Ivan Herrera 
It is time to head back to college and enjoy a great day of College Football.
Welcome to the first Saturday of the CFB Bowl 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 first Bowl Season Saturday is in Las Vegas where PAC12 Oregon State takes on SEC Florida in the SRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl.
Saturday 12/17 CFB
12/17 CFB Top Plays
Quarterbacks
Jake Haener (Fresno State) $8,000DK/$10,100FD – With BYU’s Hall out, Haener enters the slate as the highest priced QB on DraftKings and the 3rd highest on FanDuel. Haener is priced at the top for good reason as Fresno State plays the 2nd worse ranked pass defense on the slate. Haener does come into the game on a bad run, but the Washington State defense should be a fix for his struggles. Against the two PAC12 opponents Haener went up against this season he averaged 238.5 passing yards and threw a touchdown in each of the games.
Tanner Mordecai (SMU) $6,900DK/$11,200FD – Mordecai is really mispriced on DraftKings even with his top WR being out of the Bowl Game. Outside of his game against a tough Cincinnati squad, Mordecai has been able to use his arm to move the ball all over the field. I expect more of the same on Saturday against a BYU pass defense that allows 235.7 yards and two touchdowns a game. Rashee Rice missing the game might affect him, but he still has the talent out wide to have a successful game against BYU.
Taylen Green (Boise State) $7,200DK/$10,300FD – Green has been a good dual threat QB all season, averaging just over 230 total yards and two scores per game. He has a great matchup against North Texas who rank in the bottom 25 in both passing and rushing. Green should have no issue moving the ball downfield all day in a game with 60 game total. In this price range, I do like Mordecai slightly more but Green’s ownership should be much lower.
Pivots:
DraftKings – Austin Aune – North Texas – $5,400 “low-end”, Cameron Ward – WSU – $7,500 “mid-range”, Jacob Conover – BYU – $7,500 “high-end”
FanDuel -AJ Padgett – Rice – $6,300 “low-end”, Austin Aune – North Texas -$8,500 “mid-range”, Cameron Ward – WSU – $10,000 “high-end”
Running Backs
George Holani (Boise St) $7,700/$9,000FD – Holani has been one of the more consistent RBs in CFB. Over the season Holani has averaged just under 100 yards and over a touchdown a game. Holani gets a great matchup against North Texas’ 107th ranked rush defense that allows 188.4 yards and two touchdowns. Hard to not see Holani go off against North Texas and grab his 7th 100 yard rushing game.
Damien Martinez (Oregon State) $5,800DK/$8,500FD – Since taking over the starting RB spot, Martinez has been great. He comes into the bowl game with six straight 100 yard games, averaging over 120 yards and a touchdown in that span. He gets a favorable matchup against a Florida squad that has struggled to contain the running game. Over the last 6 games for the Gators, they have allowed 597 yards and 7 touchdowns to the opponents leading back. Based on the favorable matchup, Martinez is my favorite back on the slate.
Christopher Brooks (BYU) $6,300DK/$8,000FD – With the QB situation up in the air, Brooks feels like a great play. Brooks hasn’t had the best season so far, but with Katoa being out he should see almost all the work from the backfield. He should see plenty of space this Saturday as SMU ranks bottom 10 in yards allowed. I expect a run heavy BYU squad against SMU given their QB situation.
Pivots:
DraftKings – Tyler Lavine – SMU – $5,400 “low-end”, Frank Gore Jr – S.Miss – $7,200 “mid-range”, Jordan Mims – Fresno State – $7,400 “high-end”
FanDuel – Montrell Johnson Jr – Florida – $8,200 “low-end”. Frank Gore Jr – S. Miss – $9,200 “mid-range”, Nakia Watson – WSU – $9,500 “high-end”
Wide Receivers
Jalen Moreno-Cropper (Fresno State) $7,000DK/$8,500FD – Cropper is the best WR on the slate with SMU’s Rice not playing. Coming into the Bowl Game, Cropper is averaging 6 receptions for 81.8 yards. He has a good matchup this week against Washington State’s bad pass defense. In his two matchups against PAC12 defenses, Cropper had a combined 15 catches for 138 yards. His biggest struggle has been finding the endzone as he only has a .5 TD per game average. The matchup aganist WSU should help him change that as they have allowed 17 scores to WRs this season.
Jason Brownlee (S.Miss) $6,000/$9,000FD – Brownlee stats doesn’t have the greatest stats, but he has had a solid 2022. On DraftKings, Brownlee has surpassed 15 points in six games and scored over 20 in five of those. On FanDuel he only surpassed five times and reached 20 in three of those. Of all the WRs active for Saturday’s slate, Brownlee has the highest target percentage at 33%. I think he’s better on the DraftKings side given his price, but have no issue using him as the highest priced WR on FanDuel.
Jordan Kerley (SMU) $5,700DK/$7,500FD – With Rice being out Kerley becomes SMU’s top target. Despite being the Robin to a very successful Batman, Kerley has shown all season he can be a threat. Despite missing games this season Kerley ranks 2nd in receptions and yards as well as 3rd in touchdowns. I think Mordecai will split up the 13.1 targets that Rice saw to multiple players, but I think it’ll be Kerley who will see the majority of that work.
Pivots:
DraftKings – RJ Maryland – SMU – $3,500 “low-end”, De’zhaun Stribling – WSU – $6,100 “mid-range”, Nikko Remigio – Fresno State – $6,900 “high-end”
FanDuel – RJ Maryland – SMU – $6,100 “low-end”, Tre’Shaun Harrison – Oregon State – $7,000 “mid-range”, Luke McCaffrey – Rice – $8,000 “high-end”
Favorite Bets
S.Miss -6.5 (-110 DK/FD) vs Rice.
SMU vs BYU o64.5 (-110 DK/FD).
Oregon State -8.5 (-110 DK/FD) vs Florida.
Washington State ML (+160 DK/FD) vs Fresno State
Boise State vs North Texas o59.5 (-110 DK/FD)
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/
