Mike Norvell built his college career catching passes for Central Arkansas. Now he coaches against his alma mater for the first time, and the Bears are walking into Doak Campbell as massive underdogs.
Bush’s Picks
CARKFSU
CARKFSU
OverUnder
Best BetFlorida State
Florida State's talent and depth advantage over an FCS team that went 3-9 last season is about as lopsided as this slate gets. The Seminoles have reportedly opened as a double-digit favorite, and even with a shaky quarterback situation, the gap in speed and roster size should be too much for Central Arkansas to overcome. Back FSU here without much hesitation.
Central Arkansas
+Malachi Henry is a legit big-play threat (889 yards, 10 TDs)
+Veteran anchor Will Diggins protects the QB
+Extra motivation facing Norvell's alma mater
−Finished 3-9, seventh in UAC last season
−Unsettled QB battle after portal back-and-forth
−Major FCS-to-FBS talent gap on both lines
Florida State
+Deep transfer haul at WR, RB and defense
+Chris Jones was a top-10 FBS tackler in 2025
+Big favorite at home in Doak Campbell
−Third different starting QB in three straight seasons
−New starting five up front for a second year running
−Program is 7-18 since 2023, Norvell under real pressure
Florida State is on its third different starting quarterback in as many seasons, and this year it's Auburn transfer Ashton Daniels trying to hold the job down behind a rebuilt offensive line. Central Arkansas has its own uncertainty under center, with Austin Myers emerging from a three-way competition after briefly testing the transfer portal and coming back. Neither team enters this one with a settled, proven starter, which is unusual for a game with this big of a talent gap.
The roster overhaul in Tallahassee has been dramatic — 63 new players came through the door this offseason, the second straight year of that kind of turnover. Duce Robinson and Micahi Danzy give FSU a receiver duo with real juice, Robinson coming off a 1,000-yard season, and the backfield now has three options in Quintrevion Wisner, Ousmane Kromah and Samuel Singleton Jr. Central Arkansas counters with Malachi Henry, who piled up 889 yards and 10 touchdowns on just 68 catches last year — an explosive piece even if the supporting cast is limited.
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CARK Central Arkansas
FSU Florida State
This is the first-ever meeting between these programs, and Central Arkansas is walking away with a $450,000 guarantee no matter what happens on the field. FSU has reportedly opened as a double-digit favorite, which tracks given the FCS-FBS gap, but Norvell's own history at UCA is what makes this one worth a look — he's the school's all-time receptions leader and a UCA Hall of Famer, coaching against the place that made him.
Central Arkansas Bears
Florida State Seminoles
Sep 19?@ Alabama—
Sep 7?vs SMU—
Aug 29?vs New Mexico State—
Recent form.
Central Arkansas closed 2025 at 3-9 and finished seventh in the United Athletic Conference under eighth-year head coach Nathan Brown, a program that's rebuilding more than contending right now. Florida State's broader picture is shakier than a talent-laden roster suggests — the Seminoles are just 7-18 since the infamous 2023 CFP snub, and Norvell is coaching under real pressure to show progress before ACC play gets heavier. Games like this exist to be tune-ups, not tests.
FSU also revamped its defense with transfers like Chris Jones, a top-10 tackler in the FBS last season, and Mikai Gbayor, who's followed defensive coordinator Tony White over from Nebraska. On paper that unit should overwhelm an FCS offense anchored around one playmaker. The counter-argument, and it's the one Seminoles fans have lived through before, is complacency — FSU has stumbled against lesser competition in recent years, and a trap game against an alma mater with extra juice for its coaching staff isn't impossible to picture.
