For the third time in my life, I have been requested to fulfill my civic duty as a juror this week. I will report to New Haven Superior Court and await to see if I am selected to sit on a jury. I look forward to it. Luckily, the Court’s request does not interfere with the weekly College Fantasy Football Waiver Wire column.
Without question, the Wake Forest-Army game provided the most unexpected fantasy outcome in my thirteen years playing fantasy football. Employing a triple-option attack, the Black Knights slow games down and limit opponents’ snaps and opportunities.
Against Wake Forest, the Army game plan and strategy worked to near perfection. The Black Knights controlled the clock for almost 43 minutes and ran 83 plays while totaling 595 yards. Despite Army’s dominance, the Demon Deacons put on an offensive display for the ages. Coach Dave Clawson’s club ran 52 plays and logged 638 yards despite only having the ball for a little over 17 minutes.
The two teams combined for 126 points and a cornucopia of fantasy points. Unfortunately, very few CFF managers inserted any players into their lineups based on game-script projections. Hopefully, CFF diehards did play QB Sam Hartman (46.5 points), WR Jaquarii Roberson (41.7 points) and WR A.T. Perry (26.6 points) despite the expected low fantasy outcome. Both Hartman and Perry are still rostered in less than 50% of CFF leagues…grab them now for the stretch run and the playoffs.
With three regular-season games remaining, CFF owners must continue to work the free-agent pool for the best players available. JD Yonke, @YonkersCFB, and I have pointed out the foremost players to target on the college fantasy football waiver wire this week.
College Fantasy Football provides alternative-reality zealots, NFL Draftniks, and Dynasty and Devy owners a competitive advantage against their opponents. What are you waiting for this summer? Get off the sideline and into the game on Fantrax. We guarantee that you will not regret playing in a CFF league this fall.
Week 8 College Fantasy Football Waiver Wire
Quarterbacks
Tyler Van Dyke, Miami (Laub)
Fantrax Ownership: 5%
Yards Per Attempt: 8.9
TD%: 7.5%
For over a decade, I tutored scholars on the SAT exam and travelled all over Connecticut to private schools. One of the idyllic institutions in the state was Suffield Academy, which I visited a couple of times. As a UConn diehard, I had heard about Tyler Van Dyke in 2019, but I knew that the Tigers’ quarterback would never remain in-state to play football…Ugh!
In high school, scouting organizations graded Van Dyke as a four-star recruit across the board. ESPN rated him as the No. 2 pro-style prospect nationally and the top player in Connecticut. He guided Suffield Academy to an undefeated campaign and NEPSAC Class A Championship. During his final two seasons at the school, he passed for over 4,600 yards and tossed 39 touchdowns. As a senior, he was named New England Prep Player of the Year and First Team All-New England.
As a true freshman last year, Van Dyke played in only two games for the Hurricanes, retaining his freshman eligibility on the gridiron. After D’Eriq King suffered another season-ending injury in September, he took over the reins of the offense. His first start came against Central Connecticut, and he scored 21.1 fantasy points on 270 passing yards and three scores.
After two underwhelming starts against Virginia and North Carolina, the Miami signal caller exceeded 300 yards passing and completed four aerial strikes against No. 18 North Carolina State on Saturday. “How about Tyler Van Dyke? I mean, it’s unbelievable. Third conference game. And that defense is a hell of a defense. No one moves the ball on them,” an exuberant coach Manny Diaz uttered after the upset victory (tampabay.com).
The future appears bright for Van Dyke and college fantasy footballers must look closely at the Hurricanes’ new starter the remainder of the season. Place Van Dyke in your waiver wire que to keep a close eye on his progress in the upcoming weeks.
Garrett Shrader, Syracuse (Yonke)
Fantrax Ownership: 19%
Yards Per Attempt: 6.7
TD%: 4.4%
Total Touchdowns: 19
Shrader made his first appearance in this column three weeks ago when I advised him to be added everywhere due to his incredible rushing production at the quarterback position. It appears as though very few people heeded my counsel, as Shrader still sits at only 19% ownership on Fantrax despite torching defenses with his legs. If you didn’t grab him off the waiver wire initially, don’t fear—there’s still time to correct your mistake if he’s on waivers in your league.
