NCAAF

College Football Market Share Report: Friday of Week 13

Central Michigan's Lew Nichols III has the highest percentage of his team's running back carries in the country. Who else's workload stands out for the Friday college football slate on FanDuel?

Since many of the 2018 law changes that marked the return of college football daily fantasy, it has been quickly growing. After all, more individuals watched the 2020 National Championship Game than any other non-NFL sporting event.

With so many eyeballs on the games, and some monster statistics put up by the elite players in the sport, it is natural for many to gravitate to playing daily fantasy instead of traditional betting. FanDuel offers college football contests each weekend, which can include Thursday, Friday, and Saturday main slates -- depending on game volume.

College football is a unique challenge for DFS, as a lot of necessary information is not easily found. Often, injury news is reported through the schools themselves and newspaper beat reporters. It can also be particularly difficult to find accurate information on which players are on the field, who has the best usage, and where inefficiencies in the salary cap model may reside.

The latter point is the premise for this piece, which in addition to numberFire's betting guides and daily fantasy helpers, is designed to help you find out which college football players are on the field and seeing work.

You may need it more than ever, too.

FanDuel has split main slates as FBS college football divides its Week 13 -- many of them rivalry games -- into two days every Thanksgiving weekend. This weekend, more irregular teams have found their way onto the Friday and Saturday main slates. Players that end up in the perfect lineups may be players you've never heard of. Yet.

With that in mind, this edition will take a peek at Friday's 14-game slate. Let's ride.

Note: Players with fewer than 10 pass attempts, 10 rushing attempts, and 5 targets in the previous week will not be featured but may still be viable in daily fantasy formats. For players returning from off weeks, previous reports will contain their most recent sample. All stats are from PFF.com.

Quarterbacks

Player Team
Name
Week
12
ATT
2021
ATT/G
2021
YPA
Rush
ATT/G
Rush
YDS/G
Dylan Morris WASH 52.0 33.0 6.77 1.5 8.5
Brock Purdy ISU 44.0 31.0 8.05 2.7 31.2
Logan Bonner UTST 40.0 32.3 8.32 3.0 16.0
Kurtis Rourke OHIO 37.0 26.3 7.20 3.8 37.1
Adrian Martinez NEB 35.0 27.9 9.32 7.1 63.3
Holton Ahlers ECU 32.0 34.5 7.68 4.6 43.0
KJ Jefferson ARK 31.0 23.3 8.96 7.5 56.2
Mikey Keene UCF 30.0 24.7 6.52 0.9 8.2
Skylar Thompson KSU 29.0 23.0 8.96 2.1 12.7
Matt McDonald BGSU 28.0 32.5 6.42 1.5 23.0
Timmy McClain USF 27.0 23.3 7.14 5.5 39.5
Connor Bazelak MIZZ 26.0 35.3 7.05 1.0 5.9
Brendon Lewis CU 25.0 21.4 6.20 3.8 28.9
Lucas Johnson SDSU 25.0 17.3 5.74 3.3 24.4
Devin Leary NCST 24.0 36.5 7.95 1.5 6.5
Daniel Richardson CMU 24.0 23.9 8.62 0.6 1.0
Jayden de Laura WSU 23.0 31.1 8.06 2.3 15.7
Ben Bryant EMU 23.0 30.6 8.01 2.3 20.5
Hank Bachmeier BOIS 22.0 33.1 7.82 2.5 12.5
Desmond Ridder CIN 21.0 27.9 8.70 5.8 40.5
Justin Rogers UNLV 21.0 8.2 8.49 1.2 1.8
Jacolby Criswell UNC 19.0 10.5 8.52 2.5 34.0
Alex Padilla IOWA 18.0 14.0 6.21 2.0 1.2
Cameron Rising UTAH 18.0 25.2 7.66 3.8 34.2
Hudson Card TEX 16.0 14.0 7.02 1.0 10.7
Max Duggan TCU 16.0 22.4 9.02 5.9 46.2
Casey Thompson TEX 14.0 21.9 8.05 1.7 21.6
Cameron Friel UNLV 13.0 25.2 7.11 1.3 5.6


I'm going to start with the obvious spot -- Ben Bryant ($8,400) of the Eastern Michigan Eagles. Of course, that's tongue-in-cheek, but Bryant doesn't fly off the data table as he should. The coaching staff trusts him a decent amount (30.6 attempts per game), which is more than enough in this spot against Central Michigan. The Chippewas allow 291.9 passing yards per game (125th of 130 FBS schools), and Bryant should get enough chances to rip them apart. His 20.5 rushing yards per game also present at least the remote possibility of a rushing score.

