Ivan Herrera 
It is time to head back to college and enjoy a great day of College Football.
Let’s start the new year with the last multigame slate of the season! We have hit my favorite part of the CFB season, the bowl games. With teams fighting for conference bragging rights, we should see some great matchups. The highlight of the Monday slate is the great Rose Bowl matchup between Penn State and Utah.
Monday 1/2 CFB
1/2 CFB Top Plays
Before I get into this slate I just want to say R.I.P Mike Leach. He was the Mississippi State HC this season who unfortunately passed away on December 12. He was one of my favorite HCs to follow.
#22 Mississippi State vs Illinois (ReliaQuest Bowl)
This matchup should provide some decent DFS value even with a few key players on both sides deciding to opt-out. The advantage in the passing game is clearly on the MissSt side, as their starter Rogers finished top 10 in passing yards and touchdowns. His matchup against the 5th ranked Illinois passing defense will test him, but in his two matchups against top 10 defenses, Rogers combined for 432 yards with 4 scores and only one interception. Rogers should see a lot of work with one of MissSt’s top RBs entering the transfer portal. As for the Illinois starting QB, Devito, I don’t have too much interest in him for this matchup. This season Devito hasn’t had much success in DFS with multiple single digit scores. For Devito to succeed on Monday he’ll need to try to get the ball to Isaiah Williams early and often.
My main focus on the Illinois side is their new starting RB, Love III. With Brown deciding to opt out, Love becomes the main back and he should see a lot of touches. As the backup Love only managed 276 yards and two scores on 59 carries. The matchup against Miss St should be good for Love as they allow 144 yards and have given up 19 touchdowns on the ground. The MissSt backfield might be a fade for me as they rank 2nd worse in the nation and they are matched up against the 8th ranked defense. Marks would be the RB I would play from them but his 48.4 yard average does not fill me with confidence.
ReliaQuest Bowl Top Plays:
Mississippi State: Will Rogers $7,000DK/$8,500FD Caleb Ducking $5,300DK/$6,800FD Rufus Harvey $5,700DK/$6,000FD
Illinois: Reggie Love III $5,200DK/$7,800FD Isaiah Williams $6,200DK/$7,300FD Brian Hightower $5,000DK/$6,100FD (Riskier play)
#16 Tulane vs #10 USC (Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic)
This game is my favorite game environment for DFS since both offenses have proven they can score all year.
Obviously, we are going to start off with the Heisman winning QB, Caleb Williams. Williams was one of the best DFS QBs this season thanks to his 4075 passing yards and 37 touchdowns. Additionally, he managed to find some success with his legs adding 10 rushing touchdowns. It has been hard to get yards through the air, but a positive for Williams is that Tulane does give up touchdowns in the passing game. On the Tulane side is Pratt who has been one of my favorite DFS QBs. During the season, Pratt has gone off for three or more touchdowns on multiple occasions. It would surprise me if Pratt doesn’t have another three score performance against a USC defense that ranks 113th against the pass.
I don’t think there is a clear winner in the running game. Both teams have good RBs, but I think because of injuries Tulane and Spears have the advantage. Spears’s 1376 yards and 17 touchdowns have him ranked top 20 in both categories. While USC’s rush defense isn’t as bad as their passing, they have the most rushing touchdowns allowed on the slate. It’s going to be a long day for USC if they can’t get to Spears early as he is coming in with a 7 game 100 yard streak. He also managed to score 10 times during that span. USC’s Jones who will start for the Trojans isn’t a slouch either. In the four games as the starting back he ran for 383 yards and scored twice. Although I think Spears is a better play than Jones, I still think Jones is a game stack play.
