By AFriedman15 – Aaron Friedman researches and writes college football articles for DFS Army. Aaron is a lifelong resident of the Chicago suburbs and a Northwestern alum and football season ticket holder. College football was Aaron’s first DFS sport and he was thrilled to see it return in 2018. He believes that the thrill, pageantry, and the importance of every game are unparalleled in sports. Aaron enjoys betting on the games and watching everything from #Pac12AfterDark to #MACtion, and especially enjoys the Tuesday-Friday games with so much happening on Saturdays. In real life, Aaron is an IT analyst and with his wife, is the parent to three small dogs. Find Aaron on Twitter at @AFriedman15DFS.
Boca Raton Bowl Overview and Notes:
The 2018 Gasparilla Bowl takes place tonight, December 20, 2018 at 8pm EST in Tampa, FL between the Marshall Thundering Herd (8-4) and the South Florida Bulls (7-5), who will be playing at home in Raymond James Stadium. Both teams are 4-8 ATS.
South Florida started out fast, getting off to a 7-0 start, and then they have been miserable in the last 5 games. Blake Barnett (2498 yards, 11 TDs) missed the season finale against UCF with an ankle injury and before that, shoulder soreness kept him out of their Cincy game. Will he play? That is the biggest question going into the Gasparilla Bowl.
Yards allowed per game, along with FBS rankings.
| Team | Rush Yards Allowed/Game | Pass Yards allowed/Game |
| Marshall | 103.8 (#8) | 231.7 (#71) |
| South Florida | 245.4 (#122) | 197.3 (#35) |
The USF offense has been poor in the last several weeks. This gives you a picture of “who’s done what” over the past three weeks.
USF Offense recent totals
| Player | UCF | Temple | Cincy |
| Barnett | – | 14/23 82, 0 TDS | – |
| Kean | 8/17, 36 yards | – | 4/10 1 TD |
| Oladokun | 7/12 77 1 TD | – | 10/22 2TD |
| Ford | 18-159-1 | 14-58-0 | 10-63-0 |
| Cronkite | 10-30-0 | 17-83-2 | 10-36-0 |
| Duron Bell | 8-49-0 | 10-34 | – |
| Wilcox | 5-38-0 | – | 7-90-1 |
| Brunson | 3-18-0 | 4-25-0 | 3-89-1 |
| McCants | 2-8-0 | 3-32-0 | 2-29-1 |
For Marshall, RB Tyler King will not play in the bowl game, according to Marshall Assistant Athletic Director Chuck McGill. This makes very high on Marshall RB Brenden Knox who has emerged as the top running back for Marshall. In USF’s last game, UCF RB Greg McCrae ran for 16-181-3 TD, before him Ryquell Armstead 28-99-1, and before Armstead, Cincy RB Michael Warren II went off against USF, crushing the Bulls with 30 plays from scrimmage, 178 yards and 4 TDs.
Allright, let’s dig into the DraftKings and FanDuel Single Game writeups!
DraftKings Overview and Picks:
Captain:
Marshall RB Brenden Knox is my top pick. Unlike previous days, the pricing is soft enough to where you don’t need to fit in $1,000-$2,000 guys that are likely to do nothing. Marshall WR Tyre Brady (66-914-9) is the best receiver on the field and he led Marshall with a walloping 132 targets, which is top 10 in the country. I love Brady in all formats, and Isaiah Green is good enough to make Brady a top play of the night. If he plays, Barnett could be in consideration, but I like Knox and Brady better.
UTIL:
We get a fair number of decent UTIL plays and pricing is soft enough to not have to punt with true turds. Marshall WR Obi Obialo seems to have slipped through the cracks of the DK algo, since he is only $2400 on DK and $10,000 on FD. Obialo (38-473-4) is the #2 receiver and at his price he doesn’t need to do much. The quarterbacks are both fine here, right now I have Marshall QB Isaiah Green (2238 pass yards, 15 TDs) in my main build. I’m more lukewarm on South Florida’s RB tandem of Johnny Ford and Jordan Cronkrite, I’d lean Ford since he was more involved down the stretch. USF TE Mitchell Wilcox is my favorite USF receiver since he has been able to produce with the backups Kean and Oladokun. For cheap, Obialo is a near lock for me and I am also eyeing USF RB Keion Davis with the absence of Tyler King tonight. If we get clarification that USF QB Brett Kean will start, he is in play for $3,000.
FanDuel Overview and Picks:
MVP:
Marshall RB Brenden Knox is my top pick again, but I do find Green interesting as a pivot off Knox. If you are entering a ton of contests, I do like Brady, but otherwise, I will restrict Brady to FLEX.
FLEX:
I am looking to put Knox, Green, and Brady in a bulk of my lineups. The pricing gods were good to us for tonight’s game: USF QBs Chris Oladokun and Brett Kean who may start for Barnett, are both the minimum $6,000, so they are potentially viable. USF TE Mitchell Wilcox is in play as a correlation with Oladokun or Kean. Obialo is in play, but obviously not with the same discount as he is on DK. RBs Keion Davis and Anthony Anderson likely round out my player pool here, Anderson is a very deep GPP play.