Florida State is not abandoning tempo this fall, even with Mike Norvell back in charge of the offense.
The Seminoles spent last season operating fast under former coordinator Gus Malzahn, finishing 17th nationally with an average of 23.6 seconds between plays and ranking 28th in situation-adjusted pace. That speed is still part of the plan, but Norvell made clear Monday that the offense will not live in one gear.
“You’ll probably see a little bit of everything,” he said. “But we’re still playing to what the strengths of guys are.”
The biggest emphasis right now is on two-minute football, the kind of end-of-half and end-of-game work that forces a team to think and react under pressure. Norvell said those moments have been among the areas he has “been most pleased with” during fall camp, because they reveal more about the group’s “mentality” when the game starts to tighten up.
That work has also centered on what Norvell called “ownership” of the clock and the situations around it, a theme he has used often when talking about quarterback Ashton Daniels. Daniels has already been given plenty of chances in practice to navigate tempo changes, sequencing and communication in tight-game settings, and that’s not new territory for him.
At Stanford in 2023 and 24, Daniels operated in offenses that ranked 66th and 100th in pace, with the Cardinal leaning on a huddle and a slower style. After he transferred to Auburn last fall, the Tigers landed 52nd in situation-adjusted pace, using some up-tempo looks without pushing it to the level Florida State did a year ago.
“I think with Ashton, it's been nice because he's played it in multiple offenses,” Norvell said of his quarterback. “He's played in the huddle, kind of grind it out, take the clock, a lot of verbiage, different motions, and all those things.
So he's got a lot of comfort when it comes to that, but on the flip side of it, he's really thrived in some of the things that we've done just in tempo. And so I think he sees the field well.”
Florida State still has work to do before it opens against New Mexico State at the end of the month, and that’s part of why Norvell has leaned so hard into these situational periods in practice. He wants the staff to clean up the communication now, not when the games count.
“We got a two-minute drill. A really good job.
I thought the offense has embraced that time and understanding,” Norvell said. “It's a great opportunity for us as a coaching staff to be able to work together.
That's where just overall communication, offensively, with myself, Coach [Tim] Harris [Jr.], Coach [Tom] Herman - who's going to be in the box - just all of us working through different thoughts in that time. So I thought we got some really good work over that over about the last week.”
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Florida States backfield got a notable nod this week when Ousmane Kromah and Quintrevion Wisner were both named to the 2026 Doak Walker Award watch list. Its a small piece of preseason recognition, but it says plenty about how the Seminoles running game is viewed heading into the fall, especially with Florida State joining a short list of programs nationally to place multiple backs on the watch list and standing as one of only two ACC teams to do it.
Kromah and Wisner have each built enough of a track record to draw attention, and now comes the tougher part: turning that respect into production once the games count. The watch list honors are nice, but for Florida State the real question is whether this tandem can match the hype, carry the offense when needed and give the Seminoles a ground game that can hold up against the better defenses on the schedule. [Read more 🡒]
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The path back will not be easy, either. Florida States schedule includes four ranked opponents, with Miami, SMU, Louisville and Alabama all waiting to test whether the Seminoles are ready to rejoin the conversation. Norvell enters the season with the pressure already building, and how this team handles the early months could determine far more than just its place in the rankings. [Read more 🡒]
Florida States Biggest 2026 Question Is All About Where The Money Went
Florida State kept Mike Norvell in place for a seventh season, even as the conversation around the program has shifted from coaching stability to whether the investment around him is being allocated the right way. The Seminoles poured more than $20 million into the roster, with a clear emphasis on skill positions, and the expectation in Tallahassee was that an aggressive offseason would help reset the programs trajectory.
The question now is whether the most important spot on the field got enough of that attention. The Athletics offseason quarterback rankings suggested Florida State may not have landed at the same level at quarterback as some of its other additions, leaving Ashton Daniels in a less favorable tier than several of the passers brought in elsewhere. For a program trying to justify both its spending and its direction, that is the kind of mismatch that can loom over an entire season. [Read more 🡒]