Fantasy Football Daily - College Fantasy Football Is BACK! Week 0 Reactions

Episode Date: August 27, 2024

In this episode, Zach and Josh review Week 0 games and discuss the College Fantasy Football implications for each team. We then look ahead to our top five storylines as approach the first full week of college football. Finally, we end the show by discussing the anatomy of our CFF projections for those who are curious about what goes into producing our weekly projections for all 134 FBS teams. Make sure to follow us for more valuable college fantasy football content! Find Our Podcasts Here - https://www.fantasypoints.com/media/podcasts#/ Age Curves Article By Ryan Heath - https://www.fantasypoints.com/nfl/articles/2024/age-curves-when-nfl-players-break-out#/ Use promo code SCOREMORE for 10% off your subscription. Dynasty Playlist - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-kupTuz42SeHflK6fqOqKTxwqB2s46M6 Subscribe to FantasyPoints for FREE - https://www.fantasypoints.com/plans#/ All our podcasts are here - https://www.fantasypoints.com/media/podcasts#/ Where to find us: https://twitter.com/CFFguys https://twitter.com/CFFroton https://twitter.com/CFFChamps http://twitter.com/MBainbridgeCFF FantasyPoints Website - https://www.fantasypoints.com NEW! Data Suite - https://data.fantasypoints.com Twitter - https://twitter.com/FantasyPts Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/FantasyPts Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/FantasyPts  @BDGEFantasyFootball  @espncfb  @FootballOfFantasy  @footballers-dynasty  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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You're welcome. Welcome to the CFF All Access Show. We are back. We have week zero in the books. And week one coming up, I'm joined by my boy, Zach Hall at CFF champs on X. And he is our projections guy. It is officially projections season. So how are you feeling, Zach?

Good, man. I'm just excited that we're finally here. You know, we can actually start diving into some of this stuff, not just go on speculation, but, hey, we can actually watch some games and, you know, figure out some things based on that. So I'm excited. We had a good, good weekend of football. Pretty good week zero for us. So, yeah, I'm excited. I'm ready to jump in.

I'm already knee-deep in projections for week one, trying to get those out for everybody. But, yeah, it's an exciting time. So a little, you know, insider peak. Do we do we know, have an idea of when projections might be released? Are they going to be released tomorrow, Wednesday? What are we looking at? Yeah, that's a great question. I don't want to over promise, but I'm really hoping I can get them out by tomorrow night.

They'll be out Wednesday for sure, though. Yeah. Well, sweet, man. I mean, it's got to be fun to actually be projecting games after all offseason. I feel like we're like tweaking, looking at depth charts, 134 teams, just tweaking the crap out of all of that stuff. And here we are. Yeah, it's fun to not be tweaking preseason projections or season long stuff anymore.

It's fun to actually get in and look at matchups and do that. And today, obviously, it's Debt Chart Monday, right? So that keeps you really busy checking out depth charts. And a lot of updates on my end from that, you know, where changes we got to make to make sure we're projecting the right guys. So it's always a, it's kind of a rush. on this Monday, right? Those depth charts start hitting.

And it's like, all right, it's time to work. So it's exciting, though. Yeah. I mean, was there any? So, you know, we always love depth chart Monday, right? And so were there anyone today that came out that you're like, oh, man, that was, that was a huge surprise. I'm going to have to update some projections for this week based on these.

Yeah, good question. There wasn't a ton of huge surprises. I know the thing that, drives me crazy and I get it, but there's oars, right? So UNLV, I wanted, I wanted a little bit a confirmation as far as who we want to go with there. That's a great one. The Iowa running back was a big surprise. It was just out of nowhere. I think we had him third or fourth on the depth chart going into today and that came out. So yeah, that was a good one. I'm trying to think if there were any others. You know, um,

Gerald Green, um, as R.B. 1. Yeah, for Troy. Yep, at Troy. So, so that was kind, that was when we had to switch around. Um, guys, some guys, you know, that would be left off, but I think there's injuries going around. So, uh, receivers, there's always a lot of changes there. I mean, there's guys, I think Arizona was one where I want to say was Jeremiah Patterson is, is starting. And that was kind of a name that he was. a little bit buried coming into today and now kind of bump him up. But I think we had a pretty good idea. Oh, we'll probably talk about him.

Mario Anderson was a big one, right? Yeah. For the most part, I think the top, our top guys, you know, in the rankings and projections, there wasn't a ton of surprises, but that was one that that was like, uh-oh. spent some higher picks on him than maybe I would have liked knowing he was an or and he's listed second on that depth charge. Yeah. Yeah. Quentin over here says Iowa starting a third or fourth string guy is the most Iowa thing ever.

Particularly like Tim Lester coming out today, right? I don't know if it's today, but I saw the interview today. And he's like, yeah, you know, Kamari Moulton reminds me of like Aaron Jones, the way that he can run. the one rush that we want, you know, the one play, run play that we want to run, which I think is an outside zone. But I'm not really sure what he was referring to. I'm sure maybe other people know what Aaron Jones is just the lead at running that are NFL guys. But it was pretty funny of like, okay, now we get the Aaron Jones hype like after all the entire offseason.

We couldn't have had, you know, this comparison earlier. But I appreciate Tim Lester, at least letting us in before, you know, snap one. of game one. So that would be fun to see how that actually plays out. We'll talk about some of these other ones a little bit later in the show as we look forward to our week one storylines today. But, you know, we started off this whole show. Quentin had a nice little quote here.

