If Florida State’s offense is going to take a real step forward in 2026, it starts and ends in the trenches. This offense has skill at every skill position. Duce Robinson is one of the best receivers in the country, the running back room is deep, and Ashton Daniels gives this team a veteran dual-threat arm under center. None of that matters if the offensive line can’t hold up. And for the second straight year, Herb Hand is rebuilding that line from scratch with guys who have never played a snap together in garnet and gold.
The Setup
I wouldn’t say that last year’s group was great, but it was definitely solid, and it’s worth being honest about the on-paper talent gap between that unit and this one. Micah Pettus graded out as a top 10 tackle in the SEC. Luke Petitbon entered last season as the highest-graded returning center in the ACC. Gunnar Hansen had started for an SEC program before he ever got to Tallahassee. Of the two departed guards, Adrian Medley had already played for Herb Hand at UCF, and Richie Leonard IV had started at Florida and FSU before an injury sidelined him early in the 2024 season. That was a pedigreed group.
This year’s five is a different profile. Xavier Chaplin is the only newcomer with a strong Power Four track record, although he struggled through his lone season at Auburn. Bradyn Joiner has Power Four experience, though not all of it has been good. Beyond those two, you’re looking at homegrown guys with little to no game experience and a mix of Group of Five and FCS transfers. I don’t project this year’s line to have as high a ceiling as last year’s, simply based on the pieces.
There’s a silver lining worth pointing out, though. FSU appears to have sacrificed some of that ceiling in exchange for not having to do this all over again next year. Outside of Chaplin, every one of this year’s transfer additions has multiple years of eligibility left. If this staff gets the fit right in 2026, most of this group could actually stick together and grow into a real strength by 2027.
Reasons for Optimism
Four things give me real hope here, even with the potential lower ceiling.
First, pretty much every projected starter, however things shake out, will be an upperclassman with real experience behind him. Unless Paul Bowling cracks the starting five, but he already has a full season as a starter under his belt.
Second, and this one matters more than people realize, this group was actually healthy through spring camp, which wasn’t the case a year ago. Norvell talked about how much that continuity matters up front at media days, and this group also gets a week zero tune-up game against New Mexico State to find its rhythm in a live setting before conference play starts.
Third, the size is there across the board, and the depth looks a little better than last year’s. Hand doesn’t rotate much once he settles on a starting five, but having legitimate options matters if someone gets hurt or simply doesn’t pan out. Last year’s group was the starting five, plus Jacob Rizy, and that was about it.
The fourth reason is the biggest one, and it’s Herb Hand himself. Look at what he did in year one at FSU: he took this offensive line from 63rd of 68 Power Four teams in pass block efficiency all the way to 19th, and from 132nd nationally in rush yards per carry to 18th, in a single offseason. That’s about as sharp a one-year turnaround as you’ll find anywhere in the country.
And it’s not just a one-year story with him. During his final season at UCF in 2024, the Knights ranked 27th nationally in pass block efficiency and 4th in yards per carry, both strong marks. Go back further, and UCF’s pass block efficiency under Hand ranked 4th in 2021, 12th in 2022, and 9th in 2023, consistently ahead of FSU’s own numbers in those seasons (57th, 50th, and 21st).
The rushing splits tell a similar story, with UCF’s yards per carry ranking climbing from 11th in 2021 to 5th by 2023, while FSU swung from a strong 8th in 2022 down to 46th in 2023 and all the way to that 132nd ranking in the 2024 collapse. And that 2021-22 UCF surge wasn’t just a product of having RJ Harvey in the backfield either, as his breakout seasons weren’t until 2023 and 2024. FSU has good backs of its own this year, so if the offensive line holds up, the potential for a similar breakout season is there.
Here’s the part that should make you feel better about trusting Hand with a line that isn’t loaded with five-star talent: none of this was built on blue-chip recruiting. Only two offensive linemen during Hand’s entire UCF tenure were four-star prospects out of high school, and both of those guys were only three-star transfers when UCF actually landed them. Hand has built good offensive lines out of whatever clay he had to mold. It wasn’t just assembling top-tier talent and getting out of their way. The kind of quality lines he produced at UCF consisted of exactly the kind of group he’s working with in Tallahassee right now.
One more thing worth clearing up while we’re here. You’ll hear that FSU allowed 23 sacks last year (PFF’s own count has it at 19 – 15 of those credited to Tommy), and on its own, that number sounds like a problem, but context matters. Tommy Castellanos ranked 11th among Power Four quarterbacks in quarterback-owned pressures and was top five in the country in longest average time to throw.
