This article is part of our DraftKings College Football series.
CFB DFS Picks: DraftKings College Football DFS Picks and Plays for Rivalry Week
I love this week. We get to spend time with our friends and family and when the weekend comes, we get to tap into our most primal instincts and enjoy the most heated rivalry games college football has to offer. It's a wonderful balancing act bestowed by the universe.
Sadly, it's also the last weekend of the regular season and therefore our last truly big DFS slate. Conference Championship Week and bowl season are great, but nothing tops a 12-game slate. Let's make the most of it.
Slate Overview
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Quarterback
Will Howard ($8,500) Ohio State vs Michigan
Ohio State is primed to make a statement Saturday afternoon. They're catching Michigan on a down year where the roster depletion from last season has really taken a toll. Even the defense has taken a step back with the 38th-ranked defensive efficiency per FPI.
This sets up nicely for Howard as a result. He hasn't had a truly big game for fantasy purposes since the Oregon loss but he's been steady with a 21.0 DK Points average over his last five outings.
He has rushing upside with seven rushing touchdowns on 68 attempts to go with multi-touchdown upside as a passer thanks in part to a stacked group of receivers.
I'm buying in on Ohio State making this one a laugher and not taking its foot off the gas until the clock reaches zero in the fourth quarter. Howard will play a big hand in that.
Garrett Greene (7,600) West Virginia at Texas Tech
It's a good time to buy back in on Greene. His salary dipped by $200 after a dud last week against UCF in which he posted just 13 DraftKings Points. West Virginia won't have as easy of a time this weekend in Lubbock and it'll be on Greene to keep pace on the scoreboard.
Greene is a player with 35-point upside despite the modest salary figure. He has 40 rush attempts in his last two games since returning from injury, so that will be a big factor here. He was held to just 49 yards on 18 carries last week, but I think it's more important to put stock in the sheer rushing volume.
Opposing quarterbacks have had success on the ground against Texas Tech this season, averaging 4.3 YPC and punching in five touchdowns on 90 rushes.
The knock on Greene is generally his lack of passing upside. He attempts just 27 passes per game and that number drops to 22.5 on the road. The good thing is, Texas Tech is generally a forgiving defense for opposing QBs. They allow the 5th-most fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks in FBS and the most among P4 teams.
Greene has the talent and rushing upside to be a good play in a vacuum, but with this matchup, he's someone to build your lineups around this week.
Behren Morton ($6,400) Texas Tech vs West Virginia
I guess dropping 32.9 DK points wasn't impressive enough for the salary makers as Morton is actually $100 cheaper than he was for last week's track meet against Oklahoma State.
The salary is enough for Morton to be appealing here, but last week showed the type of ceiling he has. We can expect West Virginia's offense to put pressure on Morton and Co. to keep pace. In those types of setups, it's not crazy to project Morton to drop back more than 40 times. He has seven games with 40 or more pass attempts on the season.
There's reason to believe he can land those shots, too. West Virginia allows the highest YPA (9.0) of any defense on this slate and they allow the second-most passing yards on the slate behind only Texas Tech.
This game is going to be where a lot of the action is on this slate and it's a fade-at-your-own-risk scenario.
Payton Thorne ($6,700) Auburn at Alabama
This is a leverage play, pure and simple. Thorne is cheap enough to give you flexibility elsewhere in your lineup and we have to figure his roster percentage will be south of 10% on this slate. I get it, it's a road game against Alabama. And Alabama might be extra salty after how things went last week in Norman. I'd feel better about the Thorne play if it was at Jordan-Hare but it's not in the cards this time.
Still, this is an Alabama defense that can get caught off-guard by mobile quarterbacks and Auburn figures to empty the playbook here as it plays spoiler. Thorne's 2.4 YPC figure is dragged down by sack yardage but he's still active in that regard with over 100 attempts on the year. He has also played better of late as a passer. Five touchdowns against Louisiana-Monroe is one thing, but being able to throw for 301 and two touchdowns on A&M last week was legitimately impressive.
I wouldn't recommend Thorne in cash games and double-ups but in a large-field tournament, he'll have my attention in some spots.
Running Back
Cam Skattebo ($10,100) Arizona State at Arizona
$10,100 for a running back. Now that's a spicy meatball.
Don't be scared off by the pricing here, though. Yes, you'll have to make some concessions in other parts of your build to make it work but submitting a lineup that doesn't feature Skattebo feels risky this weekend.
Skattebo is one of the best running backs in college football. He ranks seventh in rushing yards per game (122.1) and has 14 rushing scores in 10 games. The workload is extremely bankable, too, as he averages 22.6 carries per game, which is good for 6th in FBS.
Adding on, Skattebo is going to get 20+ cracks at the worst run defense on the slate. Arizona coughs up 168 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns per game. In November, that number has ballooned to 196 rushing yards allowed with 11 rushing scores surrendered in three games. This is a bad time for the 'Cats to be catching Skattebo.