He says, spoiler alert, FSU got embarrassed on an international stage. I don't see any scenario where they have a shot at the college football playoff now. I'm going to agree with you. And that's what we're going to do here in our first segment. We're going to get into a week's year review. look at these three or four games that we had in week zero that were you know honestly all of them but the midnight game, Hawaii game came down to the wire. So actually really fun to watch. Very exciting stuff. So we're going to break down our thoughts from those games, any kind of

CFF implications we feel like going forward. And we're going to do all that after this break. All right. We're just going to go in order with these games of when they came on the TV. And so we'll start off. I'm central time. So we'll go central time here. Zach's Mountain Time, but 11 a.m. kickoff. We had Georgia Tech FSU. And, you know, I think a lot of people, it was what, 10 and a half, 11 points spread for this game. So many people thought that this might really tilt an FSU's favor that they would take over. Georgia Tech really struggled to stop the run last year. And so, again, a lot of us felt like they didn't really, it didn't seem like they brought in a bunch of new pieces that were going to help them defend the run. but they did bring in Tyler Santucci, the defensive coordinator from Georgia Tech,

I mean, from Duke to come in at Georgia Tech and man their defense. And so, man, that made a difference in this game, right? It was 24-21. Georgia Tech ended up winning, game-winning field goal as the time expires. Zach, what were some of your big impressions? Let's start with Georgia Tech. On the Georgia Tech side, what were some of your biggest impressions coming out of this game? Yeah, so I think the biggest thing for me, I think Hayes King,

Haynes King, he, you know, I think we knew what we were going to get with him. A solid day for him. Didn't throw the ball a whole lot. Did a little bit on the ground. I think it was a little disappointing when they're on the goal line and Zach Piring comes out and gets that touchdown. Drive. Yeah, that was. So that's something we might have to see a couple times this year as we roster Haynes King in some of our lineups.

The one guy, though, Jamal Haynes, I thought he had a really good day, 75 yards on the ground, two touchdowns. Got involved a little bit in the passing game, but just from, you know, he's one of those guys that coming into the season, he was kind of a mid-range running back, but I thought he did well. And I was probably most impressed with him. I was a little disappointed. They didn't really get Singleton more. He only had four targets on the day. Ended up with just two receptions for 19 yards. So not a great day there.

But Rutherford, seven targets, they use both of those guys in the run game. I think they each got like one sweep. So it's kind of good to see that. But Rutherford, I thought, had a pretty solid day. I don't know. I just don't think we're going to be able to count on that passing game week in and week out with those guys. I think when you're looking at fantasy and guys you might want to target either in CFF or even looking at some draft kings, Jamal Haynes is a guy that's probably going to be matchup dependent, but I think he's going to have some good week.

So, yeah, that's kind of what I was seeing. A little disappointed in Singleton's Day, but Haynes kind of made up for that. Yeah, and you just wonder if Singleton's going to be more of a, you know, a DFS play where it's going to match up dependent. They're going to have a tough schedule this year, right? Three buys. So he's a guy that I think we're going to want to see more than CFF when they're playing some tougher opponents. I mean, he had that wide open, I mean, great release off the line, gets separation on his route. And then Haynes King, to me, in my perspective, just doesn't hit him in the bread basket.

He had plenty of room to do it. And I guess, you know, that's, that play changes it, right? He has a lot better day if that's a on target pass down the field. So, yeah. But, you know, 10, 200 meter guy. I mean, he's definitely going to be a guy in NFL radars. So we'll see what happens with him this year. But I'm with you, man.

Jamal Haynes, future NFL running back. I mean, that kid looks, he looked really dynamic, very efficient. So he was fun to watch. I definitely think he's in play. But it's just, I mean, they got a tough schedule this year. So we're going to have to see whether they can maintain this. I doubt they have the depth if they, you know, have injuries to their offensive defensive line to keep it up.

But they look good, week one. And it was fun to watch. Anything else on Georgia Tech before we move to FSU? Yep. Okay. So FSU, any, I'm sure there's takeaways here, but they're not great. Drop everybody. That's, you know, my bad for me.

Can I just apologize for Malik Benson love in the offseason? Yeah. Go ahead. Do whatever you want. We should have kept them in our projections where I had them originally. No. So I really thought the run game would be more dynamic here. I thought, you know, we've seen the running back by committee here,

but I actually thought both guys might have a pretty solid day with Williams and totally Philly. I don't know how to say it. But neither guy, you know, it was a huge. disappointment in the run game. I mean, DJ you go on Twitter and I mean, he's just getting slammed by everybody. Just not, you know, it just wasn't a great game for him. I just don't think we're going to get much value out of him. I thought, you know, when we were doing our preseason stuff, we knew he wasn't going to be an elite QB, but thought maybe we'd get a little bit out of the

ground game from him. And there just wasn't anything there that. that run game was just awful. It just wasn't good. And you already talked about it. There was no help in the past game. Like DJU wasn't great, but those receivers weren't good either. There was just, it's really hard to find a bright spot on this team. And I jokingly said drop everybody, but it's funny because my kid, he's in our home league.

And he has Roydell Williams and mid-year. way through the game. He's like, I guess I can drop Williams this year. And I'm like, yeah, probably. There's probably something better out there for you. So yeah, it's just a tough week for Florida State. And I think we were hoping there would be a little bit more there, but I just don't know if there's going to be a ton of value in this team. Yeah. I mean, we were talking before we came on the air with Tom, but it's like DJU, I don't think through a pass on outside wide receiver. I think through one for six yards or four yards, Tom like Benston. and Mike Benton had to die for it.

I mean, it's just tough. I mean, Hakeem Williams is hurt. They just don't. They don't have the pieces right now. I mean, Chiqua Douglas and Jalen Lucas were really the best options running wheel routes or screen passes out, you know, out of the slot or out of the backfield. And so it feels like, it feels like two years ago, maybe three years ago when Jordan Travis first, when Mike Norville first came there and Jordan Travis was still learning how to play the Q. B position. They had to do a lot of trickeration.

I love this. His air yards, DJU at halftime was minus point one. Yeah. I mean, it's just tough, right? And they were able to get, you know, that first drive, they were really able to run the ball and establish themselves. But once they figured out, DJU wasn't going to throw the ball down the field,

they just feasted. Yeah, it was too easy. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, big takeaway from FSU is, yeah, I think they're going to have to start another quarterback, and maybe Luke Cromenek comes in or Brockland comes in. It can give them a little bit of a boost, but it's going to be a long season, unfortunately, for FSU, in my opinion. Next game is a game that Montana State, New Mexico, a team that I wish was in the FBS because, man, Scott Trey Humphrey, it was awesome. Adam Jones coming in.