Another value option is Mikey Keene ($7,200) of Central Florida. UCF's freshman signal-caller has had an up-and-down year, but he tossed 30 attempts last week, and even the under would likely suffice in this spot. The South Florida Bulls are 116th in the country against the pass (281.0 yards per game), and Keene has a crystal-clear stacking partner in the form of Ryan O'Keefe ($8,600). O'Keefe has seen at least eight targets each of the past seven games.

With the AAC championship looming for Cincinnati, there is at least enough potential for a trap game for Desmond Ridder ($11,000) to a point where I'm looking elsewhere. Ridder only threw 21 passes (albeit good ones) last weekend against Southern Methodist, and East Carolina is 29th in the nation in passing yards per game (206.8). In turn, ECU is 81st against the rush, and as 14.5-point favorites, it might be Jerome Ford ($9,700) grabbing a bulk of the work this week.

Running Backs

Player Team
Name
WEEK
12
RUSH
ATT
2021
RUSH/G
2021
RUSH
SHARE
WEEK
12
TGT
2021
TGT
SHARE
Lew Nichols IIICMU32.024.470.3%211.9%
Tyler BadieMIZZ28.020.966.5%617.3%
Tyler GoodsonIOWA27.019.558.1%211.4%
DeAndre HughesAF22.06.07.8%05.4%
Tavion ThomasUTAH21.014.137.4%00.6%
Jawon HamiltonEMU19.09.930.1%00.9%
Jerome FordCIN19.016.147.6%25.6%
Breece HallISU18.021.275.2%511.5%
Emari DemercadoTCU18.08.921.6%13.3%
Keaton MitchellECU18.014.341.6%47.3%
Calvin Tyler Jr.UTST18.015.834.4%23.9%
Greg BellSDSU17.017.746.7%02.0%
Max BorghiWSU16.012.447.6%15.3%
Charles WilliamsUNLV16.021.377.7%34.5%
Roschon JohnsonTEX15.06.518.3%13.6%
Kelley JoinerUSF15.06.518.5%04.5%
Nick MosleyBGSU15.07.824.0%10.6%
Johnny RichardsonUCF14.08.627.2%15.8%
George HolaniBOIS14.012.325.7%03.2%
Aaron DumasUNM14.012.337.6%01.4%
De'Montre TuggleOHIO13.011.735.6%45.9%
Darius BracyCMU13.05.47.1%00.8%
Ricky Person Jr.NCST12.011.440.6%18.9%
Jarek BroussardCU12.012.839.6%17.7%
Kendre MillerTCU12.08.121.8%04.4%
Deuce VaughnKSU11.017.156.1%623.6%
Cameron DavisWASH11.08.527.0%74.4%
Rahjai HarrisECU10.013.740.1%17.3%
Gavin WilliamsIOWA10.03.98.4%01.8%
Samson EvansEMU10.06.218.8%14.9%
Mark-Antony RichardsUCF10.04.39.7%13.5%
T.J. PledgerUTAH10.07.221.0%04.5%
Ty ChandlerUNC10.015.348.6%14.2%
Deon McIntoshWSU10.09.733.9%13.9%


My attention at a grand look at the board actually went to the bottom. It was strange to see Deuce Vaughn ($10,000) with such a light afternoon of work on the ground, but Kansas State trailed Baylor a majority of the afternoon. Vaughn actually pulled in six targets in lieu of the rushing work, so his role is totally fine entering this weekend's showdown with Texas. The Longhorns are allowing 200.5 rushing yards per game (108th in FBS), so Vaughn should have room to operate with the talent we know is present.

This is my first chance to discuss Lew Nichols III ($11,200) on the main slate as well. Nichols arguably has the heaviest workload in college football. He's averaged north of 24.4 carries per game for Central Michigan, which has amounted to 70.3% of their overall ground work. He's a near must in any DFS format on any slate because of the security, but especially this weekend against EMU. The Eagles are allowing 202.2 rushing yards per game -- just 109th in the country. Bryant and Nichols are a tremendous, correlated stack in that MAC battle.

As a value consideration (which is hard with so many tremendous high-salaried backs), Washington State's Max Borghi ($7,600) definitely works. At 198.8 rushing yards per game allowed, the Huskies are the 106th-best rushing defense in the nation. Borghi faced lopsided game scripts against Oregon and Arizona State, but his last three contests with a fairly neutral one were tremendous. He saw at least 16 carries and averaged 6.1 yards per carry in them.

