On July 23, head coach Mike Norvell will be joined by quarterback Tommy Castellanos, defensive lineman Darrell Jackson Jr., defensive back Earl Little Jr., offensive lineman Richie Leonard IV, and the rest of the FSU football team for the ACC Kickoff event.
The annual media event will be held at the Hilton Charlotte Uptown in Charlotte, North Carolina, from July 22nd to the 24th, and will feature all seventeen ACC football programs.
Stellanos, a Boston College senior who transferred to the event last year, will be returning for his second year in a row after competing for the Eagles.
During his time with the Eagles from 2023 to 2024, the product of Waycross, Georgia, threw for 3,614 yards and 33 touchdowns and ran for 1,307 yards and 15 scores.
In 2023, he passed for 2,248 yards and 15 touchdowns and ran for 1,113 yards and 13 more, making him the only player in Boston College history to accomplish both feats in a single season.
After a season-ending performance against SMU in which he ran for 156 yards and two touchdowns—a career best—he was named the Fenway Bowl Most Valuable Player.
Castellanos scored 20 touchdowns last year and had a touchdown in each of his eight games played.
Jackson, from Havana, Florida, has started Florida State’s last 13 games, including all 12 in 2024. The redshirt senior recorded 32 tackles, 4.0 tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks, one pass breakup and one forced fumble last year en route to All-ACC honorable mention recognition. At No. 6 Miami, Jackson had four tackles, including a career-high 2.0 sacks and a forced fumble against his former team.
Over 38 games in his career, Jackson has 83 tackles, 9.0 tackles for loss and 6.5 sacks.
Little, from Fort Lauderdale, played all 12 games last year for the Seminoles, finishing with 15 tackles, 1.0 tackle for loss and 1.0 sack.
After switching from the nickel position to safety midway through 2024, Little had a career-high six tackles at Miami, including four solo stops.
He added three tackles in the season finale vs. Florida and two tackles against North Carolina.
His sack came in FSU’s home opener against Boston College and was the first of his career. He was named FSU’s Special Teams Newcomer of the Year
Leonard started three games in 2024 but was unable to continue due to a season-ending injury.
Leonard, a redshirt senior from Cocoa who plays offensive line for Florida State, started at left guard versus Boston College and Georgia Tech and moved into the starting lineup at right guard versus Memphis.
Leonard has made 17 starts in 35 games for his career, including starting every game at left guard for the Florida Marlins in 2023.
In that season, he led the Gators in playing time with 755 snaps. After winning the Dodd Trophy and Bryant Awards as the top coach in the country in 2023, Norvell returns to his sixth season as head coach of the Seminoles.
Norvell was honored with multiple coaching accolades that season. He joined the esteemed Bobby Bowden as the only FSU coaches to get the ACC Coach of the Year award. Additionally, he was voted the AFCA Regional 1 Coach of the Year.
Former ACC head coach Norvell, who has been in the position for five decades and counting, had a program-high thirty players named to the All-ACC Academic Team last season. Among head coaches that were active from 2016 to 25, Norvell has the fourth-highest point average with 34.7 per game.
The remodeled Doak Campbell Stadium will host the 2025 FSU season opener against Alabama on August 30 at 3:30 p.m. Nationwide, ABC will broadcast the competition.
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