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Yesterday’s Poll Results
Today’s Poll
Which breakout candidate are you buying most: Kromah, Danzy, or Darryll Desir?
🏹 Welcome to The Chief Brief! 🏹
Good morning, Seminole!
Three days out from kickoff, here's how to watch Saturday's opener, who's expected in the stands, and the latest injury news out of the receiver room. FSU's defensive line and star receiver both have plenty to say about what went wrong last year and what's different now.
Here's everything you need before game week wraps up.
📋 In Today’s Chief Brief:
📺 How to Watch 📺 - Broadcast, streaming and radio info for Saturday's 7 p.m. kickoff against New Mexico State.
🗺️ Recruit Visitors List 🗺️ - Who's confirmed in Doak Campbell Stadium this weekend, plus the biggest name still to come.
🧭 Recruiting Notebook 🧭 - Three-star DL Kingston Brown and West Coast QB Chase Curren both have FSU visits set.
🚑 Devin Carter Injury Update 🚑 - The freshman receiver will miss the season's first two games with a back injury.
👬 The Desir Twins Aren't Satisfied 👬 - Why FSU's defensive line coach tells the breakout sophomores they're "terrible every day."
📊 Five Seminoles Primed for a Breakout 📊 - The underlying numbers behind five names to watch this season.
🎖️ Duce Robinson: Team Captain Material 🎖️ - FSU's senior receiver on the little things that got overlooked last year.
🏌️ Around the Athletic Department 🏌️ - Golf's new schedule, a big bat joins softball, and basketball heads to Pensacola.
Let’s dive in. 🍢.
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Kickoff is set for Saturday at 7 p.m. at Doak Campbell Stadium, and here's everything you need to tune in from wherever you are.
📡 Broadcast Details
The game airs on The CW Network and streams on ESPN Unlimited, with Thom Brennaman on play-by-play, Jason Cabinda analyzing and Wes Bryant reporting from the sideline.
Radio coverage runs through the Seminole Sports Network with Jeff Culhane on the call, joined by William Floyd and sideline reporter Tom Block, and the game is also carried on SiriusXM Channel 84.
Local affiliates stretch across the state, including WTNT (94.9 FM) in Tallahassee, WOKV (690 AM) in Jacksonville and WJBR (1010 AM/92.1 FM) in Tampa, among others.
Mark Your Calendar: Three days out, this is the last piece of housekeeping before the real football starts. Bookmark it now so nothing gets in the way of Saturday night. 🍢
247Sports is tracking confirmed recruiting visitors game by game all season, and the season opener already has a loaded group set to be in the building Saturday.
👀 Saturday's Visitor List
FSU commits Jaxon Holly (2027 edge), Chayse Brown and Troy Silberzahn (both 2028) headline the group, joined by four-star Nebraska OT commit Timi Aliu and 2028 quarterback target Brady Quinn.
The list also includes several Top247 names for 2028, including edge rushers Cassell Cruickshank and Jeremiah Figaro, interior lineman George Selvie III and running back Xander Edwards, giving FSU's staff a full room of blue-chip talent to recruit in person.
🌟 The Biggest Name Still to Come
The single biggest visit on the board belongs to the SMU game on September 7, when Kameron McGee, the No. 1 overall player in the 2028 class, is set to be in Tallahassee alongside Top247 defensive lineman Prince Che.
Late October brings the largest crowd of the fall, with more than a dozen names, including several Top247 prospects, expected for the Clemson game on October 31.
Why It Matters: A parade of blue-chip visitors all season is exactly the kind of sustained recruiting push FSU needs after a rocky few cycles, and landing the No. 1 player in the country on campus alone would be a major coup for this staff. 🍢
🧭 Recruiting Notebook 🧭
Two more prospects have FSU on their fall visit schedules, even as they continue to weigh a crowded list of suitors.
The Columbus (Ga.) Carver standout has eight game-day visits planned this fall and will make his way to Tallahassee for the Clemson game on October 31.
Brown named LSU, Notre Dame and Tennessee as the three programs standing out most right now, citing strong relationships with each staff, though FSU remains firmly in the mix among a long list of visits still to come.
The Encino (Calif.) Crespi junior, one of the top quarterbacks in the 2028 class after throwing for 2,148 yards and 30 touchdowns as a sophomore, has set a Florida State visit for September 26.
Curren said he built a strong relationship with quarterbacks coach Austin Tucker during a June camp visit and called FSU's recruiting of him "hard" and a priority, even with Stanford and several other programs also in the picture.
Why It Matters: Neither prospect is an FSU lock, but both visits give the staff real face time with players who have plenty of other options, and that access is exactly what turns distant recruitments into serious ones. 🍢
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One of FSU's most promising true freshmen will not be available for the start of the season after a rough stretch of preseason camp.
🩹 What Happened
Carter first suffered bruised ribs early in camp, then sustained multiple transverse process fractures in his lower back after colliding with a defensive back on a deep pass and landing on another player's knee.
The four-star recruit and top-100 national newcomer per ESPN is expected to make a full recovery without surgery, but he will miss the season opener and the SMU game, with a possible return after the bye week against Alabama on September 19.
📊 What It Means for the Room
FSU's receiver rotation now leans further on returning starters Duce Robinson, Micahi Danzy and Jayvan Boggs, along with fellow freshman Jasen Lopez and sophomores Tae'Shaun Gelsey and Teriq Mallory.
Norvell had praised Carter's speed and ball skills throughout the spring and named him alongside Lopez as a receiver expected to be in the rotation this fall.