He was great, right? quarterback after Tommy Mollat after a rough start killed it. And so, man, that was a crazy game. I mean, it was a really fun game to watch. Did you have any overall impressions of the game? And you can get into New Mexico as well. Yeah, that was a really, that was my favorite game of the day. Yeah, it was a fun game.

And I just thought, I just think, same thought, right? I wish Montana State was a team we could, you know, have every week that we're talking about are looking at. And they didn't have, I can't remember the starting running back. Julius Davis. Julius Davis. So bummer, we didn't get to watch him because I think he's like all conference type of type of running back.

So you saw what Humphrey did. And, you know, I wanted, I wanted Montana State to throw the ball a little bit just because of how the projections were. But I'm like, just feed Humphrey. Man, they can't stop him. Every time he touches the ball, he was, you know, just. doing what he needed to. So it was, it was a fun game. But on the flip side, it was fun to see Bronco Mendenhall back with, with some, you know, that offense that he has. Devin Dampeer,

pretty solid day for him. I think he ended up with 172 yards passing, 34 rushing yards. He had that one big run. That was kind of the, that touchdown. run he had. You know, he's a guy preseason. We kind of talked about possibly being a sleeper. I think there could be some value. I don't know if there's going to be a ton of value. I just don't know if there's enough in that passing game with this offense yet this year. It feels like this offense is a year away from being really fun, really good. So it's definitely, I was kind of making notes of like, all right, next year, who do we have here? I thought Eli Sanders I think we have a bell cow possibly here at New Mexico had like 17 rush attempts.

The next guy had eight or six, six. So don't typically see that from Bronco Mendenhall, but, you know, it's always kind of nice when you know what you're getting. He had a pretty good day, 87 yards. And then Luke Weissong, I thought had a really good day. He looks good too, yeah. Yeah. So it was fun to watch that. So again, to me, that was just one of those. I don't think the offense was, it was good. But in my mind, I'm just like, man, this is going to be a really fun, fun offense to watch in the years to come as long as, you know, Broncos probably still there running that offense. So what were you thinking, Josh? Yeah. Well, the big thing I was thinking is when you're talking about Devin Dampier and the passing attack. And it's like, man, he is your classic bull threat G. quarterback that can't really put it.

I mean, he can put it in the vicinity, but it's not like on target. And so, but man, he's a fun player to watch. I kind of surprised he only got, he only ran it three times, right? Yeah,

I thought that would use, a little surprising. I thought they'd use him a little more. And I'm curious, I wouldn't be surprised if he, if he gets a little bit more involved in that run game going forward. Obviously, I think they probably don't,

I don't know what they really have behind him. So they probably want. to, you know, protect him a little bit. But if they open him up to the run game, I mean, he's just going to be such, he's going to be hard to defend out there for some of those defenses that they're going to face this year. Yeah. And again, this is the same system, right? Jason Beck is a Robin and I disciple. Yeah. So this is the team. These are the guys that had Bryce Perkins back in the day with UVA, ran for 700 yards a year. Devin Dampier looks actually pretty similar, right, with Perkins as far as same type of, like, passer.

Like, you know, Perkins obviously made to the NFL, so he's a little bit better of a passer. But, but the same type where better athlete than they are quarterback. Yeah. So I can definitely see, you can see what Dan Peer to see if it unlocks this year or next year. Yeah. For him, you know, Y's song looked good. You know, the tight end. We're always looking for decent tight ends.

Trace Buckler had four for 34 in a touchdown. He didn't look overly, like, exceptional to me. But he put up numbers. Yeah, that's a good point. Four targets for, you know, a tight end. If you're in, you know, that's a guy that, that's about the bottom, right? You're looking at guys that are at least getting four to five targets at tight end. So one to keep an eye on going forward for sure.

Yep. All right, let's go to this next game. SMU Nevada. I think SMU was a 30, 25. A pretty significant favorite in this game. And they had to score a last game-winning touchdown with like, you know, less than a minute left in that game. And man, you saw Preston Stone like point to the sky, thank God. I have relief.

It's like, yeah, you shouldn't have been doing this. This game shouldn't have been this close. Nevada looked a lot better, right? with Jeff Choate. He's former linebacker coach at Texas. He's also at Montana State, the team that we just talked about for several years. So great defensive mind. You can tell they're much improved. So kudos to Nevada. But let's start with SMU. I mean, there's some takeaways here and they're not, they're not good one. So what do you got? So going into the game, obviously very intrigued at how they're going to run those quarterbacks, right? How

because you knew they were going to play both Stone and Jennings. You know, Stone did not look great in that game. I actually, I felt like they were moving it a little bit better with Jennings in there. Then they went back to Stone. I think a very telling thing, though, about how this season will play out. I know people are still wondering like quarterback controversy, but they went with Stone in the second half and when they had to come back, I mean, that's who they relied on.

I kind of wonder if they just thought we're going to jump out fast, get a big lead, be able to play Jennings some this game, kind of see what he can do. But I think when it comes down to it, Stone is probably the guy they trust to go out there and win the game, obviously. And I think SMU is going to be, they're going to be in some games this year where they're not out on top ahead. and this actually might be a team where we see some value just because they're going to be playing from behind moving into the ACC this year. So it'll be interesting to see. Those receivers were not good. I don't think Stone looked good, but those receivers did not help him at all. I mean, I'm watching just the broadcast, so you're not seeing everything out there, but they weren't getting open.

And, you know, they made Nevada's defense looked like they were really, really good. And I don't know enough about them to really know if they're actually going to be that good or not. But they made that defense look really good in the back end. But very disappointing day from those receivers. One thing that did jump out to me, because Jake Bailey was a guy that he doesn't do a ton, but he's a guy that usually ends up with a couple catches. He's consistent. he's probably the most consistent guy in that offense.