Having a productive dual-threat at the quarterback position is essentially a cheat code in fantasy football. This has caught on to the mainstream given the success of dual-threats in the NFL like Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen. CFF players have always known about the dual-threat cheat code, where you can essentially get quarterback and running back production from a single lineup spot.
Shrader had one excusable dud against the formidable Clemson defense but has accumulated at least 38 fantasy points in his last three games aside from that contest. He’s averaging an outstanding 44.25 fantasy points over those games. Incredible!
He now has a rushing touchdown in all six games that he has seen meaningful playing time, accumulating multiple rushing scores four different times in that span. While his 22-carry, 174-yard, three-touchdown performance last week against Virginia Tech will catch your eye, it’s not totally out of the ordinary for Shrader recently. He had 178 rushing yards and a score against Wake Forest and embarrassed Florida State to the tune of 137 rushing yards and three more scores.
Shrader is a monster in the rushing department—that’s all there is to it. Although his matchups against North Carolina State and Pittsburgh in Weeks 12-13 are less than ideal, he has two decent matchups with Boston College and Louisville in his next two games. Just be aware that he has a bye in Week 10.
Twitterverse on Fire!
Who Ya Got at quarterback this week on the waiver wire?
- Cameron Rising, Utah: 19%
- Garrett Shrader, Syracuse: 70%
- Grant Wells, Marshall: 9%
- Other, post comments below: 2%
“Rushing yards make Garrett Shrader the easy answer here.” @aceholesrule
“How could you not want Shrader on every one of your rosters after the past couple of weeks?!” @CFF_Jared
Running Backs
Jaylan Knighton, Miami (Yonke)
Fantrax Ownership: 26%
Scrimmage Yards: 375
Touchdowns: 4
Total Fantasy Points: 65.5
Two Miami players mentioned in the same column? What are Laub and I thinking? The Hurricanes offense has actually been rolling despite suffering a slew of injuries, hanging 31 points on a good NC State defense one week after dropping 42 points on North Carolina. With all those touchdowns come fantasy points, and Knighton appears to be one of the primary culprits.
Knighton has stepped in beautifully following starter Cam’Ron Harris’s season ending prematurely due to a knee injury. Knighton’s main appeal is due to his receiving skills—he’s racked up 156 yards and two scores through the air in just his last two games. In those two contests as the lead back, he’s accumulated 331 total yards and four touchdowns, good for 30.6 fantasy points per game.
Knighton will hold more appeal in PPR leagues, evidenced by his six receptions a week ago. With all ACC games on deck including a juicy matchup against Duke during championship weekend, he’s a solid player to add to your CFF roster.
Braelon Allen, Wisconsin (Yonke)
Fantrax Ownership: 11%
Scrimmage Yards: 437
Touchdowns: 5
Total Fantasy Points: 74.2
Braelon Allen is yet another player making his second appearance in this column, as he’s still criminally under-owned despite my warning two weeks ago that he was a thundering force coming to punish Big Ten defenses. Here’s a snippet from that column in which I admire Allen’s breakout performance over Illinois in Week 6:
“Despite being only 17-years old, Wisconsin running back Braelon Allen stands at a beastly 240 pounds. He’s a physical runner that bowled over countless Illinois defenders on Saturday en route to a breakout performance of 131 rushing yards and a touchdown. Wisconsin ran the ball for nearly 400 yards on the day, and it was an excellent demonstration of how this offense wants to operate. They want to run, run, and run some more.”
Fast forward to two weeks later, and Allen now has over 100 rushing yards in each of the three games that he’s been a part of the offensive game plan. Put another way—he has at least 100 rushing yards and a score in three straight games and has firmly announced himself as a threat in this Wisconsin backfield.
The Badgers really do want to keep the ball on the ground, evidenced by the fact that quarterback Graham Mertz attempted only eight passes last week against Purdue while the team attempted 48 runs. That’s good for an 85.7% rushing rate—Wisconsin football, baby!
