We made it! The longest offseason in sports is finally over, and we have honest-to-God football on our TVs on Saturday. We're always happy when football graces our screens again this time every year, but it feels especially needed right now.
It's felt like, despite more access and coverage for teams than ever, the entire offseason has been overshadowed by the legal system. The Sorsby Saga. NFL players trying to come back and play on Saturdays. It's a mess. Let's get to the games.
Week 0 is always a fun and tricky slate to identify, especially in this era. Roster continuity is a relic of the past. Each of these depth charts looks wildly different from how they did in November. With that, it's crucial to follow the numbers and read the tea leaves (shoutout to our college football breaking news crew) to get us ready to rock.
Matchup Info
You can check out this data yourself on our college football daily matchups page. And you can download it as well to repurpose it for whatever fits your DFS needs.
This slate is daring us to find ways to avoid the chalk. USC is expected to challenge for 50 points against San Jose State, and Florida State is projected over 40 vs New Mexico State. On a seven-game slate, it's hard to ignore those figures. You'll likely need at least some exposure to both offenses.
The combo of Jayden Maiava ($9,000) and Ashton Daniels ($8,500) eats up a big chunk of your salary for two players. Tacking on their top targets in Duce Robinson and Tanook Hines would leave you an average of $4,750 per player for your remaining slots. That's restrictive but doable.
High Totals, Narrow Spreads
Game environment is a big factor in your lineup decisions. It's great to have a lot of USC players when their implied total is almost 50 points, but you have to understand that the production will likely be spread across the depth chart because they're 38.5-point favorites and don't need to go full pedal-to-the-metal against San Jose State.
UNLV (-4.5, TT 30.5) vs Memphis (TT 26), Eastern Michigan (-10, TT 31.75) vs Sacramento State (TT 21.75), and Virginia (-4, TT 28.25) vs North Carolina State (TT 24.25) all register as more competitive games with higher totals.
UNLV (-4.5) vs Memphis (O/U 56.5)
This game checks in with the second-highest total on the board and the points are expected to be distributed much more evenly between these two sides, as opposed to the lopsided affair in the Coliseum between the Trojans and Spartans.
UNLV is expected to have a top-30 offense in the nation, and Memphis is retooling under a new head coach, Charles Huff. There's going to be an interesting game theory element to this one at quarterback, as UNLV head coach Dan Mullen said earlier in the week that he'll play both Jackson Arnold ($7,700) and Alex Orji ($7,500) at quarterback in this one. That can mean a lot of different things. Will Arnold get the bulk while Orji gets some specialized packages? It'll be risky to play either of them, but it might make sense in a tournament lineup given the lowered expected roster percentages. The latest reports are that Arnold will get the nod.
Dan Mullen announces Jackson Arnold is the starting QB for UNLV on Saturday against Memphis on The Dan Mullen Coach's Show @unlvfootball@ESPNLasVegas
— Jonathan Von Tobel (@meJVT) August 28, 2026
Sticking with UNLV, Jai'Den Thomas ($7,800) has the highest price tag of any player in this game. He piled up 1,036 yards and 12 touchdowns last season while maintaining a ridiculous 7.0 YPC. The Arnold-Orji combo worries me a little bit about the goal line opportunities for Thomas, especially if he's only going to be getting 11.38 carries like last year. He only had one (1) game with more than 13 carries last season. He projects well on a per-carry basis, but it's good to have your eyes open about the potential of a modest workload.
Memphis is holding its cards close to the vest. There's a ton of roster turnover with Ryan Silverfield bolting for Arkansas. The Tigers rank 111th in returning production. It's going to be either Marcus Stokes or Air Noland at quarterback, though there seem to be some rumblings that it'll be Stokes.
The game theory element is interesting. This is the last game on the slate; if you have Stokes in your lineup and Noland gets announced as the starter, you can make the swap and have an extra $500 to move around. If you go with Noland, which I don't recommend as of this writing, make sure you have the $500 cushion to move to Stokes.
College Football DFS Tools
- DraftKings Lineup Optimizer
- NEWMatchups Page (Vegas odds, opponent averages, etc.)
- Advanced Lineups Page
- Stats
- Team Trends
- Targets
- Defense vs. Position
- Team Rankings
Player Breakdowns
Quarterback
USC is arguably the key to this slate. They're easily the best team on this slate, and the betting odds confirm that. But, it's Week 0, and USC has opted to push its bye week to later in the season, meaning this is the start of a seven-game stretch in what is regarded as one of the toughest schedules in the country this year. Are they going to go all-out in this spot? How long can we realistically expect Jayden Maiava ($9,000) to be out there? What's our pass attempt projection? 20? 25 max?
Noah Kim ($7,400) Eastern Michigan vs Sacramento State
After a funky start to his career at Michigan State and then Coastal Carolina, Kim has found his footing in Ypsilanti. He'll get the start in this classic MACtion showdown between Eastern Michigan and...uh...Sacramento State.
Kim had four games with at least 20 DraftKings points last season and will face a Sacramento State team that is playing its first game at this level. There aren't many instances where you'd say Eastern has an advantage, but this is one of them. Sacramento State projects as one of the worst defenses in college football this year. I'll take my chances with Kim, who was once a Big Ten recruit. It also helps that Eastern Michigan has offensive continuity on the field and sidelines; EMU threw it 51% of the time last year with Kim at the helm. Opportunities will be there against a potentially overmatched defense.