He had six targets and no catches that game. Wow. And so I think that just kind of sums up how that passing game was outside of RJ Maryland, which I think that he's, I mean, he's that offense in the passing game. He's the only guy that was getting open that was making plays. He looked good. He was a top 10 tight end force preseason, and it looks like that's he's going to be that. you know, this season, he's going to have a really good year.

The run game, Rashard Smith, I thought they should have used him a little bit more, to be honest. Instead of throwing, throwing the ball so much, you know, give it to him. He was making plays when he was getting touches. Only had 67 yards, but only on 11 attempts. I mean, he, you know, he's,

it just felt like he was kind of a bright spot on that offense, but it feels like they're going to use all. three guys. LJ. Johnson ended up with like nine attempts. He's kind of your going to be probably

a short yardage goal line type guy too. But yeah, it's just the whole team. It was not what we're expecting from SMU. Yeah. And I think the one thing about

we've seen our Rett Lashley in the past that he's willing to rely on his best players when they stick out. And I do think Barshard Smith, and you look at his numbers, 12 for 70, right, as was his rushing numbers, the rest of the running backs combined were 13 for 27. Yeah. I mean, he's clearly better than those other guys at this point.

And then he also, he's a former wide receiver and he caught two passes for 26 yards. I mean, he's potentially outside of RJ Maryland, he is the best weapon in an offense at this point. I think Lashley will recognize that and lean on him more. And I think he's going to lean on RJ Maryland because look, all those wide receivers are like they're the same and they're average. So when none of them are going to stand out, you just got to pepper your best guys. The problem with SMU is that Lashley's offense is built on basically him having more

talent than the other team that he's facing because they run a pretty vanilla a system. And, you know, a lot of people had them projected to do really run the ACC. And I didn't, I just didn't understand it personally because you're just not going to have that talent edge in the ACC. These are all former Miami players. And these are off of teams that went seven and six, seven and six in the ACC. And they're like, Lashley was their coach, uh, you know, their offensive coordinator. So I don't, I don't see them as a team doing well. But I do think Barshard Smith is a guy that's worth picking up and he's worth playing because I do think he's going to continue to get better. I think he showed that he was the best running back on that

team. And then RJ Maryland, to me as a guy, they're just going to have to scheme up touches for because it didn't even seem like Preston Stone was not seeing the field. That was the other thing. They dropped in like cover three, cover four and almost picked them like, I mean, there should have been three or four picks in that game. Yeah. Yeah. It was not, not a good day for him. Yeah, and I think you saw that to you. I mean, the only reason they even came back in when that game was because they just, it was an RJ Maryland show, right?

That's, that's a, that was that game plan at the end of the game. So, you know, you brought up Richard Smith as a guy, you could go pick up in a CFF league. You don't want to overreact to week zero, week one, you know, performances. But he, he's, there wasn't a lot that I would run out. and go pick up from week zero. But he's one of the guys you put on your list to go pick up, especially if you're needing maybe a deeper league needing some help at the running back position.

He could be a solid pickup out of week zero. Yeah, and he's not, you know, this is week one. He's not like a huge budget guy. We're not spending a bunch of fab on him. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Nothing like that. But if you can get him for cheap or free and, you know, you had whatever, you know, one of the Iowa running,

backs, Caleb Johnson, as your bench guy. Yeah, you should probably drop them and you can pick up Breschard Smith. So drop Rodel Williams and pick up Breschard Smith. Yeah, there you go. Yeah, we don't want to overreact to week, week zero like Carp is saying like you're saying, Zach, but I think there are some little things that you can pick up on where you just go, yeah, this confirms the priors that we saw last year with the SMU wide receivers. So, okay, we're going to take a quick break here.

And then we come back. We're going to look at Hawaii. Actually, let's finish up with the Nevada and then we'll do Hawaii, Delaware State. At Desjardin, we speak business. We speak startup funding and comprehensive game plans. We've mastered made-to-measure growth and expansion advice, and we can talk your ear off about transferring your business when the time comes.

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Yeah. Just overall, I was surprised they were even in that game. I actually thought, I don't think, so Brendan Lewis for being, it felt like, and this could be wrong, this is just kind of out there reading, you know, some articles and stuff, it felt like they wanted Purdy to be the guy, but he was hurt. Yeah. So they went with Lewis. and he actually, I thought he did all right.

I mean, he's 77 yards on the ground in the run game. He's not going to wow anybody in the passing game. It's just not going to be a strength with him in there. But I thought he did all right within that offense. You know, I was interested to see how the running black split was going to be. And it's pretty even. I think we're probably going to see a committee. I thought both red and dollars looked.

They had their moments. where they both look good. So I think for the team, they're set up pretty well in the run game. It's nothing that I don't think there's going to be much value for us, you know, in college fantasy. But I think they're set up. And then Brayham, so yeah, he's, yeah, he was good. And somebody else, Jaden Smith, he actually ended up with eight targets.

He just, you know, only top four of those. But those two guys, I feel like they could have something with, with those two guys. So I'm actually excited to see what this team can do going forward. If this was, is SMU just not good? And it was kind of a, you know,

a flute game for these guys or if they're actually building something. So I don't know if there's a ton of fantasy takeaways for us. But it was kind of fun to see Nevada actually stick with them this game and make it fun. Yeah. I thought Cortez, you know,

he looked great. Like in the end zone, like some of his catches. I mean, I thought he looked great. I think overall, I think what we saw with Nevada, just from a purely college football perspective, this is a much better hire than Ken Wilson. Sorry, Leland.

I know he's Oregon, former running back coach. Don't hire running back coaches as your head coach. That's a takeaway. But I thought Jeff showed, man, it's only week zero, but they looked a lot, you know, a lot more like a capable team, just like New Mexico did. Way different team than we saw last year, that's for sure. Yeah, so that's great.

All right, Hawaii, Delaware State, we can go pretty quickly here. Hawaii 1 3514. But, man, like, Shager was more impressive on the ground than he was through the air in his Delaware state. I don't know, man. I mean, that's not a great sign. Is it just that they need Stephen McBride back or should we be concerned at all? Yeah, so I didn't actually get to watch this game.

