Coach Mike Norvell leads a star-studded trio to Charlotte, where transfer quarterback Ashton Daniels and All-American Duce Robinson look to spark a resurgence for the struggling program.
It has become an annual pilgrimage to officially start the college football season. Players in the ACC attend the conference media event with their head coaches to talk about the upcoming season and how they can positively impact their respective teams.
Florida State coach Mike Norvell will attend the event in Charlotte, North Carolina, that runs July 15-17. Norvell will be accompanied by three of his star players for the 2026 season: wide receiver Duce Robinson, quarterback Ashton Daniels, and defensive back Ja’Brill Rawls, the school announced on Wednesday.
Leading the Seminoles on the field this upcoming season will be the Auburn transfer Daniels. In 2025, Daniels quarterbacked the Tigers to a 5-7 record. He only played in four games, but accounted for over 1000 yards of total offense and five touchdowns.
The media scrum might ask Daniels, “Ashton, how do you go about improving your touchdowns-to-interceptions ratio?
That would be a valid question when you consider that Daniels has completed passes to the other team 22 times in four seasons, a tour of duty that also included a stint with the Stanford Cardinal. For the Seminoles to be successful in 2026, Daniels must incorporate ball security into his game-day mindset.
As the leading receiver for the Seminoles last season, Robinson posted 1,081 yards and six touchdowns on 56 catches. He averaged 19.30 yards per catch. For his career in the garnet and gold, Robinson has 1,828 receiving yards and 13 touchdowns.
Another 1,000 season for Robinson and he could catapult into the top five on the school’s all-time list for receiving yards. Robinson has been named a preseason All-American and All-ACC candidate. The Duce is wild in 2026.
Patrolling the secondary for the Seminoles is Rawls. A preseason second-team All-ACC selection by college football analyst Phil Steele, Rawls racked up 40 tackles and intercepted one pass last season. Against Virginia, Rawls recorded 11 tackles, one tackle for loss and his lone interception in a 48-35 loss to the Cavaliers.
Going into his seventh season with the Seminoles, Norvell will take a deep breath and take his place at the podium. He has struggled the past two seasons. With a 7-17 record over that stretch, Norvell could be a lame duck coach waiting for Thor’s hammer to drop from the HR office with a pink slip tied to it.
Former Alabama coach Nick Saban once said that “high achievers don’t like mediocre people, and mediocre people don’t like high achievers.”
Currently, Norvell ranks near the bottom of the conference in the coaching rankings. He could surprise everyone and make high achievers and contenders out of the Seminoles. The definition of insanity is doing something the same way over and over again and expecting different results.
Norvell and Florida State are ripe for new ways of doing things, like winning and playing complimentary football. The bane of their existence has been mediocrity for the past two seasons. The Seminoles have the talent to run out of the tunnel at Doak Campbell Stadium as high achievers, and everybody loves a winner.
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