The most substantial storyline to emerge from Florida State’s second spring scrimmage this past Saturday, perhaps the only storyline that really matters, is clarity that this is indeed a real quarterback battle between Ashton Daniels and Kevin Sperry.

And with that clarity comes uncertainty. 

I think many of the regular readers at Noles247, if not most, had a visceral response to the way the quarterback situation was discussed after the last two scrimmages by Mike Norvell. Especially this past one, where the intel during and after the scrimmage indicated that the quarterback play was  – at best – sporadic. 

Norvell’s words reflected an up-and-down outing on the day, and closely mirrored a similar sentiment from the first scrimmage:

“There was good and bad. I’ve got to go back and watch. Each quarterback had a couple decisions they have to learn from. There were good plays and some explosive plays later—guys pushed the ball down the field.

“There were also situations where it didn’t matter who was playing quarterback—we’ve got to be better in surrounding them to put them in better situations.

“Through the first nine days, we have a very competitive room with talented guys. Kevin is continuing to grow in what he’s being asked to do—driving the ball with more confidence. Ashton has done a great job learning the offense, with some finer details still to improve.

“We’ll see as we go through spring practice. We’ll have 15 practices. If we’re ready to make a decision, we will. If it stretches into fall camp, we’ll evaluate that as we get closer.”

The answer, for full context, stemmed from a question on the QB performance this past Saturday AND the timeline for naming a starter.

While Norvell’s transparency — both the timeline being open-ended as well as acknowledging the ebbs and flows is appreciated — I do think the notion of one not separating from the other when the play isn’t being described as particularly inspiring is…unsettling? Many powerful adjectives would work, I think.

Anywell, the answer and the response got me thinking about the idea of context. Some will find this interesting, others won’t. That’s the way it works more than ever in general, but especially when levels of apathy are varied across an FSU fan base that’s gone through it lately.

How has Norvell discussed his quarterbacks in prior years around this time? FSU has had differing circumstances at QB almost every year, with a QB battle in 2021, a commitment to Jordan Travis in 2022, a final act and reward for that commitment to Travis in 2023, and then two veteran transfers basically coming to start. The results have been mixed. So have the comments, which I find fascinating.

Below are different comments from Norvell following this exact snapshot in time – immediately following the second scrimmage of the spring. Yes, it’s a limited sample size, but I wanted to dive into how QBs have been discussed in past springs around the same mark.