Allen is still stuck in a timeshare with Chez Mellusi, which caps his upside for now. It’ll be hard to rack up 100-plus yards every game while splitting carries, but the Badgers will run enough to give Allen meaningful volume. After a tough game with Iowa next week, juicy matchups against Rutgers and Northwestern await.
CFF All-Americans: Week 8
- QB Brennan Armstrong, Virginia: 53.7 points
- QB Garrett Shrader, Syracuse: 52.8 points
- RB Dedrick Parson, Hawaii: 45.5 points
- RB Lew Nichols, III, Central Michigan: 42.1 points
- WR Romeo Doubs, Nevada: 45.3 points
- WR Jaquarii Roberson, Wake Forest: 41.7 points
- WR Jalen Tolbert, South Alabama: 37.5 points
- TE Cole Turner, Nevada: 30.5 points
- Flex Chris Smith, Louisiana-Lafayette: 37.2 points
CFF Player of the Week: Brennan Armstrong, Virginia
Malachi Thomas, Virginia Tech (Laub)
Fantrax Ownership: 0%
Scrimmage Yards: 199
Touchdowns: 3
Total Fantasy Points: 37.9
It is rare that a player, who finished the weekend as the eleventh-ranked fantasy runner, is rostered on less than 1% of CFF teams. Yet. Malachi Thomas earns the distinction in this week’s waiver wire column. In the loss against Syracuse, the freshman surely turned heads in the CFF community.
Thomas rambled for 151 yards on 21 carries, averaging 7.2 yards per attempt. He also scamped for three touchdowns. “He just continues to get better. He’s shown up in fall camp, he’s shown up through the early part of the season. Now the thing is beginning to trust him without the ball in his hands, protections, those sorts of things. He’s made huge strides and he has a good feel for running the football. He’s somebody that we made a concerted effort this week to get in there and hand him the ball and see what happened,” coach Justin Fuente asserted after the three-touchdown performance (247Sports.com).
Before his breakout performance, the Hookies’ runner had earned a paltry 11 carries for 48 yards. After the outstanding outing, it would appear that the 6’0” and 197-pounder will touch the football more often for a three-win Virginia Tech squad that needs an offensive boost.
In 2019, Thomas was named the Georgia AAA Player of the Year after rushing for 1,942 yards, logging 2,862 all-purpose yards and scoring 36 times. He also earned back-to-back all-region selections during his last two years in high school. A three-star recruit by 247Sports, the Georgia native selected Virginia Tech over Duke, UCF, and Kansas State.
Shockingly, Thomas has not illustrated his dual-threat skills in the passing game. He has natural hands and runs very well after the catch. Also, he can line up as a slot receiver and be employed all over the formation. In the next three weeks, the Hookies and Thomas have enticing matchups in the ground game with Georgia Tech, Boston College, and Duke on the upcoming slate.
Twitterverse on Fire!
Running backs continue to impact games across the country: Who Ya Got in free agency this week?
- Malachi Thomas, Virginia Tech: 15%
- Jaylan Knighton, Miami: 36%
- Braelon Allen, Wisconsin: 47%
- Other, post comments below: 2%
“Love Braelon Allen, but I went with Jaylen Knighton here. The Hurricanes’ runner catches the ball well too!” @aceholesrule
“Allen and Jaylan Knighton lead the way on a VERY strong running back waiver wire slate this week!” @CFF_Jared
Wide Receivers
Malik Williams, Appalachian State (Laub)
Fantrax Ownership: 2%
Targets: 47
Team Target Share: 21.9%
After recording the The Blitz: College Fantasy Football show, I ran to the TV room to turn on the Coastal Carolina-Appalachian State game last Wednesday. When I joined the game in progress, WR Malik Williams scored on a beautifully thrown 47-yard touchdown from Chase Brice. Bedtime approached. Nevertheless, I could not turn away from the game in the second half as the Mountaineers upset the previously No. 14 ranked Chanticleers.
