TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Auburn transfer Ashton Daniels was named Florida State's starting quarterback on Tuesday, answering the biggest question hanging over the program since the conclusion of spring practice.
When the Seminoles wrapped up their practices last Wednesday, coach Mike Norvell said he was “not ready” to name either Daniels or redshirt freshman Kevin Sperry the No. 1 quarterback. But Norvell indicated he was close to an announcement and said he had seen growth in both players through three scrimmages and 12 practices.
He praised Daniels’ development, citing his leadership and improvement in how he threw the deep ball.
“Ashton has come in and done a great job in learning the offense,” Norvell said on April 4. “There’s still some of the finer details that we can grow from. I’m pleased with his progression and where that’s at.”
Florida State announced Daniels as the starter in a social media post, and Norvell did not elaborate. A team spokesman said the post was meant to provide “clarity.”
Daniels spent his first three seasons at Stanford and played for Auburn in 2025. He has 4,783 passing yards and 1,397 rushing yards with 35 touchdowns in 37 career games. He passed for a career-high 442 yards in Auburn’s loss at Vanderbilt last fall.
Sperry completed 12 of 17 passes for 194 yards and two touchdowns for the Seminoles in 2025. He also had 27 rushing yards.
Florida State is coming off a pair of losing seasons, going 2-10 in 2024 and 5-7 in 2025. Norvell has leaned on transfer quarterbacks, including Jordan Travis (a multiyear starter), DJ Uiagalelei (2024) and Tommy Castellanos (2025).
Travis guided Florida State to 28 wins, beginning his career as a backup before starting in 2022 and leading the Seminoles to a 10-0 mark in 2023 before he suffered a season-ending ankle injury. Florida State won the Atlantic Coast Conference title but, without Travis, was left out of a four-team playoff.
Florida State opens the season at home against New Mexico State on Aug. 29. The Seminoles host SMU on Sept. 7 before playing at Alabama on Sept. 19.
AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football
FILE - Auburn quarterback Ashton Daniels warms up before an NCAA college football game against Alabama, Nov. 29, 2025, in Auburn, Ala. (AP Photo/Butch Dill, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Southern Poverty Law Center was indicted Tuesday on federal fraud charges alleging it improperly raised millions of dollars to pay informants to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan and other extremist groups, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said.
The civil rights group faces charges including wire fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering in the case brought by the Justice Department in Alabama, where the organization is based.
The indictment came shortly after SPLC revealed the existence of a criminal investigation into its program to pay informants to infiltrate extremist groups and gather information on their activities. The group said the program was used to monitor threats of violence and the information was often shared with local and federal law enforcement.
SPLC CEO Bryan Fair said the organization “will vigorously defend ourselves, our staff, and our work.”
Blanche said the SPLC paid at least $3 million between 2014 and 2023 to people affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan, the United Klans of America, the National Socialist Party of America and other extremist groups.
“The SPLC was not dismantling these groups. It was instead manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred,” Blanche said.
He said the SPLC never disclosed to donors details about its informant program. “They’re required to under the laws associated with a nonprofit to have certain transparency and honesty in what they’re telling donors they’re going to spend money on and what their mission statement is and what they’re raising money doing,” he said.
Blanche said the money was passed from the center through two different bank accounts before being loaded onto prepaid cards to give to the members of the extremist groups, which also included the National Socialist Movement and the Aryan Nations-affiliated Sadistic Souls Motorcycle Club.
The SPLC's Fair said the program was kept quiet to protect the safety of informants.
“When we began working with informants, we were living in the shadow of the height of the Civil Rights Movement, which had seen bombings at churches, state-sponsored violence against demonstrators, and the murders of activists that went unanswered by the justice system,” Fair said. “There is no question that what we learned from informants saved lives.”
The SPLC, which is based in Montgomery, Alabama, was founded in 1971 and used civil litigation to fight white supremacist groups. The nonprofit has become a popular target among Republicans who see it as overly leftist and partisan.
The investigation could add to concerns that Trump's Republican administration is using the Justice Department to go after conservative opponents and his critics. It follows a number of other investigations into Trump foes that have raised questions about whether the law enforcement agency has been turned into a political weapon.
The SPLC has faced intense criticism from conservatives, who have accused it of unfairly maligning right-wing organizations as extremist groups because of their viewpoints. The center regularly condemns Trump’s rhetoric and policies around voting rights, immigration and other issues.
The center came under fresh scrutiny after the assassination last year of conservative activist Charlie Kirk brought renewed attention to its characterization of the group that Kirk founded and led. The center included a section on that group, Turning Point USA, in a report titled “The Year in Hate and Extremism 2024” that described the group as “A Case Study of the Hard Right in 2024.”
FBI Director Kash Patel said last year that the agency was severing its relationship with the center, which had long provided law enforcement with research on hate crime and domestic extremism. Patel said the center had been turned into a “partisan smear machine,” and he accused it of defaming “mainstream Americans” with its “hate map” that documents alleged anti-government and hate groups inside the United States.
House Republicans hosted a hearing centered on the SPLC in December, saying it coordinated efforts with President Joe Biden's Democratic administration "to target Christian and conservative Americans and deprive them of their constitutional rights to free speech and free association.”
FBI Director Kash Patel speaks during a news conference at the Justice Department, Tuesday, April 21, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche speaks as FBI Director Kash Patel listens during a news conference at the Justice Department, Tuesday, April 21, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche speaks as FBI Director Kash Patel listens during a news conference at the Justice Department, Tuesday, April 21, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
FILE - Tourists walk past a banner with President Donald Trump hanging on the Department of Justice, Feb. 27, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul, File)
