For what is a niche DFS sport, it’s surprising and disappointing DraftKings and FanDuel don’t offer bigger contests in college football.
I miss the days before CFB DFS was canned when $3 gave you a shot at $10K or sometimes more. But I guess those days are gone.
Anyway, we have to enjoy college football daily fantasy while it lasts because you just never know when it will go away again!
So in the past, the Power Five or the Value Index series has featured just bunch of picks I really like. So for this year, I am not going to change that format, but I am going to stick to my favorite five plays of the slate.
I want to do this to hold myself accountable and to better my roster selection while also providing some helpful content for you to build your lineups with. I also want to challenge for the 2019 Daily Overlay Expert Championship (unofficial title, only a made-up, personal name I coined).
Anyway, today we are focusing on the early slate for Saturday’s Week 1 action. Bama is on this slate and there are some other notable matchups that will be entertaining to watch, but not sure they will be DFS viable.
As you will see below, there’s one game I love on this slate and clearly, stacking this game will be where I go in my lineups this week.
For pricing and the slate, we use DraftKings for the Power Five. Since we kicking off the season, I will offering 80 percent of this first main slate write up for any and all. But that last selection, you will have to be a subscriber to view. If it eats you up inside to not see that last play, by all means sign up or check out our 7-day free trial which can be found on the home page.
Good luck and enjoy that football is back!
Matt Corral – QB – Ole Miss – $7,200
Analysis: You will see a theme very quickly in this week’s 5 plays. Here we have freshman QB Matt Corral who takes over for Jordan Ta’amu at the helm of the Ole Miss offense. The Rebels are coming off a two-year suspension from the postseason for recruiting violations. And this year they have one of the best offensive minds in college football, Rich Rodriguez, manning this offense. He has made QBs such as Denard Robinson Khalil Tate become dual-threat nightmares for defenses. Corral is one of those types of QBs. He has a big hill to climb from an offense that had Ta’Amu, DK Metcalf, AJ Brown and DeMarkus Lodge, so he will be throwing to a host of young receivers and relying on a couple of talented running backs to help things hum. This game has the highest O/U on the board with one of the lightest spreads, two things I like to see from Vegas. Memphis has been one of the worst defenses in college football in the past two years, and it appears this season isn’t going to be much better. Corral is young, but he’s still the 10th-most expensive quarterback on the slate, so there’s value here and you can load up on this game with him and another QB in the Super Flex.
Patrick Taylor Jr. – RB – Memphis – $8,500
Analysis: Overall, Patrick Taylor is my favorite play on the board. He was a 1,000-yard rusher last season despite fighting for playing time with Darrell Henderson and Tony Pollard, who have both graduated and are in the NFL. Now he gets this backfield to himself, in theory. And I mentioned above how bad Memphis is on defense, Ole Miss might be worse this year. They have so much youth on both sides of the ball, they might be at the top of college football for freshman starting and/or receiving playing time this season. Anyway, Taylor should be the focal point in this offense, commanding carries and hopefully a few receptions out of the backfield. He’s the most expensive RB on the slate, but I don’t care. He could be in for a monster week.
Keilan Robinson – RB – Alabama – $3,000
Analysis: I can’t tell you any time I have ever rostered an Alabama running back outside of a Showdown slate. But we are in that boat this week and I will be going down with the ship should it sink. Keilan Robinson is a true freshman that is likely to get the start and play for at least a half against Duke this week. The top-two options at RB in this offense are being disciplined and are to miss time from this game, most likely a half and could be more should the Tide be well ahead in the second half. And so here we have Robinson, at minimum salary in one of CFB’s best offenses and we get to just throw him in without much risk. I am not even concerned about the opponent. Bama is Bama and if Robinson plays significantly, he will smash this price tag.
Damonte Coxie – WR – Memphis – $7,800
Analysis: I certainly want to play value at WR this week. Ohio State and some Bama guys could go off at reasonable price tags, despite not likely playing full games. Coxie is the leading receiver from the 2018 season and has No. 1 duties to himself. While Memphis will be establishing the run at times, Coxie will out there running routes and getting open for QB Brady White. Coxie had more than 1,000 yards and 7 touchdowns receiving last season and is cheaper than the top WR price on this slate, and he will likely not play a full game.
