Award-Winning QB Ashton Daniels's Season Needs Re-Evaluation

Florida State quarterback Ashton Daniels has been named the Davey O’Brien National Quarterback of the Week after a record-setting Week 5 performance.

Daniels accounted for 319 total yards of offense and rushed for a school record five touchdowns on Saturday in a 38-7 win over Virginia. It was the Seminoles first ACC win of the season, and is the biggest reason why Daniels’s performance this season needs to be reevaluated.

I have written many articles about Daniels this season that cast him into a negative light. Daniels has thrown six interceptions this season, killing drives for Florida State and fueling scoring drives for the opposition.

Daniels completed just 52 percent of his passes in an earlier loss against SMU. However, he did account for two touchdowns and helped to keep his team close. The Seminoles lost on a walk-off field goal to a ranked opponent.

Against then No. 10 Alabama, Daniels threw three interceptions, but that was only part of the reason for Florida State’s collapse after holding a 21-6 lead. Daniels accounted for four touchdowns in that game. The collapse was hardly on his shoulders alone.

The Florida State defense gave up too many explosive plays and 44 points in the second half that led to an eventual 50-36 road loss to a top ten Crimson Tide team on the road.

Two losses to ranked opponents. Play calling by coach Mike Norvell and lack of defensive execution are both to blame as well.

Against Virginia, however, Daniels flipped the switch and took the game over. All that confidence and growth from fall camp was center stage as the Cavaliers had no answer on how to stop Daniels, who ran between the tackles for 81 yards and a score that broke Virginia’s spirit.

Can Daniels lead the Seminoles to their third consecutive win of the season against ACC rival Louisville? Louisville has allowed their opponents 156 yards rushing per game on the ground.

In addition, Louisville ranks near the bottom of the conference in sacks and tackles for loss. That signals the Cardinals defense does not get enough penetration at the point of attack to force negative plays against the run or the pass.

Social media pundits will cite official-sounding terms like “recency bias” as evidence not to give Daniels a pass.

It is not so much giving Daniels a pass, it is more about taking a deeper dive into the game facts and Daniels’s stats and reassessing a quarterback that, upon further review, may not be as bad as we first thought.