Why It Matters: Carter's absence thins out a receiver room that was already going to lean heavily on true freshmen, but the group's remaining depth means the passing game shouldn't miss a beat against New Mexico State. 🍢
Mandrell and Darryll Desir were two of FSU's biggest offseason retentions after breakout freshman seasons, but neither brother believes last year was good enough.
🗣️ "I Tell Them They're Terrible Every Day"
Defensive line coach Terrance Knighton said constant, tough coaching is what pushes the twins, joking that he tells them they're "terrible every day" and that they "accept it" as part of the culture they bring from Miami.
Mandrell led FSU with 6.5 sacks and 24 pressures as a true freshman, while Darryll posted elite underlying pass-rush metrics of his own, including a team-best 20.7 percent win rate in true-pass sets.
The brothers argue with each other from the moment they wake up, according to Darryll, using the friction as fuel. "It's almost as if you have unlimited potential," he said of chasing constructive criticism.
🧱 A Deep, Veteran Room Behind Them
Knighton praised fifth-year lineman Daniel Lyons for his leadership after five years in the program, along with Deante McCray's growth now that he has fully absorbed the defense.
Sophomore Kevin Wynn and Jordan Sanders, who missed spring practice, both drew praise for their improved understanding of the scheme, while freshmen Franklin Whitley and Jaemin Pinckney are pushing the room daily.
Why It Matters: A second-year leap from the Desir twins is about as safe a bet as FSU has on its roster, and the depth Knighton described behind them gives this defensive line a real chance to be the strength of the team. 🍢
Beyond the household names, a handful of Seminoles enter the season with the underlying numbers to suggest a real leap forward.
⚡ Offense
Ousmane Kromah ranked second among Power Four backs with at least 50 carries last season in forced missed tackles (over 40 percent of his carries), a big reason FSU hasn't had a 1,000-yard rusher since Cam Akers in 2019.
Micahi Danzy jumped from 68th to 12th on Bruce Feldman's Freaks List after adding strength in the offseason, giving him a chance to pair his sprinter speed with better play strength through contact.
True freshman Jasen Lopez is expected to be a favorite target on third downs and in the quick game, the exact area where Ashton Daniels did his best work at Auburn.
🛡️ Defense
Darryll Desir's 12.4 percent pass-rush win rate trailed only James Williams on the team last season, and his 20.7 percent win rate in true-pass sets was among the best of any freshman in the country.
Caleb LaVallee is back to full health after a spring injury limited him to one game last year, and he's expected to pair with Chris Jones to bring the physicality linebackers coach Ernie Sims has emphasized all offseason.
Why It Matters: None of these five are unknowns, but each has a specific statistical marker pointing toward a bigger role in 2026, and if even three of them break out, it changes the ceiling for this team. 🍢
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FSU's senior receiver enters the year with a mountain of preseason honors, but he says the real work this season is about the details that got overlooked a year ago.
💬 Learning From Last Season
Robinson, who posted 1,051 yards and six touchdowns in his first season in Tallahassee, said the 2025 team had plenty of talent but "shot ourselves in the foot a lot" by missing the little things. "If you're too big to do the little things, you're too little to do the big things," he said.
He enters his senior year on watch lists for the Biletnikoff, Walter Camp, Maxwell and Wuerffel awards, and was named to the AP and Sporting News Preseason All-American Second Teams.
🤝 A Growing Bond With Daniels
Robinson called quarterback Ashton Daniels "a leader of men" he's thankful to play with, while Daniels said no one has impressed him more than Robinson since arriving in the building. "All you gotta do is put it in his range, and he's going to come down with it," Daniels said.
Robinson's ties to FSU run through his family, with his father Dominic Robinson having played receiver, defensive back and baseball for the Seminoles from 2001 through 2004.
Why It Matters: Robinson's leadership message, doing the small things right, is exactly the kind of culture shift FSU has been searching for after two losing seasons, and having a receiver of his caliber deliver that message carries real weight in the locker room. 🍢
🏌️ Around the Athletic Department 🏌️
Football isn't the only program gearing up this week. Here's what else is new across FSU athletics.
The Seminoles open the fall at the Folds of Honor Collegiate on September 7-9 before playing in the Fighting Illini Invitational, the Hamptons Intercollegiate and the Fallen Oak Invitational to close out the calendar year.
FSU will host the Watersound Invitational in February and the 50th annual Seminole Intercollegiate in March, before the ACC Championship in Dallas from April 22-26.
The Temple College transfer hit .381 with 19 home runs and 61 RBI over 54 games as a freshman last season, adding immediate pop behind the plate.
Ratu joins returning catchers Anna Hinde and Bella Ruggiero and gives FSU a proven bat as part of a larger incoming class that includes six freshmen and two additional transfers.
FSU will face Mississippi State in an exhibition on October 10 and West Florida in the regular season on November 29, both at the Pensacola Bay Center as part of the new Pensacola Hardwood Series.
It marks the Seminoles' first meeting with Mississippi State since 2015, and head coach Luke Loucks cited his own ties to the Panhandle through his wife's hometown of Gulf Breeze.
Why It Matters: Between a new bat behind the plate, a loaded golf slate and two new basketball trips to the Panhandle, FSU's other programs are laying groundwork of their own before football even kicks off. 🍢
And that’s a wrap!
Thanks for riding with us today, Seminole!
Three days out, Saturday's opener is nearly here. Watch for Devin Carter to be held out, keep an eye on the visitor list for names like Kameron McGee down the road, and don't be surprised if the Desir twins set the tone up front early against New Mexico State.
Go Noles,
– The Chief Briefers