I don't know if you got to it all. I just open up the box score on Sunday morning. So I'm kind of surprised, but not, because I feel like it's just the same team we had last year. I don't know if McBride coming back helps, because I think they just kind of are what they are. I think the passing game is probably a little bit better with McBride, but I think the good news is Ashlock is going to get his this year,

which we were high on, but there just isn't anything else really in this offense. It was, you know, it was disappointing for sure to wake up and see what that box score was. So I can't really comment too much on the play, but yeah, it's going to be, it could be a long season for these guys. Were you able to watch the game at all? No, I didn't get to get eyes on it. So it's just, it's tough getting a Spectrum Sports Hawaii game at a midnight.

But I will say I do wonder, because I didn't see, you know, Shager, right? It could not have been his fault, you know, the lack of passing yards. But it does make me wonder if we might see Micah Alahado at some point, the talented true freshman they just brought in from Bishop Corerman. I mean, that kid is, he looks good on film. I mean, I think we've heard good things in practice reports. So just wonder if he's, you know, they eventually just don't go to. to him, you know, as kind of a native son and a guy that they can build around for the future.

But again, I didn't see the game personally, so I can't talk too much to what I did not see. DeKal Krautis, you know, getting three catches for 49 yards and touchdown. He's a guy that he's kind of shown some elite speed in the past. If it can click for him, he's a guy that I think could be good in this type of system where he doesn't have to do much other than run a few routes. But we'll see. Time will tell for sure.

All right. Well, we wanted to talk a little bit about week zero. Those are our big takeaways. I think, yeah, not a lot. Maybe moving forward week zero, then confirming some priors and going, like just from a football perspective, Nevada is going to be better,

New Mexico is going to be better, whether that's reflected in the record remains to be seen. and SMU and Florida State might not be as good as we had hoped coming into the season. And Georgia Tech, we just won't know because that schedule is brutal. But fun week one, I mean, anytime we get three one-square games to all like come down to the last minute, it was just fun to have football back and to be able to talk about it. But now we move to the beginning of the CFF season, right? Week 1 is when we all start.

And, you know, we were kind of talking, you know, this weekend and just what are the big kind of week one storylines for us coming into this season? So I want to share a few that stuck out to me. And I want to get your opinions because I picked the Zach based on things that we've been talking about during this off season and, you know, people that were interested, interesting to us. So the first one for me is Missouri running back by committee. Right. We know that when Eli Drinkwitz goes with one guy, that that guy is a bell cow and he just has a phenomenal season. We've seen it over and over again from his time at Boise, NC State, Missouri, right? Cody Schrader, he turned a D2 running back into an SEC type player. And now we have, you know, two Sunbelt guys coming in, Nate Noel and Marcus Carroll. And now they're in here at Missouri. And we all offseason, and Zach, you've really kind of been the lead on this, have projected Nate Noelle to be the starter in a committee backfield.

So we're not saying he's going to have a workhorse. But we've always been on him first. And it looks like he's going to be the first one to take your carry and kind of lead this committee. You know, through practice reports and seeing the depth chart where he's on, it's an oar, but he's the one on top. it's said that he'll get the first carries. How are you feeling about Missouri coming into week one and Nate Noelle? Yeah, so this is one I've watched, really, since those guys both transferred in.

You know, Nate Noelle was, it was hard to get really good intel from spring, but he was a guy that it seemed like he would run out with the ones first. It's kind of how the spring went, and it kind of seemed like how the fall went to. So again, that's kind of the reason why we had Noel on top. But again, in that committee, the thing about this is he, so it's going to be really interesting to see because we have seen them go with a committee approach. But he likes a bell cow. And I think, and I don't, I don't know if we're actually going to have an answer after week one because of who their opponent is. I honestly think both of those running backs are going to get a shot,

and I think they're both going to look good just because they're going to outmatch the opponent. This week, I can't recall who it is, but it's FCS school. So I don't know if we really get clarity or any answers on what this is going to look like for the season. So I'm kind of in a holding pattern with it. I think it's probably going to lean more towards a committee approach with both of those guys. but they're both pretty talented guys. I think they're both going to be able to do some damage.

But interesting that Nate Noelle is on top of that depth chart. I know there's an order, but he's the first guy, and he's been the guy that's ran out there first with the ones. So I don't have a ton to shine on that. I lean towards Noel. I've drafted him in a lot of our drafts. He's a guy you could get a little bit later. So he's a guy that I've gone after.

Um, so, but I, I do think we're going to look at a little bit of a committee approach with this team. Yeah. Yeah, I agree with you. I will say it's interesting. Marcus Carroll is really a one, a one year wonder at this point. I mean, he was, he's in a sixth year, I think of college football, maybe fifth year. Um, and he's had one year of kind of bell cow, right?

And whereas Nate Noelle, if he doesn't get injured, he probably has at least a couple thousand yards seasons. to his name at this point. Help me out here. Was Noel with him at App State? Was he there in 19? Noel was, I think he was there in 19. Yeah, I think he might.

So there's also some familiarity, right, with Drinkwitz and Noel. So. Yeah, maybe. I'm not sure. He might have came in right after him. He could have recruited him for sure. I think, I just think Nate Noelle's more talented of a running back than Marcus Carroll. But Marcus Carroll, man, he went off last year.

He did. Offensive lines pretty good. of Georgia State. So, so Father Whale So, so Father Well is an Ab State guy.

Oh, nice. Loves App State. So, yeah, it was recruited by him. Yeah, you know, I think Noah, Noel's super talented. We'll see, right?

I'm with you. I think this is ultimately a committee approach. So just interrupt, just real quick, sorry to cut you off. With Drinkwitz, the last 10 years,

I mean, in 22, we had the committee where RB1 was getting 34, 35% of the rush attempts, right? And then in 17, it was 39 and 23%. Every other year it was getting right around 43 upwards of 50%. So, I mean, only two times have we actually seen it. So I guess it wouldn't surprise me if you get a guy, well, if he comes out, week one looks great.