Devin Neal ($8,700) Kansas at Baylor
There are several high-priced running backs to target on this slate and while it'll be tough for Neal to even come close to replicating last week's 59.7-point eruption, he's still a player to target.
Neal and the Jayhawks have raised their game over the last month with three consecutive wins over ranked teams to salvage what was trending toward a disappointing season. Over his last four games, Neal is averaging 110 rushing yards and two rushing scores per game. Last week's monstrous outing juices those numbers a bit, but the fact remains that he's punched in multiple rushing scores each of the last three weeks.
Baylor has difficulty stopping the run as it allows 150 rushing yards per game. When the Bears are facing a team that runs it over 60 percent of the time and has a guy like Devin Neal in the backfield, that's trouble.
Neal's teammate, Sevion Morrison, is min-priced at $3,000 and saw 11 carries last week with Daniel Hishaw out. Hishaw is doubtful for Saturday, which could open the door for a useful workload from Morrison.
Dylan Sampson ($9,200) Tennessee at Vanderbilt
Sampson's inclusion here underscores how important it is to get running back right this week. Players like Neal, Ollie Gordon and Tahj Brooks were vital to cashing last weekend and I foresee something similar on this slate.
Tennessee is playing with urgency here as they need to win to stay in the playoff mix. Vanderbilt has been a giant slayer this season and will put up a fight here, so we can expect a full dose of Sampson on the Tennessee side.
Sampson got a light workload of 11 carries last week against UTEP and will be full go in this spot. He is third in the nation with 22 rushing touchdowns and seventh in rushing yards. Vanderbilt has a solid enough run defense but Tennessee's run game is impossible to shut down over four quarters with Sampson back there.
I plan to center many of my builds this weekend around jamming in two of the top-flight running backs and filling in with value plays elsewhere.
Damien Martinez ($5,500) Miami at Syracuse
The mid-tier options at running back are mostly lacking this week but Martinez stands out from that group. Martinez holds a commanding 38 percent rushing share of an offense expected to put up the most points on this slate.
The 'Canes offense let us down a bit last week against Wake Forest but they can bounce back here. Syracuse allows a slate-worst 5.2 yards per carry and averages 5.5 YPC in his own right. If he gets to his customary 15 carries here, he'll return value.
Wide Receiver
Caleb Douglas ($4,800) and Coy Eakin ($4,200) Texas Tech vs West Virginia
Continuing on with the theme of this article (and last week's), the Red Raiders are just too cheap to pass up. Douglas and Eakin saw 11 and 10 targets last week, respectively, and capitalized on that opportunity. Douglas went for 24.5 points while Eakin record 16 points.
We outlined how vulnerable the West Virginia secondary is already, and if we're getting guys who reasonably project for double-digit targets at under $5K, we have to put them on our shortlist.
Adding on, this might be an interesting buy-low opportunity on Josh Kelly. He saw his fewest targets in conference play last weekend (6) but still has 80 catches for 873 yards and five touchdowns on 117 targets. He won't stay down long and the roster percentages might flock to the cheaper TTU options.
Hudson Clement ($4,800) West Virginia at Texas Tech
Garrett Greene is a fine enough solo play, but if you're looking for a stacking option, Clement is likely the safest bet. Traylon Ray is done for the year and that absence is funneling more targets towards Clement. Over the last two weeks, Clement has drawn 16 targets and caught eight of them for 152 yards. That's solid explosiveness even if the catch rate leaves a little to be desired.
Clement has the clear path to targets in what should be the most high-scoring game on this slate. And he's under $5K. Kole Taylor ($3,800) is a worthwhile dart as well.
Jordyn Tyson ($6,700) Arizona State at Arizona
It's not often that you can feel great about rostering a receiver and a wide receiver from the same team. But when the offensive production is so densely concentrated between those two players, it's easier to stomach.
Skattebo keys the ground game but Tyson is Mr. Everything in the passing game. Tyson's 37.8 percent target share is the highest on the slate and the second-highest in the nation behind only UNLV's Ricky White.
Tyson is still efficient despite opposing defenses knowing where the ball is going. He has caught 67 of his 105 targets for 958 yards and nine touchdowns. Arizona State is going to score a lot of points on Saturday and if any of them come through the air, it'll likely be thanks to Tyson.
Chris Hunter ($4,800) Arizona vs Arizona State
This is a great game to target this week. If you don't have the scratch to pay up for Tetairoa McMillan, Hunter is a nice pivot. Hunter has at least six catches in each of his last three games and just topped out with 12 targets last week against TCU.
It's a tougher matchup for Arizona this week but the passing game should be busy and with the Sun Devils having to expend so much bandwidth on McMillan, Hunter should get enough opportunities to have a solid return on $4,800.