4 Seminoles Earn Preseason Recognition from Phil Steele

The prophet of prognostication and the Gideon of the Bible of College Football, analyst Phil Steele is the best in the business when it comes to analyzing college football teams.

For the last 30 years, Steele has been dead on when it comes to predicting how teams will fare in a given season. As we head into another summer college football magazine season, Steele has put out his preseason All-ACC list. Four players from Florida State made that list: transfer linebacker Chris Jones, defensive back Ja’bril Rawls, wide receiver Duce Robinson and offensive lineman Nate Pabst.

A transfer from Southern Miss, Jones was a demon on the gridiron when it came to stopping the opposition in its tracks. At 6-foot-1, 232 pounds, Jones ranked seventh nationally with 135 stops in 2025. He posted eight games with double-digit tackles, including four straight in the month of November, which says something about his conditioning that late in the season. For his efforts, Jones was named first-team All-Sun Belt.

The leading returning receiver for the Seminoles, Robinson hauled in 56 catches for over 1,000 yards and six touchdowns on his way to earning first-team All-ACC honors last season. He averaged 19.30 yards per catch. Robinson posted five games of 100 yards receiving, including three consecutive against Wake Forest, Clemson and Virginia Tech.

Robinson’s season high came in week 2 against East Texas A&M with 173 yards and 2 touchdowns in a 77-3 victory. Robinson, along with Michai Danzy and Devin Carter, will form a dangerous trio on the perimeter for the Seminoles in 2026.

A versatile lineman and transfer from Bowling Green, Pabst started 38 games for the Falcons at three different positions along the offensive line: right tackle, left tackle and right guard. At 6-foot-7, 310 pounds, that versatility will be valuable from a depth perspective. In addition, Pabst allowed just one sack last season and earned second-team All-MAC honors.

Pabst is a product of the Ohio football talent factory that is Archbishop Moeller High School in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he was a team captain.

At 6-foot-1, 185 pounds, Rawls has good size for the position. Rawls intercepted one pass against Virginia and made 40 tackles for the Seminoles as a sophomore last season.

Obviously, Florida State has talent on both sides of the ball. Now, what coach Mike Norvell does with that talent remains to be seen. The Seminoles host SMU and travel to Alabama within the first four weeks of the season, so no rest for the weary and Florida State will have to be ready to play.

It is a do-or-die season for Norvell, and those games against the No. 2 team in the ACC in the Mustangs and against the projected “third-best team in the SEC” this season in the Crimson Tide will dictate if Norvell survives to fight other games or makes the death march to the coaching gallows early.

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