All right, let's just go with him until he doesn't look good anymore. So, I mean, even with that committee approach, that running back is still getting a lot of volume. Yeah. Yeah, totally. Yeah, so we're going to have to see. This is an interesting for us, I think, to look at, you're right. They're probably getting both a lot of carries. But let's see, we'll see who looks good in the system.

Second storyline for me, really a thing to watch out for that's intriguing is the LSU offense. And we've talked kind of all offseason, right? Can questions like not necessarily, how can Garrett Nussmeyer repeat Jaden Daniels numbers in the passing game, right, which is 3,800 yards and 40 touchdowns? Can he support, you know, two different wide receivers, a least week one where we think of be Carmen Lacey, like Chris Hilton could be out this game to C.J. Daniels take advantage, right, and cement himself as a wide receiver too. is Caleb Jackson? Is he good enough in pass protection for them to trust him? Or like Josh Williams is like the favorite of that coaching staff. Right?

Like so like are they like they're definitely going to play him on third downs, but do they just trust them more than Caleb Jackson? Like we've seen this before, right? Where a guy doesn't get on the field because he can't do, you know, the things that are required of a running back in past protection. And so I, these are the things with USC, you know, they should be able to put up some points. but like these are the types of questions that I really want answered.

And I think with the opponent being USC, we could find some answers in week one. What do you think? Yeah. So I mean, obviously the most intriguing thing to me in this, and we've talked about this just a little bit, but the Caleb Jackson versus Josh Williams, right? Caleb Jackson gets a lot of the hype,

but it still seems it's always Josh Williams, right? Josh Williams is running with the lungs. Caleb Jackson looks like the best running back from all the reports we have, but it's always Josh Williams. So super intrigued to see how this is going to shake out. Because I just feel like, you know, coaches, they go with what they're comfortable with. And if they trust Williams and that's who they're comfortable with, that's what they're going to go with.

The one thing, so Nussmeyer, so I almost think, I think he's going to have a good year. But I don't think there should be an expectation to do close to, what Daniels did last year. When you go back and look at the passing production with the O.C. Where he's been, even with what Brian Kelly has had in his offenses, it's such an outlier, right? Yeah. And so I think he's still going to have a pretty solid season.

But, I mean, you're looking at that the average is roughly, you know, right around 3,000 yards and 24 touchdowns. think he's going to outperform that. I think he has the weapons. You talked about, you know, who's going to, I wouldn't be surprised if wide receiver one, week one is different than week 10, right? Because I think you're going to have a guy like CJ Daniels, who's a little bit more comfortable in that system as the year goes on.

We already know what he can do. So he's a guy, you know, that could really start to benefit as a. the year goes on. Hilton's a guy that you were really on early. And he's one of those guys that we had in the rankings as wide receiver two for this offense. So interested to see how he'll do. I don't, you know, we don't know if we'll get to see him this week or not. But I think the passing game is going to be strong still. But the thing I'm really want to see is that running back. And I actually, I kind of lean towards. or just going to be a committee approach just because of,

I think Caleb Jackson's going to go out there and look really good, and they're just going to keep putting Williams in there because they trust him and use both of them. Yeah, I mean, it's crazy how big and fast Caleb Jackson is. But at the end of the day, I mean, Joe Sloan, who's the O.C., is a QB coach. And Garrett Nussmeyer, he's got some escapeability and some mobility in the pocket, but he's not a runner. So you do want your Josh Williams type guys that can, you know,

that pick up the Blitz. Now, this offensive line is also pretty good for LSU. So, I mean, we'll see. We'll see if they can get a lead and then maybe they put in Caleb Jackson and do it that way.

But he's one of those guys. He could be, wouldn't be surprised if he ends up as an RB1 this year. And it wouldn't be surprised if he, if he's not on your roster by week four. Yeah. So I think there's just a lot of variance in what he can do. And so that's what I'm curious to see.

I am afraid. We see this over and over again where a guy is talented, but it's the guy that can pass protect that ends up getting in there and getting most of the carries. Trevor Etyen at Florida is an example of that with Montreal Johnson. Montrell Johnson is a good back. Eton's much better as a runner. But he also has a lot of highlights for his lack of ability to pass protect on

on X if you guys want to go out. So, all right. Number three for me is the Ohio State offense. And the question for me is like who whose fingerprints are going to be on this offense. Is it going to be Chip Kelly? Is Ryan Day really going to trust him or is Ryan Day going to keep, you know, his fingerprints on this? I have my suspicions, but I want to hear from you. What do you think? It's just going to be so interesting to see how it unfolds this season. I feel like they're going with Will Howard at QB. So I feel like the Chip Kelly offense is going to make more sense for these guys, right? Yeah.

Will Howard's going to, he's going to be good in the run game. I mean, Ohio State has two of the best running backs in college football, right? I mean, it just makes sense for them to want to use the run game. And I think if you go with Will Howard, that's the system that fits. but it's also a Rain Day's team. And I, but to me, I think because they're going with Will Howard, they brought him in, he's a good fit in the system. I think it's going to be, I think we're going to see a lot of Chip Kelly. What I'm also really interested to see is Chip Kelly typically goes with one running back.

And we have two, and it'll be interesting to see how they're going to split that between both Judkins and Henderson. And I don't, this whole offense to me is just, I don't even really know. I have, there's like 20 different ways I could see this going with what they have because they're super talented at receiver as well, right? I mean, they just have guys that can make plays all over the field. I think I would lean towards this more of an early on Chip Kelly if it doesn't, if it's not working, they're going to go to Ryan Day. Yeah.

And I'm, I am curious. I mean, it's, it's going to work. I'm curious to see how long Trivian Henderson stays healthy. I mean, I love Trevian. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, it's true. You can't stay healthy. And then I think Jackins comes in and just goes off.

