Major college football programs receive bad news from former SEC QB

With the transfer portal, college QB recruitment turns into something near an elaborate game of dominos. One domino falls (i.e. a recruit commits) and a chain reaction ensues. That's certainly the case with one highly regarded portal QB, whose decision left several programs re-evaluating their portal possibilities-- and may have led to ultimate QB moves for most of those schools.

Former Auburn QB Ashton Daniels made a commitment to Florida State which was reported Tuesday morning after Daniels visited over the weekend. Daniels, who started for two seasons at Stanford, spent most of 2025 lost in the shuffle of QBs at Auburn. He was behind Jackson Arnold early in the season, but showed out with an impressive game against Vanderbilt and hung tough in the Alabama loss.

Daniels threw for nearly 4,000 yards at Stanford, but ended up with just 797 passing yards at Auburn in four games played. He threw three touchdowns and two interceptions and did rush for another 280 yards and two scores. With a season of eligibility left, Daniels picked Mike Norvell and Florida State, which leaves plenty of schools scrambling.

Daniels had previously taken a visit to Baylor, where the waters are certainly muddied on QB pursuit. Baylor has long been linked with Florida transfer DJ Lagway, as his father played for the Bears. Funny enough, Lagway also visited Florida State over the weekend, so Daniels' pick of Florida State likely narrows the field on Lagway a bit.

Chad Simmons of On3 had also reported that Daniels would visit Kentucky, but the Wildcats had their own whirlwind portal experience, making a significant push on Sam Leavitt but then shifting to Notre Dame transfer Kenny Minchey, who committed to Kentucky. Whether Daniels factored in Kentucky's sudden interest in Minchey (who himself had previously picked Nebraska) is worth pondering.

Among the other schools that had been linked with Daniels were MIssouri and Arkansas. Arkansas just added AJ Hill to its roster after the four-star recruit from 2025 moves over from Memphis with new coach Ryan Silverfield.

Missouri has been linked with numerous targets since their incumbent QB, Beau Pribula, elected to enter the transfer portal. But the Tigers have now signed Ole Miss transfer Austin Simmons. As with Minchey above, it's an open question whether Daniels' decision might have caused a realignment of portal possibilities for the Tigers.

In the end, Daniels went his way to Florida State, and Minchey, Hill, and Simmons have helped fill any vacancy at other schools he considered. DJ Lagway remains one of the intriguing situations of the portal, and it remains to be seen if the flipping of the Daniels domino will ultimately influence Lagway's final choice.