Daniels debuts with a TD, a pick, and Norvell calling it 'good and bad'
Ashton Daniels threw for a touchdown, ran for another, and got booed for an interception in a 34-17 win over New Mexico State that Mike Norvell called exactly what it was.
Norvell: there was 'some good and bad' in Daniels' debut, and he's fine with that math
The night started with a jersey going up in the rafters and Ashton Daniels breaking the ceremonial camp rock a day earlier, and it mostly ended with him living up to both. He went 17 of 27 for 202 yards and a touchdown to Samuel Singleton Jr., added a rushing score of his own, and did it in front of Sebastian Janikowski's freshly retired No. 38. The rough patch came in the first half, when an interception drew boos from the Doak crowd and New Mexico State cashed it in for a touchdown that briefly made a 31.5-point spread look conversational.
Norvell's read on it afterward matched the tape: "I thought there was some good and bad with all of it," he said of Daniels' night, praising the ability to extend plays as "a great strength for him" while calling the pick a decision the quarterback was "extremely disappointed" in, per Tomahawk Nation's postgame coverage. He wasn't just talking about the quarterback, either — Norvell flagged "some miscommunications" and penalties that put the offense in bad spots, the kind of Week 0 static every staff hopes disappears by conference play.
Add in that Florida State's leading receiver, D. Carter, is still out with a back injury and set to miss an undetermined length of time, per Covers' aggregated injury log, and the picture is a debut that answered the big question — can this team function with Daniels running it — while leaving Norvell a real list to clean up before SMU shows up.
The Swamp loss finally got its answer: Florida State 34, New Mexico State 17
Last season ended with a 40-21 loss at Florida on November 29, the finish to a 5-7 year that saw the Seminoles drop three of their last four. That was the backdrop going into Saturday night, and Florida State answered it by never trailing, beating New Mexico State 34-17 behind a game that got away from tidy for stretches before FSU pulled clear late.
New Mexico State34-17Ousmane Kromah did the finishing work, breaking off a 52-yard run on his way to 115 yards on 14 carries and the clinching one-yard score with 4:01 left, but Samuel Singleton Jr. was the best player on the field — 164 yards from scrimmage and two touchdowns, one rushing and one on the throw from Daniels, per SI's postgame breakdown. FSUFootball's own account gave him the loudest nod of the night for it, handing out the program's first "rock break" of the season. It wasn't clean getting there: New Mexico State converted 6 of 7 third downs at one stretch and hung around into the third quarter on the strength of it, per ChrisVannini's wire updates, and a dropped FSU pick-six turned into an Aggies touchdown drive that kept the margin honest longer than the final score suggests.
Rushing TD & Receiving TD gets Samuel Singleton Jr the first rock break of the year 🪨 #NoleFamily
Whatever the answer says about November, it says the Seminoles opened a new season the way a favorite is supposed to — up 17, occasionally sloppy, but never actually threatened.
SMU is making its first-ever trip to Doak, and it's the same team that ran FSU off its own field in 2024
The last time these two played, FSU traveled to Dallas in 2024 and left with a 42-16 loss. This time SMU comes to Tallahassee for the first game the series has ever staged at Doak Campbell Stadium, arriving as an ACC-opening, nationally televised Labor Day matchup, per On3 and SMU's own athletics site.
The Mustangs aren't walking in unchanged, either. Rhett Lashlee finished 9-4 last year and capped it with a Holiday Bowl win over No. 17 Arizona, but he's replacing both coordinators — defensive coordinator Scott Symons left for the Dallas Cowboys and offensive coordinator Casey Woods took the head job at Missouri State, per College Football News' preview. That's the kind of staff turnover a home team with a real offensive identity is supposed to make somebody pay for.
SMU walks into Doak already favored, which is its own kind of statement game
Florida State is back home on September 7 vs. SMU, and the market didn't wait to see the New Mexico State result before deciding who it likes. The line opened with SMU favored by 2.5 and the total set at 53.5, a middling number that says neither staff is fully trusted to keep this one from getting sloppy.
A one-score spread in an ACC opener at home is the kind of number Florida State fans will actually want to watch move over the next week, especially with the offensive line issues Norvell flagged still unresolved. Beating the number would say a lot more about this program than beating New Mexico State did.