But do you think it's, do you think Henderson's going to get first carry? Or do you think it's going to be Judkins? That's a good question. I would say Henderson is in a normal situation, but I don't think Henderson cares. So I think if he was like, had a fragile ego, you're the first carry. But I think he's like fine with letting Juckins get the shine. and doing whatever. So, I mean, he's going to be so explosive, right?

He's going to hit a 70-yard run each game. I do think, I'm curious, I kind of think this is going to be Chip Kelly's system. He's going to run it. And then either he's moving on after this year or Ryan Day moves on after they win a national title. Something happens. And it doesn't feel like this marriage lasts for more than a season or else you're going to lose guys like, you know, and maybe not. Like I'm talking out my butt a little bit, but like does like, you know, Jeremiah Smith or some of these receivers if they're not getting the love that they

want, they go somewhere else. Now, Brian Hartline seems like he can work magic with anything. And so maybe all of them stay and totally prove that wrong. But I think that you're going to have to at some point open up the passing game in order to please all of these targets there. I would think long term. right not just this year so yeah hey we're going to take a quick break come back and then hit our last two storylines lilan's over here in the chat he said hey the grass is damn green and

orgy eugene we will take smith yeah i bet you will you guys will do some good things with him too um all right memphis is another one to two other quick storylines memphis here right the big thing here is mario anderson's listed on the bottom side of an oar with sutton smith are we we concerned about this? Yeah, a little, hey, I got a question. I don't know if you remember. So last year, was it this similar situation with Blake? Yeah, was it in, I was trying to think of that earlier today.

I'm like, was he in or last year? And it was kind of the same. Like, uh-oh, we kind of all went, went all in on Blake Watson. And then we were questioning it. And then he was the guy. I'm not, I'll be honest, I'm not concerned about it. I could see, you know, where Sutton kind of take some carries away. Because he had a really good fall.

He had a good spring. I mean, he was talked about. But I probably wouldn't be taking him as high as we were in some of our drafts. If we were drafting today, I let him fall a little bit. But I'm not super concerned about it. But if you ask me next Monday, it could be a totally different story. Yeah. I'm not concerned at this point, right?

I mean, I do think Mario Anderson's a good back. I think the AAC is a better level for him than the SEC was. And he looked really good in the spring. Like, you can't discount that he looked like he belonged. So Andy, he can catch out of the backfield. I don't know. And Sutton Smith, ultimately, to me, hasn't looked super dynamic to this point in this career. Well, and he's, we've, you know, he's been there, right?

And he's never really taking charge. So I don't know how much of a threat he's really going to be. Yeah. Okay. Last one here. I put Oregon offense. And again, a lot of these are Oregon, Ohio State, right? They're not playing anybody week once.

Maybe they don't show anything. But these are really things that I'm, I'm just wondering going into them, right? So first question for Leland and, and you, Zach, for Oregon is, uh, look is Evan Stewart going to finally live up to the hype? I feel like we've been hearing about this guy, right? He's wide receiver one and all these Debbie ranks, right? I've drafted him high. I've got it ranked high.

But is he actually going to put it all together this year? You know, and the last thing is, how is the running back volume going to be split up? Is Jordan James going to be the guy or, man, everything out of camp is saying this is committee approach. And Rashad Sample Samples is going to make sure that that happened. So let's go with the first question. Yeah, good question. I don't have a ton of confidence in my answer, but the offense is set up for him to have a big year, right? I think he, if he doesn't do it, then it's just not there for him because, I mean, he's coming into an offense where that he should be able to make plays.

We've been waiting for it. but three, the last three seasons, you know, the outside receiver has gone over a thousand yards in this offense. I just, they have a good quarter. I don't know. I just feel like this offense is just set up. I think he's going to have a big year. If he doesn't, then I feel like he's just, he's a bust, right? This is not, it's not the system.

It's not, it's, it's him. As far as the running back goes, I want to believe it's going to be Jordan James, partly because of all my shares I have of him in the second round of all of our drafts. But, you know, the RB1 in this offense typically goes for over 1,000 yards outside of 22 at UTSA. It was a little bit of a committee approach. But when they find that guy, they go with him, as Will Stein does. So I think if James is healthy, I know there have been, I haven't seen. anything if he's I know he sat out a practice or was out a couple of practices.

Procutionary. I think if he's healthy, I think he's going to be the guy. You know, I just I feel like Will Stein wants a guy. He doesn't want to have to really, he doesn't get into that committee unless he has to, unless he's forced to. So the nice thing about this offense, though, is it's so dynamic that they're able to feed a lot of guys, you know, a lot of plays. So even if they, you know, do rotate the running backs a little bit, there's just going to be plenty of opportunity. Even if it does become a little bit of a committee approach,

James is still going to have a lot of opportunity to get some points. Yeah. Yeah, I love the. Evan Stewart. I mean, here's the deal. This is a system play, right? We saw Zagari Franklin go bonkers with Will Stein. And then he went to Ole Miss and, you know, he got injured,

but he didn't do much. And, you know, Troy Franklin, you know, great last year. And then he's in the NFL and he's not looking great. I mean, but this is a system. Pretty simple reads, like not hard. If you have the playmakers and you have the talent to get them the ball. And Dylan Gabriel, he throws a good deep ball. I mean, that is one thing that he definitely does.

So I could see him being able to really put him in Tess Johnson in places where they can really succeed. So I think he's a, he's, pretty safe to do good, as long as he can stay healthy. And that's been the other thing is he's gotten hurt, you know, last year he got hurt. And so we'll see. I think this Oregon offense is going to hit the ground running in the Big Ten. I just think it's going to, you know, they'll face better defenses. And so they'll have to actually get more of an opportunity to score with the starters versus like, yeah, there you go.

50 points in like three quarters. Our boy, Leland over here is trying to hype up Holden. I'll let you do that, man. We'll hold off for now. But we'll give you a flowers if he's going off more than just week one. So all right. I want to close out the show here today talking a little bit about projections. That's what you do on our site.

