DraftKings College Football: Value Plays Week 5

DraftKings College Football: Value Plays Week 5

This article is part of our DraftKings College Football series.

Hopefully some of you had Melvin Gordon and/or Amari Cooper in your lineups last week - it certainly was difficult to catch up to their 454 yards and eight touchdowns if not. I really like this week's lineup for DraftKings.com's early Saturday slate - I'm pretty sure it's the one I'm most confident in so far this year.

Click here to see the many contests that DraftKings has to offer for this week.

QUARTERBACK

Kenny Hill - Texas A&M vs. Arkansas ($7,800)

Hill's spectacular start to the season has made him a legitimate Heisman candidate, and Saturday's game against a surging Arkansas squad is a great platform for A&M to give Hill a Heisman Moment. The powerful Arkansas running game should force A&M to play aggressively on offense for most or all of the game.

Jared Goff - California vs. Colorado ($7,200)

Colorado's pass defense looks tough at a glance - it's allowed a completion percentage of just 49.2 and a YPA of 5.8 - but that's mostly the result of the Hawaii outlier from last week, when the Warriors completed just 17-of-46 passes for 155 yards. In the two weeks prior, Massachusetts and Arizona State combined for 470 yards (7.5 YPA), six touchdowns and an interception. Goff heads into this home game as one of the nation's best passers this year, totaling 890 yards (10.3 YPA), 10 touchdowns and two interceptions in three games. Coach Sonny Dykes' stupid rotation between Goff and running specialist backup Luke Rubenzer is a concern, but perhaps Dykes is smart enough to recognize that California probably wouldn't have lost to Arizona last week if Goff had thrown 40 passes instead of 30.

QB Alternatives: Patrick Towles - Kentucky vs. Vanderbilt ($6,200), Jake Waters - Kansas State vs. UTEP ($7,300)

RUNNING BACK

Todd Gurley - Georgia vs. Tennessee ($8,000)

To be clear, Melvin Gordon ($8,500) and Tevin Coleman ($8,400) are both great options this week and almost any other, but I prefer Gurley since he's a bit cheaper and should get a full workload in a relatively important in-conference game.

Jonathan Hilliman - Boston College vs. Colorado State ($3,700)

Hilliman is an elite 2014 recruit with excellent natural talent, and Boston College has made a clear effort to build the offense around him the last two weeks. He has 40 carries for 187 yards and four touchdowns over the last two weeks, a span in which fellow Boston College backs Tyler Rouse and Myles Willis accumulated just 172 yards on 27 carries. The only downside is that Hilliman doesn't catch passes, but he's so cheap at $3,700.

RB Alternatives: Leon Allen - Western Kentucky at Navy ($7,000), Corey Clement - Wisconsin vs. South Florida ($4,800), Sherman Badie - Tulane at Rutgers ($3,700)

WIDE RECEIVER

Rashad Greene - Florida State at North Carolina State ($6,900)

North Carolina State heads into this game with a 4-0 record, so the Seminoles figure to call an aggressive game plan here in order to decisively reemphasize itself as the top ACC team. Jameis Winston's return gives the Seminoles further reason to throw the ball aggressively. Greene is easily Florida State's top receiving target, so he should go as Winston does.

Tyler Lockett - Kansas State vs. UTEP ($5,500)

Lockett quite simply is due for a huge game, and facing off against a high-scoring Conference-USA squad like UTEP is an ideal setting for it to occur. Lockett has 12 catches but no touchdowns over the last two weeks, and the Wildcats need to get him hot if they're going to survive their upcoming eight-game Big-12 stretch.

Shay Fields - Colorado at California ($4,500)

Fields is an ideal high-floor pick in DraftKings' PPR scoring, as he's affordable at $4,500 but has 27 catches, 16th in the country. He lacks big-play upside with just 7.4 yards per catch, but Fields should find more room to run as defenses begin to focus more on Nelson Spruce. Colorado should throw constantly against a California squad that figures to post a high point total Saturday.

WR Alternatives: Devin Funchess (leg) - Michigan vs. Minnesota ($5,200), Jared Dangerfield - Western Kentucky at Navy ($5,100), Marquez North - Tennessee at Georgia ($3,900), Alex Erickson - Wisconsin vs. South Florida ($3,900)

TIGHT END

Hunter Henry - Arkansas at Texas A&M ($2,500)

Henry's season has been quite disappointing so far, as he has just four catches for 55 yards and a touchdown after catching 28 passes for 409 yards and four touchdowns as a true freshman last year. Arkansas will probably need to throw the more aggressively if it's to keep up with Texas A&M this week, though, and Henry had a big game against A&M last year, catching four passes for 109 yards.

TE Alternatives: Jonnu Smith - Florida International at UAB ($3,800), Jesse James - Penn State vs. Northwestern ($3,100), Sam Arneson - Wisconsin vs. South Florida ($2,900)

FLEX

Marquez North - Tennessee at Georgia ($3,900)

North doesn't have an ideal matchup playing Georgia on the road, but he's a superb talent who should have a greater share of the targets than usual since Tennessee is without fellow receivers Josh Smith (10 catches) and Von Pearson (seven catches). Considering he caught six passes for 67 yards on the road against Oklahoma two weeks ago while losing five catches to Smith, North should be able to hit the six-catch mark again, and he's a good bet to catch whatever touchdown passes the Volunteers throw.

The author(s) of this article may play in daily fantasy contests including – but not limited to – games that they have provided recommendations or advice on in this article. In the course of playing in these games using their personal accounts, it's possible that they will use players in their lineups or other strategies that differ from the recommendations they have provided above. The recommendations in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of RotoWire. Mario Puig plays in daily fantasy contests using the following accounts: DraftKings: rotwireyasiel, FanDuel: rotowireyasiel, FantasyDraft: rwyasiel, DRAFT: rwyasiel.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mario Puig
Mario is a Senior Writer at RotoWire who primarily writes and projects for the NFL and college football sections.
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