“Sam time is here”: Samuel Singleton Jr.’s patience paying off for Florida State
Samuel Singleton Jr. has spent his entire collegiate career at Florida State, and entering his junior season, his patience is beginning to pay off. After two years of learning and developing within the Seminoles’ offense, Singleton is beginning to showcase his ability as a versatile threat out of the backfield.
That versatility was on full display in Florida State’s season-opening win over New Mexico State on Saturday, where he scored two touchdowns, one rushing and one receiving. He caught four passes for 54 yards, including a 35-yard touchdown, while adding 42 yards and a touchdown on nine carries, earning ACC Receiver of the Week honors for his efforts. He also returned two kickoffs for 68 yards.
“I felt pretty confident coming in,” Singleton said after the game. ”I feel like I put a lot of work and extra work into the offseason in the summer.
Head coach Mike Norvell knows Singleton has the ability to make an impact in multiple areas, saying the explosiveness Singleton showed Saturday was something the coaching staff believed he was capable of bringing to the offense.
“Sam’s a guy that’s a really talented football player,” he said in his postgame press conference. “He’s growing, just in all areas. I was proud of him to see his impact in all three phases of it…I envisioned him and the explosiveness he has in the different areas that he could impact, and I think he saw the same thing. It was a great start for him this season, and we’re expecting big things as we continue to move forward.”
Singleton’s performance Saturday built on the progress he showed throughout last season. As a redshirt sophomore, he earned FSU’s Most Improved Player honors on offense, finishing with 360 yards and four touchdowns on 51 carries, while adding one reception for 16 yards and two kickoff returns for 33 yards.
For Singleton, reaching this point meant remaining patient even when a larger role wasn’t guaranteed.
“Honestly, it was just keep putting work in. I believed in myself, and I believed what I could do,” he said. “So honestly, it was some tough conversations, but I wanted to stay at the end of the day. So whatever it came down to, I was looking to stay and just keep building on what I had already built on, and just trust the process. To be honest, I love Florida State.”
Running backs coach Kam Martin has seen the work behind that development firsthand. Martin told local media on Tuesday that Singleton is constantly in the building looking for ways to improve, even coming in on an off day to ask what he could work on.
“Man, a guy like Sam, he’s fun to coach, man. Like he reminds me of a guy that I coached at UCF, R.J. Harvey,” said Martin. “I kind of knew he was gonna do that, man, because he played it through practice and he worked so hard for all these moments, man. And Sam time is here. Sam time is here. He put in the work, and he continues to make plays.”
Quarterback Ashton Daniels also saw Singleton’s work throughout the offseason, watching his development from spring through fall camp.
“You look at the kid and the work that he put in, you know, in the offseason, and then you see it more and more every single day through spring, and then you see it more and more every single day through summer and fall,” Daniels said after the Seminoles’ win. “Not a lot of people, you know, knew what Sam Singleton was about, and I think they found out tonight.”
Florida State will face its first ACC opponent of the season Monday night when SMU comes to Doak Campbell Stadium. After spending two seasons developing within the program, Singleton enters the matchup with an opportunity to build on a season opener that showed he can impact the game in more ways than one.
For Singleton, trusting the process has finally started to pay off, and Saturday offered a glimpse of what “Sam time” could look like for the Seminoles this season.