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.
Game Overview:
The 119th Army-Navy Game, or Navy-Army Game (depending on your allegiances) commences on Saturday, December 8, 2018 at 3pm EST. DraftKings and FanDuel are offering their Single Game contests and I will be breaking down the important plays for each slates.
The two fierce rivals enter the season finale on opposite ends of the spectrum, as Army (9-2) is top 25 in the AP/coaches poll while Navy (3-9) will be finishing off easily the worst season in Coach Ken Niumatalolo’s highly successful tenure in Annapolis.
With both teams running triple-option heavy rushing offenses, expect to see the ball rarely leave the hands of the academies’ quarterbacks and running backs. As the statistics show, Navy is third in the country in rushing yards per game, while Army is second? Navy has struggled against the run (ranking 89th in that category).
Army/Navy Statistical Comparison:
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Depth Charts:
FanDuel Slate Notes:
I want to start with FanDuel as it will help narrate the narrative of this slate. On both sites, the top three players on the slate: Army QB Kelvin Hopkins Jr., Navy QB Zach Abey, and Army RB Darnell Woolfolk are far and away the top three options on the slate. Hopkins is the best play on the slate and no one else is close to the 20.3 DK FPPG that he is averaging. Abey has been hurt for part of the season, and switched to receiver for some time, but now is back to finish his career at QB, and he has been doing pretty well. Woolfork have been very consistent performers.
MVP:
Without DK’s price multiplier, I will have Hopkins as the MVP in an overwhelming majority of the FD Single Game lineups. An interesting pivot is Woolfork, in case he gets a few FB dives into the endzone. I don’t entirely hate Abey either if you are making a bunch of lineups, but Abey has a much tougher matchup, so my preference is Hopkins (cash), Woolfork (GPP), Abey (large field GPP).
FLEX:
I think the popular build will be the three studs, with two duds. If you fit in all three studs, you are literally left with the minimum ($6,000) for the two last spots. The only playable $6,000 options are Army RB Connor Slomka and Navy RB Mike Martin, but both have next to no floors. I wish the salary cap was $1,000 more. I know that’s a ridiculous thing to say, but I love Navy FB Anthony Gargiulo who did not get to play in last year’s Army/Navy game and he gets a fair amount of carries per game.
DraftKings Slate Notes:
Captain:
You can’t fit all three of Hopkins, Abey, and Woolfork in a lineup with one of these three as captain, so you either have to get a someone cheap like Army RB Jordan Asberry ($1000) as your captain, which will give you enough salary to fit all three studs in FLEX or you can pick 2 of the three, with one as captain, one as FLEX, and one on the bench. I think there is merit to this approach and you can mix and match which of the three studs you leave out. I also like Navy FB Anthony Gargiulo here an an interesting pivot for larger field contests, with their senior FB not having a TD on the year and I’m sure they’ll want to send him out with a touchdown on his last game.
FLEX:
As mentioned, the pick 2 of 3 strategy is viable here (with one as captain, one as FLEX, and one on the bench), so “the big 3” will be part of my FLEX player pool. Gargiulo and starting SB Tre Walker are both in my player pool as well, even though they are going against a tough Army defense. Walker especially is super cheap. Another interesting play of mine is Navy WR Taylor Jackson, who maybe gets involved more if Navy is trailing and has to abandon the triple option. This is a risky play and could amount to a zero.
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