Wide Recievers

Player TEAM
NAME
WEEK
12
TGT
WEEK
12
TGT
SHARE
TGT/G 2021
TGT
SHARE
2021
REC
YDS
SHARE
Rome OdunzeWASH15.030.6%7.818.1%13.8%
Charlie KolarISU14.030.4%8.223.0%22.6%
Xavier WorthyTEX13.048.1%8.631.5%36.4%
Steve JenkinsUNLV13.039.4%6.625.3%29.8%
Josh DownsUNC11.040.7%11.641.0%40.5%
Deven ThompkinsUTST11.028.9%11.934.1%45.6%
Xavier HutchinsonISU11.023.9%8.325.5%28.3%
Audie OmotoshoECU11.034.4%5.717.1%15.8%
Samori ToureNEB11.032.4%6.323.7%27.8%
Ryan O'KeefeUCF11.036.7%8.630.5%28.7%
Khalil ShakirBOIS10.043.5%9.631.1%36.1%
Tyrone BrodenBGSU10.035.7%6.620.1%26.0%
Austin AllenNEB9.026.5%4.615.8%18.4%
Hassan BeydounEMU9.042.9%9.028.3%29.6%
Derek WrightUTST9.023.7%5.716.4%16.5%
Treylon BurksARK9.029.0%7.531.3%40.8%
Phillip BrooksKSU9.033.3%5.320.5%20.5%
Jesse MatthewsSDSU9.040.9%4.218.3%17.1%
Brandon JohnsonUCF8.026.7%5.519.3%22.0%
Devin CulpWASH8.016.3%3.07.9%8.5%
Tre TuckerCIN8.027.6%3.412.1%13.3%
Kalil PimpletonCMU8.032.0%8.324.7%28.5%
Brandon BowlingUTST7.018.4%5.315.1%16.6%
Elijah KotheSDSU7.031.8%4.015.9%21.4%
Travell HarrisWSU7.035.0%8.526.2%26.9%
Isiah CoxOHIO7.020.0%4.513.2%16.7%
Tyler SneadECU6.018.8%8.023.8%25.0%
Derius DavisTCU6.040.0%4.116.5%17.5%
Brant KuitheUTAH6.040.0%5.419.1%20.3%
Giovanni Fauolo Sr.UNLV6.018.2%4.110.0%6.6%
Austin OsborneBGSU6.021.4%7.424.6%20.3%
Tyler ScottCIN6.020.7%2.910.5%15.2%
Cameron OdomOHIO6.017.1%4.615.1%19.1%
Nico RagainiIOWA6.037.5%3.514.4%15.7%
Jimmy Horn Jr.USF6.018.2%4.314.8%17.0%
De'Zhaun StriblingWSU6.030.0%5.416.4%13.9%
Christian SimsBGSU6.021.4%5.815.8%16.2%
Jaylin NoelISU6.013.0%4.111.5%7.0%
Thayer ThomasNCST5.020.8%5.515.7%17.1%
Trey KnoxARK5.016.1%4.56.9%5.0%
Ryan JonesECU5.015.6%4.111.1%12.3%
Cade BrewerTEX5.018.5%2.87.3%6.0%
Demarcus GregoryUSF5.015.2%2.99.0%8.1%
Devin CarterNCST5.020.8%5.214.9%17.3%
Alec PierceCIN5.017.2%5.820.9%24.0%
Sammy WheelerKSU5.018.5%2.36.9%5.6%
Tauskie DoveMIZZ5.021.7%5.215.2%19.8%
Tanner KnueEMU5.023.8%9.07.7%8.2%
Omarion DollisonUSF5.015.2%2.911.0%9.7%
Jalen McMillanWASH5.010.2%5.714.9%17.5%
Zyell GriffinUNLV5.015.2%3.07.3%7.3%


I spend at running back and quarterback more often than not, and that often leaves me looking for value at wideout. A top-tier running back listed as a wideout will suffice. Two weeks ago, Air Force figured out their best player should get the ball. De'Andre Hughes ($6,500) is a listed wideout, but after breaking the century mark in Week 11 on just eight carries, Hughes got 22 carries as the Falcons' tailback last Friday. He predictably smashed with 221 rushing yards and a pair of scores. Hughes should be the top back again given the absurd performance, and he's close to a 100% guy in tournaments, personally.

Two weeks ago in the report, I was concerned about Xavier Worthy ($9,200) losing work to Joshua Moore ($4,000). Worthy has ascended to 36 total targets in just the past two weeks, and Moore hasn't seen one in that span. It doesn't particularly make sense given that Moore's target share was higher three weeks ago, but I think Steve Sarkisian is receiving enough heat from others to move on. Either way, Worthy's volume is unmatched as a wideout on this slate, and while the ball carriers are a top priority, he's the most sensible pivot to spending at receiver.

Both Xavier Hutchinson ($8,200) and Charlie Kolar ($7,600) are viable targets as value options drifting downward for Iowa State. ISU draws the struggling TCU defense, and their passing game is so tremendously concentrated that it's easy to find the right spots to attack the 97th-ranked pass defense (253.9 yards allowed) in the country. Hutchinson (28) and Kolar (36) have had 50.4% of Iowa State's total 127 targets the past three weeks. Hutchinson (28.3% of the team's total yards this season) has more vertical upside, but Kolar has seen at least 11 targets each of the past three weeks with safer volume.