Florida State’s offense has a new old play caller, a quarterback with upside but a mixed history, and a receiver room that might be the safest bet on the entire roster. Duce Robinson is a certified star. The pieces around him are much bigger questions. Can Jayvan Boggs stay healthy? Can Micahi Danzy turn pure speed into a complete game? Can the tight end room finally do something after two years of unfulfilled promise? We’re breaking it all down as we continue our preseason position preview series.
The Scheme Question
The headline change on offense is that Mike Norvell is calling plays again. Gus Malzahn retired in February after one season as offensive coordinator; Norvell reclaimed play-calling duties, and Tim Harris Jr. (still the wide receivers coach) was promoted to offensive coordinator in a setup that looks a lot like the Alex Atkins arrangement a few years back. Harris deserves real credit here, too. He got good production out of this receiver room last year despite average quarterback play, and that continuity at the position coach level matters even with the play caller changing.
Here’s the thing worth understanding before we get into personnel: these are not two wildly different systems. Norvell and Malzahn’s offenses come from the same tree, and when you dig into the numbers, they attack a lot of the same areas of the field. Norvell’s version does have a wider route tree and tends to spread the ball around more. You can see it in the target distribution. FSU’s top four pass catchers in 2025 finished with 56, 27, 27, and 23 catches, a massive cliff after Robinson. Compare that to 2023 (50, 41, 39, 21) or even 2022 (43, 32, 30, 24), and the ball found more hands more often under Norvell. Granted, that had a lot to do with having Duce Robinson to throw to.
The passing depth and direction numbers show how similar these systems are, but also highlight the slight differences in their approach. Norvell’s route tree is more varied and likes to work the short to mid-range; the raw shot distribution says Malzahn’s offense actually took more shots downfield than Norvell’s did in either 2022 or 2023, which actually plays well into Ashton Daniels’ strengths as he excels in that range, with his deep ball being a weakness. Directionally, this passing game has generally preferred working the middle of the field over the boundary, regardless of who’s calling it (see below).
Directional Passing Distribution (per PFF)
| 2025 | 2023 | 2022 |
| Left: 25.4% | Left: 17.5% | Left: 16.4% |
| Middle: 43.4% | Middle: 55.8% | Middle: 54.1% |
| Right: 24.8% | Right: 23.2% | Right: 21.2% |
Passing Depth Distribution (per PFF)
| 2025 | 2023 | 2022 |
| Deep (20+): 23.2% | Deep (20+): 17.8% | Deep (20+): 17.0% |
| Middle (10-19): 27.0% | Middle (10-19): 26.5% | Middle (10-19): 30.6% |
| Short (0-9): 27.3% | Short (0-9): 31.7% | Short (0-9): 30.9% |
| BLOS: 16.1% | BLOS: 20.3% | BLOS: 16.4% |
| Screen: 16.5% | Screen: 22.3% | Screen: 17.3% |
Run-pass balance follows the roster’s strengths. In 2022, FSU ranked 14th nationally in rushing because it was the team’s strength behind a good run-blocking offensive line. In 2023, the ground game dipped, and the 28th-ranked pass offense (with Jordan Travis healthy, more like 7th) carried more of the load. Given this year’s roster construction, expect a run-heavy approach again, but there’s enough talent on the outside that the passing game has real ceiling if Ashton Daniels is good enough to unlock it.
And that’s the elephant in the room. Phil Steele’s preseason magazine ranks FSU’s receiver room as the third-best unit in the ACC and sixth-best in the country. However, he does not have Daniels listed in his top 70 quarterbacks. We’re not projecting Daniels to throw for over 3,000 yards this year, and given his career history, anything close would be a mild surprise.
A good quarterback tends to make average receivers look good more often than good receivers make an average quarterback look good. The case study: in 2023, Travis went to Pitt without Keon Coleman or Johnny Wilson and threw for a season-high 360 yards. A year later, Tate Rodemaker started against Florida with a fully healthy arsenal and threw for 148. Different circumstances for sure (Pitt’s pass defense ranked 42nd that year and Florida’s ranked 70th; both were road games and Tate had far less experience), but the point stands.
Will this receiver group be able to elevate Daniels’ passing game, or will he be like a restrictor plate on a racecar? His track record offers some hope: his passing was inconsistent at Stanford with below-average receivers, then improved considerably at Auburn once he had players who could actually create separation. And none of it matters if the offensive line, replacing five starters, can’t hold up. Daniels has been one of the most pressured quarterbacks in the country throughout his career. It’s a ripple effect from the trenches outward.
