Spring camp opens Monday, March 9th, and runs through mid-April. For a Florida State fan base that’s been starved of good news, this is our first proving ground. You’re not going to see the polished product you’ll get in the fall, but spring camp gives you your first real taste of what’s going to work, what’s not, and where this 2026 Noles team is actually headed.
Here are the five questions burning on the back of every FSU fan’s mind heading into camp.
Question 1: Will FSU Close Camp Again?
This is where we must start, because if they lock things down, you might not get answers to any of the other four.
Mike Norvell’s philosophy has always leaned toward open access. Early in his tenure, he wanted the program covered and sold the right way, opened doors for media, opened dialogue with fans, and even won an award for his media policy in 2023. That changed after the 2-10 season, in a move believed to be heavily influenced by Gus Malzahn’s closed-camp mentality. And look, I supported the decision when they made it last year. Lock out the distractions, let’s see what happens. It did not help.
Here’s the thing, though: it’s a tough nut to crack. On one hand, I don’t care what Mike Norvell says in a microphone anymore. The only thing that matters is what it looks like on Saturdays in the fall because we’ve heard the same song and dance too many times, and the results didn’t follow. But you can glean things through an open camp. You pick up the “uh-oh, that guy isn’t good” signals. You get the “hey, that guy’s actually pretty decent” moments. And right now, FSU fans need something to stoke the fire.
We’re coming off back-to-back disappointment years with nothing to spark enthusiasm. If you haven’t seen anything by the time September rolls around, that’s a tough sell. But if spring gives you even a glimpse, maybe Ashton Daniels looks sharper than expected, maybe a young defender turns some heads, that plants a seed of genuine excitement.
There’s also a bigger issue here. In today’s college football, you’re asking fans to invest in these players through NIL. We are essentially shareholders in a company now. When I watched Ashton Daniels’ intro interview, I liked what I heard: real, honest, accountable. That matters. You fall in love with a guy like Jordan Travis, who is the face of your program as the starting QB, because you know him. If fans can’t see these players practice, can’t hear from them, can’t get a feel for who they are? Good luck getting their money, let alone their enthusiasm.
My biggest question is this: Can Norvell find a middle ground? Even one open practice day a week, one media access period, something to give fans a thread to hold onto. Because here’s an old truth that applies directly to this situation: if you leave a gap in the story, people will fill it with their own version. And right now, FSU’s narrative is not being written favorably in anyone’s imagination.
Question 2: What Does the QB Competition Actually Look Like?
This one’s straightforward in theory and complicated in practice.
Malachi Marshall won’t be at spring camp — he’s a summer enrollee. So, your three-way quarterback race becomes a two-man show for now. And in my opinion, this is Ashton Daniels’ job to lose. Norvell has already hinted as much in interviews. But the real question isn’t whether Daniels is the guy, it’s how everyone else fits around him.
Can Kevin Sperry push him? We saw Sperry flash against East Texas A&M and Kent State in garbage time. He looked like a guy with upside. Then he got into the Stanford game and didn’t look the same. Different competition level. Different moment. And we’ve seen this before, remember, it was Brock Glenn who everyone pointed to as the answer in 2024, and then reality set in fast. I wish they had played Sperry more last season so we would have had a better idea of how real this competition actually is.
There’s also a new wrinkle: Ashton Daniels didn’t come here to run Mike Norville’s offense. He came here for a different system. How is he adapting? Because we know what Norville’s offense can look like with the right quarterback, we watched Jordan Travis make it hum. The question is whether Daniels has the consistency and the feel for what Norville needs. He’s bigger, he can run, he can make the short throws. But consistency over a full season is a different beast, and he’ll be asked to rely on his arm more with Norvell back holding the play sheet.
What I’m really watching for is whether this is a true competition or whether it’s Daniels getting 80% of the reps while Sperry, and eventually Marshall, audition for QB2. If things go sideways as they did in 2024, when it was DJU’s job to lose, but nobody was good enough to take it, you need to know ahead of time whether you have a real option waiting in the wings. That’s the distinction. Do you have someone good enough to take the starting job, or do you have someone you settle for if things fall apart? For me, this is 1A heading into spring.
Question 3: Who Steps Up on the Defensive Line?
I start here because I trust the offensive line coaching staff more than I trust what I’ve seen from the defensive line depth. Herb Hand has earned that benefit of the doubt. On the other side? I’m not trusting anything I haven’t seen yet.
The good news is the starters don’t scare me. The Desir twins, Daniel Lyons, Deante McCray, and Rylan Kennedy, you can pencil those guys in and feel reasonably confident. I like almost every one of them. That’s not the issue. The issue is what happens when those guys need to breathe.
When they cleaned out the defensive line room, they lost nine players and brought in two. Now, to be fair, most of what they cut was dead weight (guys eating snaps without producing much). But you lost depth, and depth in this defense is not just a numbers game. It’s a talent game. When Mike Norvell rotates his defensive linemen, as he said he liked to do dating back to their strategy in 2023, he’s doing it to keep those guys fresh so they can still be dominant in the fourth quarter. That only works if the guys coming in aren’t a significant dropoff.
Ashlynd Barker walked back his comments, but he raised the right question: who comes in when the starters need a breather? That’s not a cynical question. That’s a real football question. A good offensive coordinator will see you go sub-package and immediately try to pound the ball at whatever weakness they find. Your number twos can’t be a liability when that happens.
Is there a guy who can step into a Fabian Lovett-type role? Maybe not the starter, but an impact guy when he’s on the field? Because right now, outside of the core starters, I don’t have a good answer for who that will be. We need a guy like Kevin Wynn to go from 40 snaps to 400. We need a highly touted JUCO transfer like Jalen Anderson or a rising young talent like Tylon Lee to give you meaningful snaps this season. That’s what spring needs to answer.
