Florida State's Ashton Daniels gets a shot at a Clemson defense that no longer looks dominant

Florida State's best showing of the season was still a loss. Now the Seminoles get to see whether it carries over against a Clemson team that looks far less imposing than the Tigers of the last decade. Quarterback Ashton Daniels threw four touchdown passes in the 43-35 loss at Miami. He gets an open week before the Tigers come to Tallahassee on October 31, and Florida State's schedule lists a 7 p.m. kickoff.

Roundtable Sports argues that this Clemson team is nothing like the ones that piled up double-digit win totals behind Tahj Boyd, Deshaun Watson and Trevor Lawrence. The Tigers went 7-6 in 2025 and have started 4-2 this year with two young quarterbacks. Christopher Vizzina and Tait Reynolds have combined for barely 1,000 passing yards, two touchdown passes and five interceptions through six games, according to the outlet. The defense is fourth in the ACC against the pass at 189 yards per game. But it has gone without an interception since picking off Cal twice on September 25, and it did not force one against Miami or FCS Charleston Southern.

That opens a window for Daniels, who finally found a rhythm at Miami. RotoWire noted that he completed only 53.6 percent of his passes in that game. The big plays covered the misses. Duce Robinson had his best day of the season with five catches for 113 yards and two scores, one of them from 75 yards out. Roundtable Sports wants coach Mike Norvell to build more of the passing game around Robinson and Micahi Danzy and to show Clemson looks it hasn't seen on film.

The pressure on Norvell is real. Roundtable Sports puts Florida State at 10-21 since the start of 2024 and notes that the Seminoles have lost 12 straight true road games. That road streak doesn't apply here, because Clemson comes to Tallahassee. The outlet called the matchup "a winnable game at home" with five games left.

What it means for the next game

The Seminoles are 3-4 and have dropped two in a row: 44-20 at Louisville and the eight-point loss in Miami. Every loss has come against a Power Four opponent, three of them ranked. Their wins came against New Mexico State, Central Arkansas and Virginia, and the 38-7 win over Virginia was their only one in league play.

Clemson has its own matchup first: Virginia Tech visits on Saturday. The Tigers' two losses were lopsided. They fell 51-10 at LSU and 41-13 to Miami, and they have scored more than 28 points only in the 37-0 win over Charleston Southern. Miami gives the two teams one shared opponent. Clemson lost to the Hurricanes by 28, while Florida State lost to them by eight on the road.

On this site's board for Virginia Tech at Clemson, Clemson is a modest favorite across 11 venues. Novig has the Tigers at -133 on the moneyline, and the best Clemson price anywhere is -130 at theScore Bet. Virginia Tech is +127 at Novig and +130 at Hard Rock Bet. Novig lists Clemson -2.5 at -108 and the total at 49.5. Sportsbook hold on the moneyline runs from 3.0 to 6.7 percent, so the venues are close on the side even though the margins they build in differ.

A close result against the Hokies would add to the case that Daniels and Florida State are catching Clemson at a good time.