And so I wanted you to talk maybe a little bit about our projections, kind of what goes into those. Like I get questions all the time from people and DMs going like, hey, are these stat level? Are they fantasy points? only what does that look like and then also where do you find them to be most useful for people obviously cff and dFS but where else are people who have used these projections um you know in the college football world yeah so uh the the process that i use is really evolved i think i've been doing it right around 10 years um it changes about every year i know this year even us telling Josh early on, I'm like, I think I'm going to change how I do it a little bit.

Find a way that works and then try and improve on it. And really, just basic, what I'm really trying to get at each week is how is the team going to perform? And then there's really two parts. How's the team going to perform? And then how does the team use players, right? What's that player usage? How does the player score his points? And then taking those two things and really putting them together and making

ensure, hey, they're in line. Like, the usage is in line with how that team is going to perform this week. And really just at a top, top line view, that that's really what it is. Last year, we just had the point projection this year doing a lot more with the usage and how guys are scoring. So we'll have the stat projections this year, which I think will be super beneficial. I'm going to share my screen here as you're talking. Yeah. I'll just share some of this.

Yeah, so what we're really doing is I'm using those projections to get us to that stat, that stat projected stat for us. And then we'll use that to do the scoring. So if you're a sub and on the site, you'll be able to filter by different scoring types. We'll have the PPR, 6.4 point passing touchdown, half PPR, draft Kings and Fandul, right? So just make it super easy for you guys. the projected stats are really driving that for us this year. So, you know, it's an expansion on what we had last year. I think it's going to be super helpful.

Like Josh said, it's, you know, CFF is going to be nice for that. I think it's going to help with DFS. We're going to have, or we do have projected ownership, which I think is going to be super helpful for the DFS as well as we get into the season. And then, you know, props is going to be another big thing. We're going to be able to use a lot of this, a lot of these projections for that type of thing. You know, the other thing, too, it's really interesting. It's just kind of behind the scenes on projections.

Week zero, week one, it's always just such a crap shoot, right? I mean, we're still, I mean, today I'm scrambling with depth charts just to make sure I have the right guys with the right. usage for the week. And even then, we still don't know there's orres on the depth chart or how many times have we just been, we've seen a guy at the top of the depth chart and then he doesn't even show up for the game, right? It's somebody that's, you know, a second or third on the depth chart. So it's always always really tough those first few weeks to really get a good picture of what this team's going to be. But, you know, one thing I think with the system that we have, it gets really, really good.

You know, by about week three, it's really dialed in week four. It's really good. Not that these first few weeks aren't. It's just we just don't. There's still so many unknowns. We don't get a ton of clarity after week one because so many teams are playing FCS or and it's just, it's really hard to get a good understanding of how the team might use certain guys.

But the system has, has worked. And I'm excited to really see what we can do this year with the projected staff. with the projected ownership, both new things that we're going to have this year. And then you can kind of filter for your scoring system as well. And we're going to have, we don't have it yet, but the defensive position ranks. So those will go on there as well. So you'll be able to see how they rank against the defenses. And one other thing that we do that will start after week one is going to be the matchup report.

So it kind of goes alongside with with the rankings as you're looking at, you know, a lot of that stuff's factored into the stats already. But you'll be able to get a good look at who these guys are facing, how strong the defense is or how weak it is and possibly find, you know, where the upside is and maybe where we can find the edge on some of these guys with with our projections and that matchup report. Yeah. And, you know, with that, right, we even have like with the matchable report, the variance in there, right? And the schedule adjusted, you know, fancy points per game. So it really dials in, right? It's just, uh, Zach's doing some really high level stuff. And, you know, I think in this DFS projections, like we work together, uh, to really collaborate and go like, what are the things that we want to see and any type of projections or what are the research that we're doing? And so this is basically the, the, uh, we're doing. And so this is basically the, the outflow of what we've been talking about. And so, you know, the fantasy points per dollar, right, is your value there. And then the ownership percentage is something we're doing this year as well, at least for the main slate for now. And, yeah, I think this has all been very helpful.

I'm excited, again, like you talked about, I think there's an edge and props here. As we are really able to dial in and go, yeah, this is how many yards that extone this last week, right? Like, he was a guy that we're like, hey, like, he was projected pretty on, early on in props, like pretty high. And we had a much lower in our projections. And, you know, like, we were, we were right on that, right? 24 yards.

I think he ended up hitting like maybe 259 or so. 254, I think. So it's pretty close. And like his prop, you know, started out at 300. I think he even came down to like 270. But, you know, it's a, you know, Zach, you just does do such a great job on this. And so I wanted to show everybody kind of what this looks like. get a look at week zero and what we were doing there,

have some transparency there. And, you know, this is, you know, right now is like really a good time to be able to sign up. And we do have a special QR code in the bottom. I think it's right corner for me at least. Maybe it's a left corner for you guys that you guys can sign up for our college football plan. We do have a special promo code that's 15% off Dynasty mode. You can put that in, get 50% off. 15% off. It's $150 for our college football plan. But, man, that gets you the matchup report

projections for DFS and CFF. We do DFS by Slate, right? So we have it broken down in that way for you. And then you can download that as CSV. And then that gets you all of our articles that we're writing up on DFS and a weekly best bets, weekly waiver wire, things like that. And we have rankings as well for CFF. So got a ton of stuff that we're putting out. We're putting out 12 to 15 different pieces of content a week. And so if you want to sign up for that, the QR code is in the bottom right corner. Again, the promo code is Dynasty Mode, 15% off for that. Hey, we're going to be doing this show every week this year.

So please like, like, comment, subscribe. It really helps us with algorithms. It helps us get the word out to more people. And this show is going to be fully free to the masses as we tackle CFF and give you our favorite plays every week. and, you know, talk about things deeper and deeper as the season goes on. And, you know, we're going to have Zach, Froton. We'll be on with us.

And I might have a special guest or two as we just hired somebody special here at Fantasy Points. That I'll be releasing to the public here this week. But you have to wait for that. Hey, we'll be back next week, 9 p.m. Monday night. Until then, do small things with great love. What? Why are you shaking your head? You're welcome.