Question 4: Can the Offensive Line Stay Healthy and Build Chemistry?
As we always say here at PTS, the offensive line is the number one most important position on the field because if it’s not working, chances are nothing else is (see 2024). And this spring, the stakes for that unit are as high as they’ve been in years.
We’re looking at another completely new starting five. This is now the second consecutive year doing so. The portal can paper over some cracks, but you can’t always portal your way to chemistry. Five guys who haven’t played together need reps, real reps, together, healthy, over the course of a full spring camp.
That was the problem last year. Herb Hand assembled talented guys, but they were banged up through most of spring. Fall camp was essentially the first time that the starting five had real extended reps together. That group performed pretty well on the field, but what could a full, healthy spring have done? That was also five upperclassmen with a ton of experience (just not together). This group has some young and less experienced pieces being shuffled into the deck.
So the number one question for me with this unit isn’t talent. It’s health. Can they stay healthy enough through 15 spring practices to actually build continuity? Because if one tackle misses a kickout block or a guard doesn’t get around on a pull correctly, the whole play gets blown up. It’s one through five, or it’s nothing.
The second thing I’m watching, and this is an important caveat, is where’s the homegrown development? We are not going to solve this offensive line problem long-term if we’re portal shopping five new starters every single off-season. Top-tier programs are developing their offensive linemen from within more often than not.
We need to see guys like Andre Otto or Sandman Thompson starting to factor into this conversation. Can Herb Hand’s recruiting class produce someone who at least looks like he belongs? It doesn’t have to be a starter, just give me something in the fire. Because every year we’re patching, we’re spending resources we could be putting elsewhere. The long-term fix is development.
Question 5: Who Emerges at Linebacker?
This is a position I’m very interested in watching in spring, and potentially the most important position on this entire defense.
Let’s start with Chris Jones. He’s coming over from Southern Miss with 135 tackles. I’m assuming he’s your day-one starter. But we’ve been here before. Remember, Tatum Bethune came over from UCF as a 100-plus-tackler and became a legitimately solid linebacker for FSU. Can Jones be that? Or is he a guy who ran up numbers against G5 competition and won’t be able to produce the same results when the level jumps?
Then there’s Blake Nicholson: a blue-chip recruit out of California who has shown flashes and shown cracks in equal measure. This is his money year. Is he ready to lock down a starting job and play a high level consistently, or is he still a guy you’re hoping takes the next step before time runs out?
Omar Graham Jr. is another guy with a lot of experience in garnet and gold who has been ok at times, but a liability at others. FSU has talked him out of the portal twice now. He provides a veteran voice in the room, but needs to be more impactful on the field.
Another name from the portal that I’m curious to see is Mikai Gbayor. He played in Tony White’s 3-3-5 defense for two years at Nebraska, which brings familiarity with the scheme. Gbayor spent last year at UNC and wasn’t a starter but made an impact. Can he do the same in Tallahassee?
Speaking of UNC, former Tar Heel transfer Caleb Lavalee brings athleticism, but he was injured all last year. He looked impressive in his only start in a bowl game at UNC. Unfortunately, highly-touted freshman Izayia Williams is healthy but still recovering from an ACL injury, so he will be sidelined for spring.
Here’s the big picture concern: in a 3-3-5, linebacker play is insanely important. This isn’t a 4-2-5 where you can mask linebacker limitations with a dominant secondary. Tony White likes to roll his linebackers down into gaps, bring them as a fourth presence at the line of scrimmage, run stunts and games off them. When your defensive line depth is questionable, and we just established it is, the linebacker unit has to carry even more weight.
Last year, the defensive line wasn’t good. But the linebacker play made it 10 times worse. There was always a weakness to be exploited somewhere. At a minimum, you need one of those two units to be above average. Ideally both.
Honorable Mentions
Two things that didn’t make the main list but are worth watching:
New Coaches, New Energy. This will be the first spring with new defensive ends coach Nick Williams and a new secondary coach, Blue Adams. You can’t always gauge the impact of coaching changes in spring, but just watch the energy. The clips from the Tour of Duty workouts show Williams bringing something infectious to that edge group.
Sometimes a new voice is exactly what a room needs. And allowing Terance Knighton to focus strictly on the defensive tackle position while bringing in a specialist for the ends was a smart move. This will also be the first time in a few seasons the secondary is under new direction. It was a head-scratching shakeup this offseason, but in fairness, the secondary has not performed up to its talent level the past two years, so change isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Mike Norville’s Mentality. This is the one most people don’t talk about enough. Norvell has taken a year off from play-calling. He’s had time to step back, assess the entire program, assess the offense, and figure out what went wrong. Now he’s back at the helm, calling plays, running his scheme. Gus Malzahn is gone. There are no competing voices. It’s Norvell, Tony White, and Tim Harris Jr.
My biggest question is whether we see the pre-2024 Mike Norvell again. The guy with the gray hoodie on and that edge in his eye. Because somewhere around the playoff snub and then that Boston College game in 2024, where the cameras caught him looking absolutely bewildered on the sideline, something changed. He looked detached, unsure of himself, like a man watching his program slip away in slow motion.
Can a year off from play calling, with a real GM now handling the NIL and portal work, with a new offensive chapter in front of him, can that bring back the version of Mike Norvell that brought this thing back from the mess he inherited to the high of 2023? Because honestly, that might be the most important question of them all.
Spring camp can’t get here fast enough. Whether it’s open or closed, these are the things we’ll be watching for when the Noles hit the field on March 9th. Stay tuned to your source for fan-focused FSU coverage here at Plant The Spear. Thanks for reading and Go Noles!