Duce Robinson: The Bell Cow
Any conversation about this room starts with Duce Robinson, and deservedly so. At 6-foot-6, 230 pounds with an 82-inch wingspan, the son of former FSU standout Dominic Robinson is a matchup nightmare by size alone. Duce came to Tallahassee by way of USC as a former five-star and the nation’s number one tight end prospect in the 2023 class before he converted to receiver at USC. He produced in a limited role there (39 catches, 747 yards, seven touchdowns across two seasons) before transferring in and immediately becoming FSU’s best offensive player.
Last year he caught 56 passes for 1,081 yards and six touchdowns, FSU’s first 1,000-yard receiver since Tamorrion Terry in 2019. His 19.3 yards per catch ranked second in the ACC and ninth nationally. He led the conference in receiving yards per game (90.1, also top 10 nationally) and led the ACC (11th nationally) in yards per route run. Remember, that’s the same efficiency category where Ousmane Kromah ranked number one nationally among running backs. This roster has more juice than people give it credit for. First-team All-ACC, Biletnikoff semifinalist, team captain, and he turned down a shot at the NFL to come back.
He very well could have finished with even more. He saw only two targets against Kent State and three against Pitt because of an injury, and still posted five 100-yard games and closed the season with six straight games of 60-plus yards. He now ranks seventh nationally among active FBS players in career receiving yards.
What makes him special on tape isn’t just the size. He adjusts to the ball in the air well, catches in tight windows, and uses his hands the way you’re supposed to teach it. He’s also faster than people expect once he gets into space. The one area to clean up: a bobbling issue that reared its head at the worst times (the Virginia game still stings), which pushed his catch rate down to a modest 58.9%. He said at ACC Kickoff that he wants to work on being more versatile and cleaning up the small details of his game, so he can be in position to become a first-round pick in the NFL Draft. If he can do those things, there’s a real case he’s one of the best receivers in the country this fall.
Micahi Danzy: Ready for the Leap
At 6-foot-1, 189 pounds, the Tallahassee native and Florida High product signed with FSU as a blue-chip running back recruit before Tim Harris Jr. made the call to move him to receiver ahead of last season. He’s also FSU’s ACC-champion sprinter, the program record holder in the 400 meters, and someone who has missed spring practice each of the last two years chasing track season. Given all of that, what he did in 2025 (27 catches, 571 yards, three touchdowns, a 21.15 yards-per-catch average that led the ACC) was genuinely impressive for a guy who was largely playing off pure athletic ability.
He was weaponized on reverses, screens, and go balls, and he strung together three straight games with a reverse touchdown against Alabama, East Texas A&M, and Kent State. He posted three 100-yard games, including two against Power Four competition in Pitt and Stanford, but he also went quiet against Clemson, Virginia Tech, and NC State. A full 370 of his 571 yards came on shots of 20-plus yards, which tells you exactly where the development needs to happen. If he can round out his route running and become a threat underneath, not just deep or on gadget plays, his yards after catch could take off, because once he breaks a tackle in space, he’s gone. He made some genuinely spectacular grabs, including a Kent State catch where he split a double team for a full-extension circus catch.
Where Robinson was a fairly evenly distributed target across all depths of the field, Danzy was much more feast or famine, heavy short or heavy deep with little in between. That’s not a bad problem to have, but it does mean the offense needs someone else capable of working the intermediate range so Robinson isn’t the only answer on every third down. He was on the field constantly last year, to the point where the coaching staff needed to get him breathers he didn’t always get. A more well-rounded Danzy solves two problems at once: it takes pressure off Robinson, and it means defenses can’t simply account for one player and dare the offense to beat them with someone else. Even Duce mentioned that Danzy was impressive for being so raw at the position last year and should take a big step in 2026.
The Wide Receiver Three Question
With Lawayne McCoy off to Louisville, the room’s clearest question mark is who steps into that third receiver spot, and we’d frame it less as a competition and more as a rotation, with all three names below expected to see the field.
Jayvan Boggs looks like the favorite. As a true freshman in 2025, he became the first true freshman receiver to start FSU’s season opener since Tamarick Vanover in 1992, appearing in eight games with four starts. He caught nine passes for 103 yards and a touchdown, limited throughout by injury, and his best outing came against NC State (four catches, 56 yards on six targets). Every teammate who talked about him last preseason said the same thing: this is a guy who prepares like a pro. He simply didn’t get the chance to show it consistently. A four-star out of Cocoa High School, if he can stay on the field, he’s the clearest path to a real third option.
Behind him are two true freshmen the staff has been genuinely excited about. Devin Carter, son of former FSU great and 1990 first-round pick Dexter Carter, is a four-star at 6-foot-1, 175 pounds, and Norvell has praised his maturity this spring. Jasen Lopez, a four-star at 6-foot, 182 pounds, is also a scholarship basketball player who missed most of spring for hoops, then reportedly impressed immediately once he joined football drills. Norvell’s own words on the two of them together: “Devin and Jasen, they’re going to play. They’d have to regress significantly from where they are now not to.” FSU didn’t add a single wide receiver transfer this cycle, which says plenty about how the staff feels about the room already in the building.
