Friday Night College Football!! FD Single Game/DK Showdown

By Aaron Friedman

Aaron Friedman is an avid college football fan and bettor based in the Chicago suburbs. A Northwestern alum and season ticket holder, Aaron loves the passion and pageantry of college football and will watch anything from the SEC game of the week to #MACtion, to #Pac12AfterDark. Follow Aaron on Twitter @AFriedman15DFS

 

 

September 14, 2018: Memphis (-14, O/U 67) at Tulane, 8pm EST on ESPN

September 14, 2018: UCLA at Colorado (-9, O/U 60.5),  9pm EST on FS1

 

Slate Overview

On Friday, we get a two-game slate for DraftKings and FanDuel and a fun one in my opinion. Sure, Memphis hasn’t played anyone but their offense is rockin’ to the tune of 593 yards/game (4th in FBS). Will they pick up their first AAC win vs. Tulane? Colorado too has a potent offense and like Memphis, has faced a soft schedule brought down by a weak Nebraska team. Is Colorado the class of a downtrodden Pac-12 South? New UCLA Coach Chip Kelly will bring the Bruins to the altitude of Boulder, CO.

From a DFS perspective, I’d like to point out on DK you can choose to only pick between two teams, whereas on FanDuel you have to pick at least one player from a third team.

 

QB

QBs Brady White (9800 DK/ 9800 FD) and Steven Montez (9100 DK/10000 FD) will be in most of, if not all of my lineups and don’t require a ton of explanation. They both have crushed. I don’t personally see the upside with Jonathan Banks (7500 DK/8100 FD) but he would be third on my list.

RB 

After White and Montez, RB Darrell Henderson ( 9400 DK/10500 FD)has the 3rd highest floor and is one of the best RBs in the country. His ceiling is as high as White and Montez. Henderson has 709 yards on the ground and 9 TDs.

I’m not sure how relevant this is but when teams come to Colorado, there is always the #AltitiudeNarrative.  RB Travon McMillian (6600 DK/ 9200 FD) is in a dream matchup as UCLA has given up 11 rushing touchdowns in 3 games. I like his price better on DK, but you can’t go wrong with McMillian on either site.  McMillan has been extremely efficient, averaging 8.8 yards per carry, on 32 attempts

The RB plays do not end there as we can find incredible RB value on this slate: I wrote up Memphis’ electric RB/WR Tony Pollard (3100! DK/6600 FD) when the Tigers hosted Georgia State two weeks ago and at his price on DK, he is an outstanding cash play.  

On DK, I also have some interest in McMillan’s backup RB Kyle Evans (3500 DK/ 6300 FD), who is officially listed as a co-starter on CU’s game notes. While he has been less efficient than McMillian, he still has 29 carries. And if you believe in a game narrative where CU will crush UCLA and run the clock out, he could be a solid GPP play.

I’d also like to give a shout out to CU’s game notes, which are very in-depth compared to most schools: https://static.cubuffs.com/custompages/football/2018/ucla/cunotes.pdf

WR

The top receiver on the slate is CU’s WR Laviska Shenault Jr. (8600 DK/ 10200 FD) who is one of the country’s breakout stars this year. Below is a quote from CU Coach Mike MacIntyre illustrating his prowess:

“I think they’ll try to find him, but Chev (Co-Offensive Coordinator Darrin Chiaverini) has done a phenomenal job of moving him all around. The great thing about it is, Viska understands football and is very bright, so he can move around to different spots. Also when you do that, our other receivers need to know other places to play. Chev does a great job teaching all of those guys. Even if they do that, our quarterback knows what’s happening and where we’re going. All of our throws are on reads anyway so we’re moving him around. There are certain situations where we’re trying to get guys the ball in different ways but we can also move him around as a decoy, which opens up another guy. Our quarterback understands that and Chev has done a great job utilizing that.” – CU Coach Mike MacIntyre on opponents keying on star WR Laviska Shenault, Jr.

Beyond Shenault, Memphis WR Damonte Coxie (7800 DK/ 9600 FD) has back-to-back 100 yard games and is looking for a third straight. He is the top target for Brady White.  Fellow Tiger WR Pop Williams (4600 DK/7600 FD) is less consistent, but finding his way into my lineups as he is 2nd on the team in targets.

UCLA TE Caleb Wilson (4900 DK/7300 FD) is a GPP only play. He did not have a catch during UCLA’s last game vs. Fresno State, but he has been the top target on the season.

For Tulane,  WR Darnell Mooney (5900 DK/9400 FD) is their top receiver and could go overlooked a week after being a popular option vs. Ohio State.

Back to Colorado, the coach’s son, WR Jay MacIntyre (3600 DK/7100 FD) is an interesting price play, especially on DraftKings. He’s never put up ridiculous numbers, but he did have 2 touchdowns vs. Nebraska in Week 2 but failed to record any stats last week.  

Conversely, WR Tony Brown (3300 DK/5900 FD) had 5 catches for 80 yards last week vs. FCS New Hampshire, after doing next to nothing in the first two games. The New Hampshire game was very weird as CU could only muster 166 passing yards. I tend to think that this was an outlier performance for Brown.

Two Deep Sleepers for FanDuel (GPP only; Extremely risky)

Jaylon Jackson (4000 FD) is a deep sleeper for FD only. He is expected to return this week after an ankle injury, and he is back on the depth chart, but he has been practicing for a week. https://www.ralphiereport.com/colorado-buffaloes-football/2018/9/25/17886354/colorado-buffaloes-receiver-jaylon-jackson-return-conference-play

Memphis TE Sean Dykes (4500 FD) was suspended last week and is returning but truth be told, I’d rather take a shot on UCLA true freshman WR Kyle Phillips (4600 FD).