CJ Bailey ($6,600) North Carolina State @ Virginia
This just feels too cheap for Bailey, who enters his third year as the starter and produced solid numbers each of the last two years. For whatever it's worth, Bailey completed 70 percent of his passes against Virginia last season and accounted for three touchdowns (2 rushing) in the win.
UVA has one of the stronger defenses on this slate, which might cap his ceiling a little bit. It's expected to be a competitive game with a reasonable total (52.5), though, and Bailey's so vital to the NC State offense that he should be able to pay off at this lowered salary.
Others to Consider
- Caden Creel, Jacksonville State ($8,000)
Running Back
DJ Scott, North Dakota State ($6,900) vs Jacksonville State
Whew, DraftKings is not messing around with their pricing. This is North Dakota State's first game in the FBS and the starting running back is a crisp $6,900. Scott started out at Kennesaw State for two years before heading to Fargo. He is primed to step into a starting role that was occupied by Barika Kpeenu last year, who racked up 1,005 yards and 20 touchdowns. That's a sweet role to have.
Jacksonville State was awful against the run last year (176.7 YPG). Scott should get plenty of cracks against that defense. If you're shopping in this aisle for running back, Scott is a solid option.
Jekail Middlebrook ($6,000) vs NC State
Depth chart enjoyers rejoiced this week when Middlebrook was listed atop UVA's RB group without any dreaded -OR in sight. It looks like it's his backfield to start the year as he looks to fill the void left by J'Mari Taylor.
Middlebrook is coming off a 752-yard season at Middle Tennessee State and will have the road paved for him by the oldest offensive line in college football. Gotta love that. Adding on, Virginia should push for 30 points and NC State got gashed on the ground last year to the tune of 4.9 YPC.
Others to Consider
- Duke Scott, NC State ($6,100)
- Braydon Bennett, Eastern Michigan ($5,500)
- Micah Ford, Stanford ($6,300)
Wide Receiver
Micahi Danzy ($5,400) Florida State vs New Mexico State
Danzy, to my knowledge, is the only player on this slate featured on Bruce Feldman's annual Freaks List. He was right to include him on there; Danzy caught 27 passes last year...for 571 yards. His six touchdowns averaged over 42 yards.
The problem with Danzy on DraftKings is that the PPR format presses his margin for error. He had a grand total of 44 targets last season even with that explosiveness. He's unlikely to get peppered with targets in this setup where Florida State is favored by 30.5 points. We're betting on one of those signature big-play touchdowns, or else it'll be tough for this pick to pan out. I, for one, will be rooting for a big-play touchdown from Danzy against an overmatched defense.
Nick Devereaux ($4,900) and Harold Mack ($4,600) vs Sacramento State
If you're picking up what I'm putting down about Noah Kim, this is how I'd stack it. Devereaux is the more conventional DK play with his 16% target share from a year ago that has room to scale up. He sustained a solid 8.6 YPT on that volume and racked up seven touchdowns on 34 grabs.
Mack was more of a one-hit wonder last year but the one hit was hard to ignore. Six grabs for 179 and two scores against Miami of Ohio (MAC Championship participants, btw) is pretty loud. All in all, he was a freshman who only played five games but still drew 30 targets and converted them into 20 grabs, 333 yards and a pair of scores. He'll be a bigger part of the mix this year, and our projections like him in this spot.
Kim + Mack + Devereaux is a cheap way of stacking against the worst defense on the slate.
TK King ($5,300) New Mexico State at Florida State
If New Mexico State can give the 'Noles fans any anxiety Saturday, it'll likely be King's doing. King is the engine of the NMSU passing attack, racking up 41 catches for 588 yards and three touchdowns on 66 targets in just eight games. He showed he can punch up a weight class by snaring seven of nine targets for 77 yards against Tennessee.
If you're going with a Florida State-heavy build, King is a nice bringback option.
Mark Bowman ($4,700) USC vs San Jose State
A true freshman tight end recommendation in Week 0. There's a first time for everything, I guess. Bowman, the No.2-rated tight end in this recruiting cycle, is already listed as the starter without any -OR nonsense around him. He's going to be a part of this offense from the jump.
USC is going to be able to do whatever it wants on Saturday, and it wouldn't be surprising to see Bowman get in on the action early. I'm excited to see this kid do his thing this year, starting Saturday.
Another interesting way to get at the USC offense is fellow freshman Kayden Dixon-Wyatt ($3,000).Tanook Hines (undisclosed) is questionable, and USC simply doesn't need to risk anything with their new WR1 in this Week 0 matchup. Dixon-Wyatt, meanwhile, is listed as a starter. He was the No.6 WR in this recruiting class. It's kind of hilarious that Dixon-Wyatt and Bowman were teammates at Mater Dei.
Look for fireworks from the USC freshmen on Saturday.
Others to Consider
- Tama Uiliata, Hawaii ($3,900)
- Onterrio Smith, Sacramento State ($4,300)
- Deondre Johnson, Jacksonville State ($5,200)
- Kameron Courtney, UVA ($4,200)