Williams dominated this game with 10 catches for over 200 yards and the aforementioned score. For the week, he finished as the fourth-most productive pass catcher with 37.2 fantasy points.
In the game, Williams logged the seventh-highest receiving yardage total in Mountaineers history and the first 200-yard receiving performance since Sean Price (231) in 2012. “It all starts right there at practice. Once we started doing that, it was just like, this has got to come on Wednesday. It was just love out there,” Williams stated afterward (Appstatesports.com).
In the last two weeks, Brice has targeted Williams 22 times (8 and 14), and he has now garnered 47 on the season. In three of the past five games, the super senior has surpassed over 22 fantasy points. Since September, he is the 41st-ranked fantasy wide receiver with 75.3 points on 30 receptions for 488 yards and three touchdowns.
For the season, he is on pace to set career highs in every receiving category. He now has 37 receptions for 548 yards and four touchdowns, averaging 14.8 yards per catch. At 5’10” and 185-pounds, Williams has played in 51 career games and started 24 as the slot receiver. Amazingly, he has also completed 4-of-10 passes for 87 yards and four aerial strikes during his campus tenure.
CFF Waiver Wire Honorable Mention
- QB Cameron Rising, Utah
Fantrax Ownership: 10%
Yards Per Attempt: 7.2
TD%: 7.1% - RB Jaren Mangham, South Florida
Fantrax Ownership: 12%
Scrimmage Yards: 431
Touchdowns: 12
Total Fantasy Points: 116.1 - RB Dylan McDuffie, Buffalo
Fantrax Ownership: 16%
Scrimmage Yards: 655
Touchdowns: 8
Total Fantasy Points: 120.5 - WR Tyrice Richie, NIU
Fantrax Ownership: 42%
Targets: 64
Team Target Share: 37.2%
Total Fantasy Points: 98.6 - WR Ryan O’Keefe, UCF
Fantrax Ownership: 9%
Targets: 57
Team Target Share: 27%
Total Fantasy Points: 120 - TE Peyton Hendershot, Indiana
Fantrax Ownership: 22%
Targets: 42
Team Target Share: 17.6
Total Fantasy Points: 73.5
Jadon Haselwood, Oklahoma (Yonke)
Fantrax Ownership: 32%
Targets: 44
Team Target Share: 17%
It’s slim pickings on the waiver wire this week for wide receivers. The options at running back are especially appealing and quarterback is always deep, but there aren’t any elite wide receivers hanging out on waivers in many leagues at this point in the season.
That being said, Jadon Haselwood is a player that I believe should be owned in most leagues and is sitting at only 32% ownership. Although the offense hasn’t been its usual elite self this year in Norman, this is still a team that will score plenty of points and provide CFF goodness. The Sooners haven’t had a go-to guy step up at receiver this year following the perplexing diminishment of Marvin Mims, but Haselwood appears to be a favorite of new starting quarterback Caleb Williams.
Haselwood now has four receiving touchdowns in his last two games, establishing a strong connection with Williams. It’d be nice to see a bit more yardage (he has yet to eclipse 56 yards in a game, which is … not ideal), but he’s the top red-zone threat for a Lincoln Riley offense. Sometimes you don’t need to overthink teams.
Haselwood is the Sooners’ leader in targets on the season with 44 and has been on the field for nearly every passing play. He’s locked into a valuable role and appears primed for some productive outings going forward with Williams under center.
Twitterverse on Fire!
Need a playmaker for the playoff push: Who Ya Got at wide receiver this week?
- Xavier Hutchinson, Iowa State: 60%
- Malik Williams, Appalachian State: 17%
- Charleston Rambo, Miami: 21%
- Other, post comments below: 2%
“Xavier Hutchinson is my call here. Sorta a ‘post-hype sleeper’ that is living up to what many experts predicted in the preseason.” @aceholesrule
“Love all three of these options! Charleston Rambo was “my guy” in the preseason, love that he’s living up to his potential. You can’t go wrong with any of these players!” @CFF_Jared
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