, and that’s something that’s going to be a great strength for him. On the interception, when it happens, he was extremely disappointed in the decision that he made, but obviously that’s something that we get to grow from in his ownership of the down, where that was.”
“There's times where we're gonna be really aggressive, and then obviously times maybe throw away or the run is a better option,” he continued. “But he handled himself really well in that, and I thought being able to get the ball to the backs - they tried to eliminate a lot of the vertical shot games, so we had to work through different progressions.”
Daniels’ night wasn’t all improvisation and damage control. He opened things up with a sharp downfield throw to Micahi Danzy, beating a disguised Cover 2 look on third and long for a 44-yard completion. Danzy finished with four catches for 51 yards.
He also built a strong connection with Duce Robinson, who caught three passes for 50 yards. Their best hookup came on a clean play-action sail concept in the second quarter, when Daniels hit the 6-foot-6 receiver in stride on a corner route for 24 yards. That drive, though, later died on an interception four plays after Florida State crossed midfield, and the lead stayed at just three.
Daniels also leaned on Robinson on the Seminoles’ lone fourth-down conversion of the night, which came on the second drive of the third quarter. After Florida State’s first possession of the half stalled and New Mexico State answered with a field goal, Samuel Singleton Jr. sparked the next series with a big kick return.
Two incompletions followed, but Daniels found Robinson over the middle on fourth down to keep the drive alive. Singleton eventually finished it off with a touchdown, his second score of the night after catching one earlier on a Daniels scramble drill in the second quarter.
“Duce is Duce, and if you want to go man coverage fourth down, you're probably gonna have some issues somewhere on the field,” Daniels said. “That's the thing, it's not even Duce.
We have Danzy out to the slot, we have Jayvan [Boggs] out to the field. We have guys everywhere.
We have tight ends that are gonna win one-on-one routes. We have backs that are going to win one-on-one routes against linebackers.”
“We have so many weapons, and I'm just proud of the way our guys have attacked that,” he added. “They know that, obviously, Duce is probably going to get a lot of attention out on the field. So just being able to notice that and attack that when we have man coverage.”
One of Daniels’ better late-game sequences came after Quintrevion Wisner helped move Florida State downfield with a pair of strong runs. A holding call pushed the offense back, but Daniels responded with a 13-yard scramble. Then, on third-and-6 in the red zone, he worked through the play, found Jayvan Boggs late on a backside dig, and after a pump fake, fired a 25-yard completion that set up Ousmane Kromah’s one-yard touchdown.
“Thought maybe I could put a ball into Chase Loftin 's hands, and didn't want to force it,” Daniels said. “Third down, it's in the red zone, we have a field goal. So just being smart and not trying to force that ball right there, and then obviously seeing Jayvan pop late, just giving him a chance to catch the ball and do what he does.”
Florida State’s backs carried much of the offense overall. Kromah ran 15 times for 114 yards, while Singleton and Wisner added 76 more rushing yards combined. Singleton also led the team with 54 receiving yards on four catches.
Daniels closed 17-of-27 for 202 yards with a touchdown and an interception. It wasn’t a clean debut, but it was enough to help Florida State handle a New Mexico State team that was outmatched on the night.
The bigger test comes next, with No. 19 SMU headed to Tallahassee next weekend and a trip to Tuscaloosa looming after that for a rematch of last season’s upset of Alabama.
For now, Daniels gave Florida State the kind of glimpse Norvell had been selling: playmaking ability, toughness under pressure, and enough poise to get through the opener. But the Seminoles are going to need cleaner protection and sharper playcalling if they want that formula to hold up.
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