{"id":385103,"date":"2026-08-30T06:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T06:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/385103\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T06:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T06:12:10","slug":"ashton-daniels-leads-florida-state-past-new-mexico-state-in-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/385103\/","title":{"rendered":"Ashton Daniels leads Florida State past New Mexico State in debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) Ashton Daniels passed for 202 yards and had a touchdown passing as well as rushing as Florida State<\/a> defeated New Mexico State<\/a> 34-17 in a season opener on Saturday.<\/p>\n

After starting at Stanford for two seasons and playing at Auburn in four games last fall, Daniels completed 17 of 27 passes with a 4-yard touchdown to Samuel Singleton Jr. and an interception in his debut with the Seminoles. He also had an interception.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the team did well, I think the offense did well,\u201d Daniels said. \u201cObviously, there\u2019s some plays that we want to have back. But I think that we responded very well to some negative plays, putting points on the board.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ousmane Kromah had a weaving 52-yard run in the fourth quarter. The sophomore enjoyed his first 100-yard game, picking up 115 yards on 14 carries.<\/p>\n

Florida State, which finished with 217 rushing yards on 39 carries, won a season opener for the fourth time in five years.<\/p>\n

Singleton Jr. did a little bit of everything. He had nine carries for 42 yards and caught four passes for 54 yards. Singleton\u2019s 46-yard kickoff return also set up Florida State near midfield, and he finished off the drive with a 2-yard TD run.<\/p>\n

A year ago, Singleton Jr. had four touchdowns but just one catch. He stuck around for an opportunity to be a bigger contributor this fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe in myself, I believe in what I can do,\u201d Singleton said.<\/p>\n

New Mexico State quarterback Trey Hedden found success with clean pockets and was a big part of converting 10 of 16 third-down attempts. Hedden, a transfer from Furman of the FCS, completed 26 of 42 passes for 272 yards and touchdowns to TK King and Brodie Malone-Bradford for the Aggies. He also threw an interception on the Aggies\u2019 opening drive.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a lot different when you\u2019re playing in these money games and you walk in the locker room and there is some genuine disappointment that there was a great opportunity there,\u201d New Mexico State coach Tony Sanchez said. \u201cI think we all own that, myself included.\u201d<\/p>\n

Florida State scored on 80.7 percent of its red-zone trips, which ranked just 95th in the FBS in 2025. The Seminoles were even worse with a touchdown on just 59.6% of their trips.<\/p>\n

But on Saturday, Florida State was 6 of 6 with four touchdowns and two field-goal attempts.<\/p>\n

New Mexico State: The Aggies were able to pick apart Florida State’s pass defense over the middle. But New Mexico State could not run, picking up just 47 yards on 23 carries.<\/p>\n

Florida State: The Seminoles welcomed 62 new players, but there were plenty of struggles on both sides of the ball. While it was a winning debut, there are concerns about the offensive line, passing attack and pass defense as the competition gets tougher.<\/p>\n

New Mexico State: The Aggies will play host to FCS Mercyhurst on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Florida State: The Seminoles will have extra time to prepare for their ACC opener against No. 19 SMU on Labor Day.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Sign up for Top 25 poll alerts here, visit the Top 25 here and see AP\u2019s full college football coverage here<\/p>\n

\n Copyright 2026 STATS LLC and Associated Press. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of STATS LLC and Associated Press is strictly prohibited.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) Ashton Daniels passed for 202 yards and had a touchdown passing as well as rushing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385104,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[143,28,30,29,3731,153323],"class_list":["post-385103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-college-football","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-florida-state-seminoles","tag-new-mexico-state-aggies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}