Daily Fantasy College Football Picks for FanDuel and DraftKings - Saturday Early 9/12/15

Week Two in the wonderful world of College Football and we're back after a solid first romp through the CFB landscape. At the bottom of the page you'll can sign up for our free e-book "8 Things You Need to Know Before Playing Daily Fantasy College Football". Just enter an email and it'll land in your inbox.

We're also selling lineups and cheatsheets for every CFB slate. This week they include 2 DraftKings and 3 FanDuel lineups along with a cheatsheet of write ups on a number of different players. They are $5 and are separate from our membership subscription.

Quarterback

Malik Zaire
Making his first home start last week against the Longhorns Zaire was everything, but disappointing. Coming into the year the CFB landscape was well aware of his athleticism and ability to escape the pocket when things break down, but his ability as a passer was still, in some ways, up in the air. Well, how does 19 of 22 for 313 and 3 sound? Pretty dang gone good. Texas is certainly rebuilding, but an 86% completion rate is great no matter the level of competition. Zaire also didn’t dink and dunk his way to an efficient line as he averaged 14 yards per pass attempt. Next up for the Irish is Virginia, who is fresh off getting shredded by UCLA’s super frosh Josh Rosen. Malik offers solid value with a reasonable floor as the 4th most expensive QB, but his price isn’t so high where he will hamper your remaining lineup. After Zaire it gets a little sticky in terms of value so playing it safe with Zaire is certainly a recommended cash play. Zaire should have little difficulty picking apart the Cavalier’s defense and should continue his streak of multi-touchdown games.

Lamar Jackson
If your tolerance for risk is strong Jackson could be the play of the day. Coming on in relief last week for Reggie Bonnafon, Jackson went 9 for 20 with 0 touchdowns and 1 pick. That’s hardly a ringing endorsement, but the value with Jackson is wrapped up in his ability to make plays with his feet. As a freshman Jackson has much to work on as a passer, but his freakish athletic talent is quite apparent. Louisville will likely deploy a heavy ground attack with a young passer and less than stellar talent at the wide receiver position. But rest assured, the ground game will heavily involve Jackson. While Jackson may struggle to pass the ball, that only means the inexperienced signal caller will rely more on his feet. At $5800 his rushing ability increases his floor where you can feel safe using him in cash games and he could clearly be a GPP dynamo. The bottom line is he provides excellent salary relief with a reasonable floor.

Running Back

Derrick Henry
Henry comes in as my top big money back. He is equally talented, if not more so, as the other elite backs on the Saturday early slate. But comes in considerable cheaper than say a Collins or Chubb. Henry may run into some volume issues which is cause for some mild concern, but as he proved last week he doesn’t need a ton of volume to hit value. Last week Henry carried the ball only 13 times, but ripped off touchdown runs of 37 and 56 and also added a short 2-yard plunge for his third touchdown of the game. Bama is a 36 point favorite and Henry may not see the 2nd half, but lead backs tend to be the reason blowouts get started. Pairing Henry and Kenyan Drake together may not be totally awful as you stand to capture all of Bama’s rushing touchdowns, something they do a lot. The running back options aren’t littered with value so even though the blowout looms Henry should easily eclipse 100 yards and a score before giving way to Drake.

Michael Adkins II
Volume is one thing Adkins doesn’t have to worry about. He is the clear Bell Cow for the Buffalos and could possibly see even more than the 22 carries he received last week. The game against UMass is expected to be back and forth with plenty of scoring to go around. With Nelson Spruce on the outside keeping the defense honest Adkins won’t face many 8-man fronts. The total for game is in the mid 60’s and with Colorado almost a two touchdown favorite it stands to reason Adkins will be called upon to control the clock down the stretch. At $6900 Adkins represents one of the better value plays at the position.

Wide Receiver

Tajae Sharpe
Sharpe enters the year as the unquestioned WR1 for the Minuteman and should once again be a top flight fantasy receiver. Last year Sharpe finished with 85 receptions and 1281 yards to go along with 7 touchdowns. We would have liked to see more trips to the end zone for Sharpe, but with another year under his belt and the return of standout quarterback Blake Frohnapfel, Sharpe should be able to reach double digit scores. UMass actually returns 10 of their 11 offensive starters including all five offensive linemen so the offense should get out of the gates fast. Colorado played last week at Hawaii and came up short falling 28-20, but that can happen to teams traveling to the Rainbow State or it can happen to teams that are just bad like Colorado. Last year when these two teams squared off Colorado scored a couple of late TD's to squeak out a victory over the Minutemen 41-38. This year figures to be much of the same as neither team touts their defense and Sharpe should be a focal point of the offense. The only downside with this Jersey native is you cannot play him on both sites. Sharpe everywhere on Fanduel.

William Fuller
Don’t look now, but the Irish may finally have found a quarterback who knows how to sling the rock. Zaire was a crisp 19 of 22 last week accounting for 313 yards through the air and 3 touchdowns. Like Sharpe mentioned above, Fuller is the clear go-to receiver and should dominate targets throughout the year. Last week the Irish completely decimated Texas to the tune of 38-3. I know Charlie Strong is trying to turn around a once powerhouse program, but Texas is not the program it used to be. Nevertheless, Notre Dame was essentially perfect. This week the Irish should be able to keep things rolling against a Cavalier's team that was shredded by UCLA's true freshman Josh Rosen. Zaire looks every bit the part of a quarterback leading the Fighting Irish back to the promise land and anytime you have a stud QB in college you can bet his receiver will benefit greatly. Fuller is a legit talent and will surely get his crack at playing on Sundays, but for now, we can safely deploy him as part of our Saturday CFB arsenal. I will look to have Fuller just about everywhere as his price is a little below the other elite receivers, but he offers just as much safety and upside as the other big boys.

Leonte Carroo
Carroo really started to blossom last season and emerged as the down field threat Rutgers so desperately needed. The Scarlet Knights typically don’t have much issue finding quality backs, but finding receivers seems to have escaped them over the past few years. Carroo was suspended for the first half of their week one contest, which limited him to just three receptions in what was a blowout win against uhh, uhh Norfolk State. Carroo was limited to only three receptions, but that doesn’t mean he was limited as his three grabs went for 129 yards and three scores. This all happened over an eight minute span in the 3rd quarter. After those eight minutes Carroo now sits atop the Rutgers receiving touchdowns record book with 22 career receiving touchdowns in just 24 career starts at wide out. In classy fashion he quickly deflected the attention and praised his teammates and coaching staff for his success. Norfolk State clearly wasn’t much competition, but with almost a touchdown per game it doesn’t seem there are many teams with the ability to stop Carroo. He is also from New Jersey so if you roll Carroo and Sharpe together you can really show your Jersey love.

Tight End

Rodney Mills
Here we go again, having to choose between a gut punch or fish hook. I’ll choose the latter as at least I have a chance to bite your finger. That’s what it feels like every week having to select a TE who may or may not get a target. Mills has been moved from fullback to TE this season so he should see an increased role in the offense. If I am spending up Mills is the guy as his opportunity among the other options appears to be the highest. Mills may even be the next target behind Tajae Sharpe.

We're selling lineups and cheatsheets for every CFB slate. This week they include 2 DraftKings and 3 FanDuel lineups along with a cheatsheet of write ups on a number of different players. They are $5 and are separate from our membership subscription. Click here to purchase using PayPal.