When he got the ball out in under 2.5 seconds, he was sacked just three times all season. The other 12 sacks came when he held it longer than that, which is as much on quarterback decision-making as it is on the guys blocking for him. Put it in rate terms, and it looks even better: Castellanos was sacked 15 times on 376 dropbacks, a 4.0 percent rate, the best mark among a group of notable quarterbacks around the country last year. Mason Heintschel (Pitt) went down 32 times on 388 dropbacks (8.2 percent), Ty Simpson 30 times on 541 (5.5 percent), Darien Mensah 28 times on 552 (5.1 percent), and Fernando Mendoza 25 times on 441 (5.7 percent). By that measure, FSU’s offensive line actually protected its quarterback better on a per-play basis than several other high-profile situations nationally.
It’s also worth mentioning that last year in Malzahn’s offense, they threw it deep more often than Mike Norvell typically does, as his offense likes to work the short to mid-range routes more often. That gets the ball out faster, thus helping the o-line.
The Scheme Question
Herb Hand built the 2025 line around an inside zone scheme, which is what Gus Malzahn’s system was built on, and he specifically recruited size to run it. It produced FSU’s best rushing attack since 1995 (218.7 yards per game, 11th nationally). Mike Norvell’s own scheme is more “multiple,” blending inside zone with outside zone, split zone, and a heavy dose of gap-scheme concepts like power, counter, and pin-and-pull. These are two related systems that come from the same coaching tree, but they’re not identical.
The real question is how much Norvell leans back into his own tendencies now that he’s calling plays again, versus sticking with the inside-zone-heavy approach this line was specifically built to run and Hand has been coaching for years alongside Malzahn. Worth remembering: FSU’s 2026 offensive line transfer class signed while Malzahn was still the OC, and Hand was still recruiting around inside zone principles at the time. There’s a real scenario where the personnel and the scheme diverge somewhat in year one.
Inside zone rewards exactly the kind of size and power Hand recruited for this group. Counter, pin-pull, and outside zone lean more on lateral athleticism and the ability to pull. It’s not exactly a square peg in a round hole scenario, but it’s something worth watching once the season starts.
The Personnel
Left Tackle: Xavier Chaplin (6’8″, 346, redshirt senior)
Chaplin came out of high school as a three-star and left both Virginia Tech and Auburn as a four-star transfer (No. 2 tackle in the portal leaving VT, No. 5 leaving Auburn). He has 37 career starts and over 2,270 career snaps, all against Power Four competition. His best season came in 2024 at Virginia Tech, where he posted a 69.9 PFF grade (70.4 run block, 72.8 pass block) and earned an ACC Honorable Mention.
Last year at Auburn was his worst, with a 55.5 PFF grade (56.4 run block, 68.2 pass block) and 12 penalties, eight of which came on the road. Hugh Freeze reportedly identified a hearing issue mid-season that contributed to some of those false starts. His pressure numbers were mostly clean outside of a couple of bad outings: 8 pressures across two games in 2025, with no more than 2 in any other game, and a similar pattern in 2024 (5 pressures in one game, no more than 2 elsewhere).
Herb Hand has a track record of fixing exactly this kind of thing. He helped Micah Pettus cut his penalty totals from 9, 10, and 7 in previous seasons down to 4 last year, while Pettus also posted his best overall PFF grade under Hand’s coaching. I don’t expect Chaplin to be elite, but I do think he can be good. If he ends up being Micah Pettus-good, that’s more than good enough at left tackle.
Left Guard: Andre Otto (6’5″, 318, redshirt junior)
Otto was a three-star coming out of high school (No. 53 tackle nationally in the 2023 class) and got thrown into the fire as a redshirt freshman in 2024, playing 200 snaps across 3 starts with predictably rough results (52.8 PFF, 53.9 run block, 39 pass block).
He only played 80 snaps last year, and 55 of those came against East Texas A&M and Kent State, so take the improvement with a grain of salt given the competition level. Still, the numbers were much better (65.5 PFF, 63.1 run block, 82.5 pass block), and he didn’t allow a single pressure on 23 pass block snaps. Across his career, he’s logged 185 snaps at left guard and 94 at right guard, so he has experience on both sides. Entering his fourth year in the program, Otto is probably the favorite to win the starting left guard job, though other combinations could be shuffled if it doesn’t work out.
Center: Bradyn Joiner (6’2″, 327, redshirt junior)
Joiner was a three-star signee (No. 42 interior lineman nationally with 34 offers) who started his career at Auburn, redshirting in 2023 before playing 10 games with 5 starts at left guard in 2024. It was an up-and-down start, but he settled in and closed the season on an upswing with impressive pass-blocking grades of 72.3, 82.5, and 69.1, which included games against Texas A&M and Alabama. His final overall PFF grade was 62.4. He transferred to Purdue for 2025 and moved to center, starting all 12 games with more week-to-week consistency (62.3 PFF, 61.2 run block, 63.2 pass block) against a schedule that included Notre Dame, Ohio State, and Indiana.