Tight End Room: Boom or Bust
This group turned over almost entirely. Randy Pittman Jr. transferred to SMU (fittingly, FSU’s Week 2 opponent) and Amaree Williams moved to defense before also hitting the portal, so this is largely a fresh start.
Desirrio Riles arrives as the presumptive starter, a 6-foot-3, 235-pound senior transfer from East Carolina who played in 37 games with 15 starts there. His 2025 season (28 catches, 362 yards, two touchdowns in 13 games, 10 starts) was his best in college, and Norvell has already praised him directly, saying the staff felt coming in that he could check a lot of boxes. He’s built like a Jaheim Bell type, caught 65.2% of his targets with a strong 71% contested catch rate, though four drops on 43 targets is something to clean up. Against the two Power Four caliber opponents he faced at ECU (NC State and Pitt in the bowl game), he had six catches for 49 yards against the Wolfpack but didn’t record a stat against the Panthers, worth watching as he steps up in competition level again this fall. Given that 75% of his production came in the short to medium range, he’s a natural fit to help take pressure off Robinson underneath.
Landen Thomas is the room’s biggest swing factor. The 6-foot-4, 240-pound junior actually entered the transfer portal in December before reversing course and returning to FSU in January. He was a five-star coming out of high school and won FSU’s Devaughn Darling Freshman of the Year award in 2024 after catching 14 passes for 173 yards and a score while starting the final seven games. Then 2025 happened: three catches, 35 yards, two touchdowns across all 12 games, but only 114 total snaps, as Malzahn simply didn’t feature the tight end much and Pittman got the bulk of the reps that existed. With Norvell historically more willing to use two tight end sets and far less competition in this room than Thomas has faced the last two years, this is genuinely now-or-never for a player many hoped would already be an X-factor.
Chase Loftin, a redshirt freshman and four-star out of Nebraska, has worked at receiver and tight end as a true freshman in 2025, although he only saw action in just two games. He’s back at his natural spot now, and the staff has already compared him to a 6-foot-6 receiver who happens to play tight end, not unlike Robinson’s own game. If Thomas and Loftin both pop, FSU suddenly has real 13-personnel flexibility, the kind of grouping that’s become popular at the NFL level. Given how little this group has produced the last two years, we’re not projecting a huge season out of the tight ends. But even something in the range of what FSU got in 2023 (roughly 750 combined yards) or 2022 (around 500) and some decent blocking would be a real boost to this passing game.
Final Thoughts
Duce Robinson is a proven, top-tier receiver, but he can’t be expected to do everything again. Danzy should take a real step in year two with more experience and reps. FSU just needs someone, anyone, to establish themselves at receiver three, even if it ends up being a rotation rather than one clear name, or someone from the tight end room stepping up to take pressure off a group of young receivers to perform.
And on the schedule side, there’s real opportunity here. Using 2025 final pass defense rankings (acknowledging that teams are allowed to get better): SMU finished 135th, NC State 132nd, Boston College 123rd, Clemson 120th, New Mexico State 103rd, and Pitt 100th, on top of an overmatched Central Arkansas team. SMU, Boston College, and Pitt are all breaking in new defensive coordinators this year, while Clemson and NC State’s staffs return for year two. Alabama and Louisville both finished in the top 25 in pass defense, with Virginia at 33rd and Miami at 43rd, so the schedule isn’t uniformly soft. But the good was good, and the bad was genuinely bad, and that split creates real opportunity for this group to feed if the offensive line and quarterback play hold up their end.
It’s easy to look at this roster and see its flaws and question marks, and some of that criticism is fair. But don’t sleep on the talent at the skill positions. Robinson was a five-star and the number one tight end in his class. Danzy was a four-star top-10 athlete. Boggs was a top-200 four-star. Carter and Lopez are both four-stars. Thomas was a five-star. Loftin was the number two player in Nebraska.
Add in Kromah and Sam Singleton Jr. in the backfield, and this is a legitimately blue-chip-heavy group at the skill positions. FSU isn’t hurting for talent here. The gap is in the trenches and at quarterback, where the staff didn’t spend at the same level, and that’s really what this whole season comes down to. Let the offensive line hold up, let Daniels deliver enough with his arm to keep defenses honest, and this receiver room has the juice to be one of the better units in the ACC. Before Travis got hurt in 2023, this offense was averaging over 40 points a game. That’s a ceiling worth being excited about if things click. It’s a big if. But it’s a real one. Thanks for reading and Go Noles!