Hello everyone! It’s Week 8 and things are starting to heat up in college football, as some teams are working to become bowl eligible and others are trying to position themselves for conference championship runs. In the DFS world, we have 17 early games slated for DraftKings and 15 for FanDuel. For the late matchups, DraftKingsand FanDuel have the same nine games available. We have a steady trend going with our high Vegas point total games mostly coming from the Big XII. It would be DFS suicide to avoid them, so let’s dig right into our three key matchups this week.

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#2 Baylor 6-0 @ Iowa State 2-4 11:00 AM CT
Line: Baylor -37.5
O/U: 80

The highest point total of the week is again awarded to the Baylor game after last week’s game against West Virginia led to 100 points between the two. Baylor is averaging 63.8 points a game and has a great matchup against a worn down Cyclone defense. On the other side, Iowa State has a decent pass offense 258.2 yards a game, good for 35th in the nation. That matches up well with a Bears pass defense allowing 243.7 yards a game, which is 85th in the country.

Baylor QB Seth Russell (9400 DK) (10800 FD) showed off his legs last week, gaining 160 yards and a TD on 14 carries. Add that to his 380 passing yards and 5 TDs and he received 63.2 points on DraftKings last week. I think we may see a little more Shock Linwood this week, but Russell should get you over his average of 42.3 FPPG this week.

Baylor WR Corey Coleman (8600 DK) (9600 FD) just broke Kendall Wright’s school record with 16 receiving TDs in only 6 games. He is currently the best DFS receiver in college football scoring over 30 FPPG in every game this year. He is very expensive, but he is also the most consistent WR I’ve seen in college football.

Baylor WR Jay Lee (5800 DK) (6500 FD) continues to lead the Bears in YPC and found the end zone twice last week. Currently, he is a better play for FanDuel in GPPs, as he’s not getting that many receptions per game, but he does get yardage and TDs in spurts.

Baylor RB Shock Linwood (6800 DK) (7900 FD). After four straight strong performances in a row, Linwood was to his least productive game since Week 1. He still had 19 touches and a TD, but was held under 100 yards while Russell ran wild. It’s tough to gauge Linwood this week and for his price I would stick to GPP formats.

Iowa State QB Sam B Richardson (5800 DK) (6500 FD) has had a rough last two weeks, including a favorable matchup against Texas Tech. He is a bottom tier QB that doesn’t wow you, but this looks to be a decent matchup. I could see the Cyclones attempting to run the ball more this week to try and slow the game down, but eventually you have to try and score points to keep up. He’s a no go for cash, but might be a decent GPP QB 2.

Iowa State WR Allen Lazard (5100 DK) (6100 FD), broke out last week with 147 yards on 5 catches and a TD. It’s a little skewed though, as he had a 74 yard TD reception where he probably should have been tackled. With that said, he is the Cyclones 2nd most productive player so far this year.

Iowa State WR Quenton Bundrage (4300 DK) (5500 FD) is a value guy out there if you need one. He has scored just over 15 FPPG in the last two contests against Texas Tech and TCU.

Iowa State RB Mike Warren (5900 DK) (7300 FD) has become the Cyclones’ workhorse, with 20 plus touches since Week 3. He was a little bit of a disappointment last week against TCU, and I am curious if the workload may be too much for the freshman. However, he is the Cyclones’ most productive player on offense and should receive a majority of the carries until Iowa State shuts him down.

Texas Tech 5-2 @ #17 Oklahoma 5-1 2:30 PM CT
Line: Oklahoma -14.5
O/U: 75

This is probably the toughest game to predict this week after Oklahoma bounced back from a terrible loss to Texas with a 55-0 shellacking of Kansas State, who just lost to #4 TCU in a shootout the week before. And then you have Texas Tech, who scored 20 points under their season average against the worst team in the Big XII. Head coach Kliff Klingsbury called it the most embarrassing offensive performance that he had been a part of, a 30-20 win.

With that said, we still have a matchup with the nation’s number two passing offense in the Red Raiders going against the Big XII’s best defense, 9th nationally against the pass. Meanwhile, Texas Tech allows over 550 yards a game and 36.9 points a game. Oklahoma has shown it likes to air it out too, averaging 330 yards a game, good for 14th in the country.

Texas Tech QB Patrick Mahomes (8300 DK) (9300 FD) had his worst performance of the year last week against Kansas. This week he gets the Big XII’s best pass defense, but Oklahoma isn’t perfect, allowing 427 yards and 4 TDs to Tulsa, a similar air raid offense. Vegas seems to think Tech will put up 30 points and if they do, Mahomes will be the reason.

Texas Tech WR Jakeem Grant (6700 DK) (6900 FD) is the best WR on the team and the biggest playmaker. However, after his breakout performance against Iowa State, he followed it up with an awful game last week against Kansas. Tech cannot afford another off game from Grant and he should see the most targets this week.

Texas Tech WRs Zach Austin (4500 DK) (5400 FD), Devin Lauderdale (4300 DK) (5400 FD), and Reginald Davis (4200 DK) (5300 FD), are all in that lower tier for quality boom-or-bust WRs worth a flyer only in GPP formats against this defense.

Texas Tech RB DeAndre Washington (6000 DK) (7500 FD) was the lone bright spot last week against Kansas. Oklahoma also has had a few issues with the run, although that was not the case last week against Kansas State.

Oklahoma QB Baker Mayfield (8700 DK) (9400 FD) bounced back after a bad outing vs. Texas with 5 passing TDs against Kansas State. He should be a popular play this week against a weak Texas Tech defense.