Cotton Bowl Top Plays:
Tulane: Michael Pratt $7,200DK/$10,000FD Tyjae Spears $6,900DK/$10,200FD Shae Wyatt $5,900DK/$6,700FD Duece Watts $5,500DK/$7,000FD
USC: Caleb Williams $8,600DK/$12,500FD Tahj Washington $6,700DK/$8,600FD Mario Williams $6,100DK/$8,300FD Austin Jones $6,200DK/$9,700FD Brenden Rice $4,800DK/$6,200FD (Riskier play)
#17 LSU vs Purdue (Cheez-it Citrus Bowl)
The passing game situation for the Citrus Bowl is a bit iffy. LSU’s starting QB Daniels ended the season with an injury and while it sounds like he might be available on Monday I am not too confident about playing him. His backup is Nussmeier who looked good after replacing Daniels in the SEC Championship game. If Daniels is ruled out then I am taking a good look at playing Nussmeier. But no matter who plays QB for LSU they will have the luxury of having Nabers who finished the season as their top WR. I am fading the Purdue passing game on Monday. They will be without their starting QB, WR, TE, and OG. Burton who will be the starter for the bowl did start a game earlier in the year against FAU and looked solid but he relied heavily on Jones who will be out.
The running game advantage I would give to Purdue and their starter Mockobee. Besides a game or two, Mockobee has been a strong DFS RB. He’s averaged 76.7 yards and has scored in 75% of his games. LSU’s rush defense isn’t great so Mockobee should be in line for another good outing. The issue with the LSU backfield for me is their split backfield. LSU has three RBs with 68 or more carries and neither of the three has over 100. If I had to pick an LSU RB to play it would be Williams, he was the RB with the most carries and yards of the three.
Citrus Bowl Top Plays:
LSU: Malik Nabers $6,500DK/$9,000FD Jayden Daniels $7,700DK/$11,200FD Josh Williams $5,400DK/$7,000FD Brian Thomas Jr $4,000DK/$6,200FD
Purdue: Devin Mockobee $6,600DK/$8,800FD TJ Sheffield $5,100DK/$7,500FD
#11 Penn State vs #8 Utah (Rose Bowl)
The Rose Bowl gives us two solid options at QB. Both Rising from Utah and Clifford from Penn State have had a couple of huge days over the season. Although both of them are coming into this game with a key target being out, they each still have solid weapons. Rising is missing star TE Kincaid, but he will still have top WR Vele, who he had a great connection with. Vele had 20% of Rising’s 2,939 passing yards and 25 passing touchdowns. A plus for Rising is that he has had success using his feet this season, rushing for 410 yards and scoring six times. On the Penn State side, Clifford is coming off of a 2543 yard and 22 touchdown season. He will be without Parker Washington who was one of Penn State’s best WRs in their history. Luckily for Clifford Mitchell Tinsley is still available for Monday.
The RB situation for this game favors Penn State. They have two RBs, Allen and Singleton, who have rushed 150 times and have over 830 rushing yards. While there is a chance one of the two will have a better game, they have both had at least 65 attempts over the past five games with Allen leading with 78 attempts. So my lean would be Allen of the two, I think either one can get you a good game. On the Utah side, Bernard is their main back with Thomas leaving the team earlier in the year. Penn State’s defense has done well against the run game so I won’t force Benard in, but at $5,900 I have no issue with him being in your lineups.
Rose Bowl Top Plays:
Penn State: Sean Clifford $6,500DK/$9,200FD Nicholas Singleton $6,400DK/$8,200FD Kaytron Allen $6,100DK/$8,000FD Mitchell Tinsley $6,000DK/ $7,100FD KeAndre Lamber-Smith $5,200DK/$6,300FD
Utah: Cameron Rising $7,500DK/$9,800FD Devaughn Vele $6,400DK/$7,600FD Thomas Yassmin $5,100DK/$5,700FD Jaylen Dixon $5,600DK/$6,500FD
Favorite Bets
Mississippi State vs Illinois: Mississippi State -2.5 (-110DK/FD)
Tulane vs USC: USC Alt Spread -5.5 (+145DK/+150FD)
LSU vs Purdue: *Nobody has any lines. I will post on Discord if they add the game*
Penn State vs Utah: Over 53 (-110DK/-114FD)
Make sure to check out the CFB live stream every Friday night on the Win Daily YouTube page.
Make sure to hop in our Expert Discord Chat for FREE! Ivan (idrago15) will be there answering questions all day and all night! Follow Ivan on Twitter @idragol15 and be sure to be on the lookout for future articles at https://windailysports.com/ncaa-football-articles/
