DB's Daily Fantasy College Football Picks: Week 8
Believe it or not we are at the midway point of the college football season, so take advantage of every week because they will be gone before you know it. Injuries to star players seem more prevalent than ever this year. Florida’s Matt Jones is OUT, Todd Gurley is doubtful and D’Anthony Thomas is questionable, so all three of those games may provide opportunity for relative unknowns to shine.
For more picks and analysis, be sure to College Football After Dark with myself and HeadChopper. STLCardinals84 and Emac will bring you more picks and updates on GrindersLive at 10:30 am Saturday morning.
Quarterbacks
Sean Mannion (Oregon State) – Nobody in college football is throwing for more yards per game than Mannion (418) and he gets a dream matchup against Cal who sports the 123rd ranked defense against the pass. The price is going to be on the high end of things, but on sites where rushing & passing TD’s are worth the same, I think Mannion could be the top pick of the day.
C.J. Brown (Maryland) – Brown got off to a dynamic start to the season, but got hurt a couple games back and missed last Saturdays game. I think his absence has dropped his price to a point that might be too good to ignore. He faces a Wake Forest defense that is as mediocre as they come. I feel really good about his prospects of going for 3 to 4 total touchdowns with at least one of them coming on the ground.
Tom Savage (Pittsburgh) – Pitt won’t be found in the FanDuel, Draftstreet, or DraftDay game sets, but on the handful of other sites he has to be in play. The Panthers play Old Dominion this week and Savage should throw the ball all around the yard this week. The price on him is fairly moderate, but I think a 4 TD game is in the cards vs. the 1AA opponent.
Other Options: Caleb Herring (UNLV), Jordan Lynch (Northern Illinois), Blake Bell (Oklahoma)
Running Backs
Lache Seastrunk (Baylor) – The home run hitter only hit singles and doubles last week for Baylor, but I fully expect him to get back on track this week. A non rushing team like Texas Tech managed to run for over 251 yards last week, so I believe Seastrunk should comfortably go over a 100 yards with a couple of touchdowns.
Saylor Lavallii (Central Michigan) – I usually avoid listing many players from the mid major conferences in this column, but Northern Illinois is in the Top 25 and a few sites are carrying this game in their game set. NIU’s 45th ranking in rushing defense is a bit deceiving because if you take out a -22 rush day by Eastern Illinois they haven’t stopped almost anyone on the ground. Lavallii has gone over 140 yards in 3 of the past 4 games so he should get a ton of work in this game.
Jeremy Langford (Michigan State) – If you watched GrindersLive last week, I panned Langford a good bit despite his advantageous matchup vs. Indiana. That turned out to be a mistake, but I don’t plan on doing that again vs. the equally pitiful Purdue defense. Langford is fairly priced on most sites and I expect him to get over 20 carries again this week and do similar damage to Boilermakers.
Other Options: Ka’Deem Carey (Arizona), Melvin Gordon (Wisconsin), Kenneth Harper (Temple)
Wide Receivers
Sammy Watkins (Clemson) – For whatever reason Watkins keeps getting criticism from both his coach Dabo Swinney & our own Al Smizzle, but everyone needs to lay off this kid. Considering he has only failed to reach value one time this year in a blow win vs. South Carolina State, I would say he is doing a more than acceptable job. Florida State does tout one of the toughest defenses in the country and as Saturday morning GrindersLive host STLCardinals84 pointed out, he only had 24 yards receiving on 6 receptions last year in this matchup. But this is probably the biggest game in the past 25 years for Clemson, so I can’t imagine their top playmaker doesn’t have some sort of impact in this shootout.
Chris Harper (Cal) – It has been a bit of a roller coaster year for Harper, but I like him this week against an Oregon State defense that although improving, is still ranked in the lower half of college football in pass defense. Harper had some monster games this year and his lack of consistency probably makes him a bit of risk in H2H & 50/50 play, but I think he is a great choice for the large field tournaments.
Dres Anderson (Utah) – The son of Willie “Flipper” Anderson has lived up to his namesake this year by reaching the endzone in five of the six games for the Utes and going over the century mark in four of those. Utah faces a Wilkcat defense that made the highly mediocre/bad Cody Kessler look good, so I expect a big day through the air and Anderson to have the biggest day of everyone.
Other Options: Sammie Coates (Auburn), Paul Richardson (Colorado), DeVante Adams (Fresno State)
Tight Ends
Chris Coyle (Arizona State) – He took a goose egg last week, but the likelihood of that happening again is not great. Coyle was a preseason All American and definitely has the talent, but just needs to get the looks. For the big drop in price, now might be time to jump on him and hope they come on Saturday.
Jake McGee (Virginia) – There is a lot to love about McGee this week as not only is he coming off his best game of the season (8 rec 114 yards TD), but he also gets to face the lowly Duke defense. They have given up a ton of yards all season long and with McGee being one of the Cavaliers top offensive weapons, I think he comes back with another big effort on Saturday.
*Other Options: Ted Bolser (Indiana), C.J. Uzomah (Auburn)