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This is the third in a series of college fantasy football conference previews. You can see the complete list here.
As the start of the season approaches, I’m here to help you all get ready for your college fantasy football leagues. I already wrote a draft guide, in which I tried to lay out some general guidelines for you to follow for your own league. College fantasy football has so many different ways to play, that I tried to make some key points you could use when thinking about your individual league rules. In the interest of helping as many people as I can, I will provide a breakdown of each of the BCS leagues (and the independents), and if your league takes some random combination of those (my league with the Solid Verbal podcast uses Big Ten, Pac-10, and independents only), you can look at my analysis of these leagues to prepare for your draft. Then, throughout the season, I’ll keep you updated on which players are underperforming, and which players are emerging as fantasy options.
Without any further ado, here is my preview of the independent teams:
As a reminder, I will assume CBS league default scoring rules and roster limits when discussing these leagues, as those will be the most commonly used rules.
An important note on the independent teams: Western Kentucky players were eligible in a CBS league with independents, I drafted a couple weeks ago. However, on their official website, it states they are eligible for the Sun Belt title and that they are a Sun Belt member. I will include them here, as I am focusing on CBS leagues. I don’t expect a Hilltopper to make or break your league, but it is something to be aware of.
Here is one fantasy sleeper per team; some of these will make a large enough splash in the largest of player pools, while others are only worth consideration in smaller player universes:
| Army |
Ali Villanueva (WR) |
| Navy |
Ricky Dobbs (QB) |
| Notre Dame |
Kyle Rudolph (TE) |
| Western Kentucky |
Tyrell Hayden (RB) |
Quarterbacks
Besides the fact that Jimmy Clausen looks like an emu, he’s the best fantasy option among the independent teams. I wouldn’t get too excited by the fact that he could throw against Hawaii, but he at least has a firm hold on the starting job (college football, thy name is ‘position battle’), and has good receiving option. Plus, he’ll get to throw against many teams’ backups when they fall way behind (Zing!). Jokes aside, I actually like Notre Dame to win 10 games this year, and think Clausen’s junior year could be an intriguing fantasy option.
I tabbed Ricky Dobbs as a sleeper, because he is widely considered the best-equipped QB for the triple-option that Navy has had. You could do worse when seeking out a backup QB, and Navy does play that nice, Service Academy schedule that will provide plenty of terrible defenses to match up with. For instance, in October, while Tim Tebow has to go on the road to Baton Rouge, and follow it up with trendy SEC sleeper pick Arkansas, Dobbs gets Rice and SMU in back to back weeks. Now, you’re never sitting Tim Tebow, but you get the idea. Dobbs is a terrific player to use in virtually every game this season, outside of the week 1 matchup with Ohio State and the week 3 at Pitt. And, depending on your team, and the size of your league, I’d start him against Pitt. Exactly what you want in a backup QB option, and if he lives up to the hype, so much the better.
Chip Bowden was Army’s leading rusher a year ago, but is not really a good fantasy option. Army is too far away from being a competitive team to consider it. Brandon Smith seems to have the starting job in Bowling Green, KY (Bowling Green of Urban Meyer fame is in Ohio), but is also not worth your attention on draft day.
Running Backs
Armando Allen is the Notre Dame back getting all the publicity, but surprising to me anyways, Accuscore is predicting almost even production in week 1 v. Nevada out of Allen and Robert Hughes. They don’t offer full season simulations, but it interesting how much this differs from the CBS season long projection, which is more heavily tilted in Allen’s favor. I’d say Allen is the back you want, but Hughes may be worth a flier in some leagues. Even James Aldridge got a fair amount of carries a year ago (and in the sim mentioned above), so this is definitely not a one-man show for now.
Notre Dame backs are by no means elite options heading into your fantasy draft, as the line hasn’t shown the ability to make holes for anyone. For what it’s worth, they have returning starters, but if they couldn’t block before, how safe do you feel gambling on their ability to learn?
Navy and Army both run heavily run-oriented offenses, but there are probably too many backs to get viable fantasy production out of any single one. Patrick Mealy is your best bet at Army, and he’s shown ability before, but is coming back from a hamstring injury in 2008. At Navy it’s a toss up between Marcus Curry and Bobby Doyle for me. Both are sleeper picks, but they could be the kind of big play back you’d want, if forced to take one from the pool of independents. Western Kentucky is moving away from the spread and more towards a traditional running game, but I still don’t expect you’ll want to do anything more than play matchups with Tyrell Hayden- and there aren’t many (if any) teams in the FBS worse than the Hilltoppers.
Wide Receivers
I’ve compared fantasy WRs to pitchers in fantasy baseball, where if you’re outside the top, stud guys, you’re better off waiting on drafting them until later and playing for sleepers and matchups. The catch is in CBS leagues you will need to draft 4 of them in your 14 picks, and start 3 of them. But WR production varies wildly from week to week.
There are two elite options at WR, as Michael Floyd and Golden Tate are both worth starting every week if you own them. Remember, your league will have 10 teams, and each team will need to draft 3 guys. You’ll probably end up taking these guys within the first few rounds (depending on the size of your player universe).
After that, Jake Gaebler at Western Kentucky is on the verge of setting a school record for receptions, and is a consistent option at WR. I chose Ali Villanueva of Army as a sleeper, as the coaches moved him from the offensive line (he’s 6’10”!) to WR to hopefully cure some red zone woes. And in fantasy, as in regular football: TDs are everything; yards are secondary. I could see using Gaebler in many more situations, but if the bye weeks have you stuck, and you’re having trouble finding that 3rd WR to start, you could do worse than taking a flier on Army’s new found red zone option.
Tight Ends
There is only one TE among the independents worth having, and I have him as a sleeper pick, nationally. Notre Dame’s Kyle Rudolph is that man. While defenses key on the top two receivers on his squad, Rudolph should get his fair share of the action. For the most part, my strategy with TEs is to go almost week-to-week with them, so he’s definitely an option worth a look.
Army and Navy run offenses where no one is even really considered a ‘tight end’, so you can just ignore those guys. And I wouldn’t bother with WKU’s Tristan Jones, either. Though the new offensive coordinator there promises more two-TE sets, so an option could appear among the walk-ons, I just don’t see it happening. There are too many other guys on too many better teams I’ll be taking my chances with.
Kickers
“Don’t draft one till the end.” “Don’t carry a backup.” “It’s a waste of time to try to rate one versus another for fantasy purposes.” “Just play the matchups.” Are you getting tired of this? For every league I see a draft, there’s always 3-4 people who ignore this advice. And handicap their teams as a result.
Defense / Special Teams
I don’t think any of the indepdent teams' D/ST are worth drafting. Notre Dame has supposedly been adding lots of talent, but make them show you the results first. Look elsewhere for fantasy D/ST.
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