Oklahoma WR Sterling Shepard (6700 DK) (7400 FD) is the best receiver for an Oklahoma team that likes to spread it around. His production doesn’t quite meet his salary, but against this defense, Shepard has an extremely high ceiling.

Oklahoma WR Dede Westbrook (5300 DK) (5900 FD) is the second most consistent WR on the team. In that 5k price range, he may have a lot of value in this matchup as he could have his breakout game, although his ceiling isn’t quite as high as Shepard.

Oklahoma RBs Samaje Perine (5400 DK) (6300 FD) and Joe Mixon (4800 DK) (5900 FD) appear to be splitting the carries now. I like Mixon more, as he provides more upside potential with his receiving abilities. Usually in a game where the favorite is favored by more than two TDs, I like the RBs, but Oklahoma is more centered around the pass and it’s the QB who has the second most carries on the team.

Washington State 4-2 @ Arizona 5-2 3 PM CT
Line: Arizona -7.5
O/U: 72

Arizona has a great rushing offense facing a bad Washington State rushing defense. Washington State has a great passing offense facing a subpar Arizona passing defense. Both teams are riding high from back-to-back wins. I like the looks of this one from the get-go.

Washington State QB Luke Falk (9200 DK) (9500 FD) is finding his groove in the Cougars’ pass-happy offense, having back to back game of over 400 yards and 5 TDs or more. Last week he completed 78% of his 50 pass attempts too. This one should be a shootout, so look for Falk to top 50 attempts.

Washington State WR Gabe Marks (6700 DK) (7100 FD) is the most consistent of a strong group of wide receivers. He averages over 8 catches, 100 yards, and a TD a game.

Washington State WRs Dom Williams (5600 DK) (7000 FD) and River Cracraft (5000 DK) (5700 FD) are options 1B and 1C for Falk. I like Williams more because I think he is a better redzone target and more of a big play receiver. Cracraft is a slot receiver they find more in underneath routes, but he could pay off big dividends if Arizona tries to cover the deeper threats first.

Arizona QB Anu Solomon (6900 DK) (7500 FD) has not been the same since his injury. He may have some upside in GPP lineups with this likely to be a high scoring shootout, but I think the Wildcats will go run-heavy in this one.

Arizona RB Nick Wilson (6700 DK) (8000 FD) suited up, but did not play last week. If he is a go, he should run circles around the Cougar defense. If you roster him, you’ll have to be watching up until kickoff to make sure he is a go. If he is not, that’s okay, you’ll just have to sub Jared Baker who we will talk about shortly. This will give you an extra $1000-1200 to work with, but the big issue is this is the last game on the slate, so you will want some Cougar receivers on your team you can upgrade if you go that route.

Arizona RB Jared Baker (5500 DK) (7000 FD) had a monster game last week getting the start for an injured Wilson. He rushed for 207 yards and 2 TDs and added 3 receptions for 40 yards and another TD. If Wilson is a scratch like last week, Baker should have another stat filled day against the Cougar defense.

Other Players Worth Considering

Auburn WR Ricardo Louis (5000 DK) (5600 FD), is now the number one receiver after Duke Williams was booted from the team. He had 7 catches last week for over 150 yards and faces the 96th passing defense in Arkansas, who is good at stopping the run.

Arkansas WR Drew Morgan (4600 DK) (5700 FD) is the main weapon on the outside for Arkansas and is extremely undervalued.

Clemson QB Deshaun Watson (8000 DK) (9400 FD) scorched one of the nation’s best defenses in Boston College. He gets a much more favorable matchup against a Miami team who has struggled against dual threat QBs.

Houston QB Greg Ward Jr. (8800 DK) (10600 FD) has done nothing but put up 40 and 50 point games. I think he is a steal at 8800 on DraftKings against a weak Central Florida defense. He’s a great cash and tourney play.

Northwestern RB Justin Jackson (5500 DK) (5400 FD) has faced two of the toughest defenses in the Big Ten the last two weeks. Nebraska has been stout against the run, but expect Jackson to get at least 25 carries in this one.

Massachusetts QB Blake Frohnapfel (5900 DK) (7000 FD) is a cheap QB with a decent matchup here. UMass will throw it a lot in this one.

Massachusetts WR/TE Rodney Mills (3400 DK) (4000 FD) is one of the best TEs on FanDuel and should be used in most lineups. He is also a great value play on DraftKings averaging over 15 FPPG.

Toledo RB Kareem Hunt (6400 DK) (7100 FD) should finally be healthy and in a game that matters enough to feed him the ball. I think this could be Hunt’s 2015 coming out party.

Penn State RB Saquon Barkley (5600 DK) (7300 FD) is a RB I like against a weak Maryland defense.

Alabama WR Calvin Ridley (5200 DK) (5700 FD) is the number one receiver in an offense that likes to pound it and then use play action over the top. Great value over on FanDueland not bad on DraftKings.

Wisconsin RB Dare Ogunbowale (5200 DK) (6800 FD), is a great play if Corey Clement is a not go. Clement hasn’t played since Week 1, but is traveling with the team, so this is one you’ll have to watch up until kickoff. Clement is a $1000 cheaper on DraftKings, but who knows how he will play.

A lot of information this week, but that should be expected as we continue to gain more week in and week out. I think there are a lot of value plays out there and should spread the draft percentages around a lot more this week. Good luck to all firing college football DFS this week.