The concerning number here is pass protection. He allowed the most pressures (26) and hurries (23) of any Power Four center last year, ranking 73rd of 81 qualifying centers in pass block efficiency. For comparison, Luke Petitbon allowed just 4 pressures at FSU last year and ranked 2nd nationally in that same efficiency metric. It could have had something to do with settling in at a new position, as he allowed 20 of those 26 pressures in the first five games against Power 4 teams, but only 6 in the final five, which included Michigan, Ohio State and Indiana.
Joiner is an experienced Power Four player who can play guard or center, and I trust Hand to coach him up. On the surface level, he did only allow one sack, but the pressure numbers are a major cause for concern, especially considering pressure up the gut is the worst kind for quarterbacks.
Right Guard: Nate Pabst (6’7″, 315, redshirt senior)
Pabst was actually a two/three-star edge rusher coming out of high school before converting to the offensive line. He started 38 games at Bowling Green (27 at guard, 11 at tackle) and has over 2,100 career snaps of experience, with his PFF grade improving every single year he’s played, culminating in his best season by far last year.
The one Power Four data point we have from last year isn’t the most encouraging: against Louisville, splitting time at right guard and right tackle, he posted a 24.4 pass block grade and allowed 4 pressures and 3 hurries.
However, in 2024 against Penn State and Texas A&M, playing exclusively at left guard, was considerably better, with just 3 combined pressures across both games, including a 71.8 grade against Penn State. The clear takeaway is that Pabst looks more comfortable at guard than tackle against real competition, and while he offers positional flexibility if Hand needs it, keeping him inside seems like the safer bet given what the tape shows so far.
Right Tackle: Chimdia Nwaiwu (6’5″, 307, redshirt junior)
Nwaiwu is the biggest gamble of the group, coming over from FCS Stephen F. Austin, but the early word out of the program has been good. He started 14 games and played in 24 total across his college career, logging almost 1,000 snaps, and graded out well as a starter last year (68.9 PFF, 58 run block, 81.4 pass block), with strong pass protection grades in all but one game. Nwaiwu posted the highest passing block grade by a tackle in the Southland Conference last season.
His only real Power Four data point came against Houston, a program still working through its transition from the Group of Five level, where he allowed just 2 pressures and posted a slightly below average grade. He committed only 3 penalties across 14 starts. Watching his tape shows good feet, pulls and climbs well, but gives up his outside shoulder a little too often. If he translates even most of that FCS pass-blocking success to the ACC level, he could end up being one of the better value additions in this entire transfer class.
The Depth Chart
The good news is this staff has real options if the starting five doesn’t hold up. Paul Bowling (6’3″, 305, sophomore) started 12 games as a true freshman at Troy last year, 9 at center and the final 3 at guard, and graded out well in the move, including a strong showing against Clemson (63 overall, 74.3 pass block, zero pressures allowed on 37 pass block snaps) in a game Troy nearly upset. He’s probably one of the top two or three options at guard, whether that’s as a starter or the first man off the bench.
Sandman Thompson (6’1″, 318, redshirt freshman) was the only true freshman offensive lineman to see the field last year, mostly against Kent State, and the staff clearly likes what they’ve seen so far.
Jonathan Daniels (6’4″, 321, redshirt sophomore), a 247Sports Composite four-star and the No. 8 interior lineman in his high school class, played 81 snaps at right tackle last year in blowout situations and graded out well, giving Hand a developmental tackle option.
Jayden Todd (6’6″, 303, redshirt sophomore) and JUCO addition Steven Moore (6’5″, 327, junior, the No. 11 junior college tackle nationally) round out the group, along with a handful of true and redshirt freshmen still working their way up the depth chart.
Final Thoughts
Realistically, there are about eight guys in this room I like: the five projected starters, plus two center-guard options and a developmental tackle. And there’s real flexibility if the staff needs it. Sandman Thompson, Paul Bowling, and Bradyn Joiner can all play center. Bowling and Joiner can slide to guard if Thompson can fill the center slot. Jonathan Daniels can play tackle, or Hand could kick Pabst out to tackle full time and plug someone else in at guard. That gives this staff real options to shuffle the deck if something doesn’t go the way they hope.
I’d expect FSU to rotate a few combinations during the New Mexico State opener to see what they actually have, though I think the staff will have a strong sense of who those starting five are well before that game kicks off.
I don’t expect this offensive line to be spectacular. But I do think there are good players here with real experience, and I trust Herb Hand to get more out of this group than the raw talent level might suggest, especially with a full, healthy offseason behind them this time. I also don’t want to limit what they can be based on Hand’s history. As long as they don’t disappoint.
This group’s success is going to determine how good this offense can be. As Jimbo Fisher said in our interview, you’ve got skill on the outside and in the backfield to lean on, but none of it matters if you can’t buy enough time to get them the ball and let them work.
I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t concern with this group, but I feel we’re in good Hands… no pun intended. I certainly don’t expect anything close to 2024. Thanks for reading and Go Noles!