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Week 1 finally begins in earnest this week. Labor Day weekend is a college football extravaganza! We have at least one college football game each night from Thursday until Monday! If you want access to all of our premium college football content for 2023, the folks at RotoBaller are offering it FREE to the winner of our ESPN College Pick Em group! Sign up here! One entry per person, please. I will be posting my picks for ESPN College Pick Em all season long and updating you on the standings. The winner at the end of the season wins the free RotoBaller premium college football package for next year giving you exclusive access to our DFS lineup optimizer, DFS picks, and our Discord to give you real-time answers to your college fantasy questions!
There are a lot of players with a lot to prove, often against inferior competition on this slate. Don't worry. We have some goodies too like the Backyard Brawl, Penn State in East Lafayette, and Jerry Kill returning to Minneapolis. Who is going to shine on this slate? Let's jump right into it!
In this article, I will be providing you with my daily fantasy college football lineup picks for DraftKings on 9/1/22 locking at 7 pm eastern. I’ll be providing multiple player suggestions for players at quarterback, running back, and wide receiver, aiming to highlight one option apiece at the high, middle, and lower end of the salary scale. Good luck, RotoBallers.
DraftKings CFB DFS Picks - Quarterbacks
Emory Jones, Arizona State ($8,400)
At Florida last year, Jones had his best games against below-average competition. He threw for six touchdowns against Samford and racked up 144 rushing yards against Tennessee. It remains to be seen whether Herm Edwards will let him run like Florida did, but considering Jones had at least 60 rushing yards in seven of his 13 games – mostly while splitting time – I would say that 50 rushing yards is the floor here. That's five free points!
John Rhys Plumlee, Central Florida ($7,400)
Plumlee played mostly receiver for Ole Miss last year after Matt Corral took his starting job in Oxford. Plumlee knocked Mikey Keene from his post at UCF this year. We know that Plumlee can run – he racked up 1,189 yards and 12 rushing touchdowns while playing quarterback in his career at Ole Miss. UCF still has an explosive offense and good pieces around him. Plumlee may run less than he did in his first couple of years at Ole Miss, but this is the best supporting cast he's had while playing quarterback. There's a lot of potential at this price.
Kedon Slovis, Pittsburgh ($6,000)
While Daniels may have better weapons around him on the other side of this, Pitt's defense is good enough to make me think twice about using him. I'm a little nervous about what this offense will look like with Mark Whipple gone, but Slovis did throw for 7,576 yards and 58 touchdowns in 27 games for the Trojans. It's not like he wasn't a good player. For this price, it's worth finding out if this offense can hum along like it did last season.
Also consider: Hendon Hooker, Tennessee ($8,900); Rocky Lombardi, Northern Illinois ($8,100); JT Daniels, West Virginia ($6,300); Aiden O'Connell, Purdue ($6,100); Matt Downing, Louisiana Tech ($5,000); Seth Morgan, VMI ($4,800)
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DraftKings CFB DFS Picks - Running Backs
Dominic Richardson, Oklahoma State ($7,200)
I'm a huge Ibrahim fan, but I'm not paying that price for him until I know that Minnesota is still going to run him 30 times a game. Considering what his backups showed last year, that's far from a sure thing, especially in the opener.
Richardson started two games for the Cowboys last year, rushing for 218 yards and a pair of touchdowns against Texas Tech and TCU. That's enough for me to believe that Richardson will play a large role in this offense that lost Jaylen Warren and Tay Martin to the NFL. I don't think Oklahoma State will do a lot of coasting in this one, which should lead to more carries for Richardson than most backs in front of him.
Xazavian Valladay, Arizona State ($6,200)
For those of you just joining me, I've been a big fan of Valladay for a couple of years now even though he toiled away in relative obscurity in Laramie. I'm excited to see what he can do behind a real line in this offense. Of course, the Sun Devils rarely use just one back and Emory Jones will steal some carries, especially as the Sun Devils show off against the Lumberjacks. Still, Valladay is cheap enough in a great game script to use at this price.
Kendrell Flowers, South Carolina State ($5,200)
UCF is a high-powered team, so I would think South Carolina State tries to slow them down. The Bulldogs played two FBS schools last year with Flowers racking up 111 rushing yards and a touchdown and seven receptions for 68 yards and another score. One of those games was against Clemson (9.3 DK points). Flowers is a solid runner, but he also gets quite a few looks in the passing game. I'll take the free points here. Besides, UCF gave up almost 160 rush yards per game last year. I like Flowers as a sneaky GPP pick.
Antario Brown, Northern Illinois ($5,000)
Waylee was week-to-week starting in Week 6 last year and never played another down in 2021. Don't you just love college football injury reports? Waylee is back this year, but early reporting has Brown, who ran for 105 yards and a touchdown in the bowl game against Coastal Carolina last year, appears to be the starter...at least for now. I would imagine Waylee sees carries against a severely overmatched Eastern Illinois team, but it's hard to pass on an alleged starter in a positive game script for this price.
Also consider: Mohamed Ibrahim, Minnesota ($9,500); Jabari Small, Tennessee ($7,500); Lew Nichols III, Central Michigan ($7,000); Elijah Young, Missouri ($5,800)
DraftKings CFB DFS Picks - Wide Receivers
Cedric Tillman, Tennessee ($8,500)
Tillman closed out 2021 with 28 receptions for 556 yards and seven touchdowns in the last four games. He and Hooker looked to be in perfect synchronicity. That should carry over into this season. Ball State might be good enough to hang around into the second half, meaning more stats for Tillman and company. I like a Tillman/Hooker mini stack, especially in cash games.
A.T. Perry, Wake Forest ($8,000)
Perry is the last man standing for the Deacons from last year with Christian Beal-Smith in the transfer portal and Sam Hartman out with a "non-football related medical condition." What better way to break in a new quarterback than with a guy that had 1,293 yards and 15 touchdowns last year? I do have questions about the quarterback situation at Wake, but Perry should be safe regardless, especially against an overmatched opponent like VMI. The Deacons are going to use this game for some extra reps.
Smoke Harris, Louisiana Tech ($5,500)
Not only does Harris make the all-name team, but he's a pretty good player too. Harris led the Bulldogs in receptions and yards last season and even got a few carries out of the backfield. That likely won't happen much here, but Missouri's defense was lacking most of last season and the offense lost almost all of their skill players. LaTech has a puncher's chance here, and Harris is going to be a big reason why.
Sam James, West Virginia ($4,500)
West Virginia's offense sometimes struggled with Doege under center. That shouldn't be the case with JT Daniels in town. I like the discount on James since Daniels has a pretty good deep arm. Pitt's defense is strong overall, but I can see James breaking one in this game. At the very least, he should pick up a handful of receptions.
Also consider: Jalen Cropper, Fresno State ($8,300); Kobe Hudson, Central Florida ($7,100); Konata Mumpfield, Pitt ($6,600); Nikko Remigio, Fresno State ($5,100); Yo'Heinz Tyler, Ball State ($4,900); Kordell David, New Mexico State ($3,700)
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