CFF Keep Or Cut? – Week 4
The first order of business each week of the College Fantasy Football season is to evaluate the players on your roster and decide if there are players that could be cut to make room for new talent. Purple Reign has reviewed last week’s action and identified several players that fantasy owners may be considering the “Keep Or Cut?” question for.
QUARTERBACKS: Keep
Noah Fifita (Ariz)
Fantrax Ownership 84%
Season Stats: 99 Att, 63 Comp, 863 P-Yds, 5 P-TD, 3 INT, 7 Ru-Att, 3 Ru-Yds, 0 Ru-TD
Fifita has had two poor performances against Northern Arizona and Kansas State. During these two games he’s thrown more INTs than TDs, and has averaged less than 7 yards per pass attempt. What makes this puzzling is that his performances have been so similar despite playing very different opponents. Fifita has a bye followed by a tough match-up with Utah, so you won’t get a good read on Fifita until Week 6 against Texas Tech. Until then you should hold the course and keep him on your bench.
Grayson McCall (NCSt)
Fantrax Ownership 73%
Season Stats: 75 Att, 50 Comp, 476 P-Yds, 3 P-TD, 2 INT, 18 Ru-Att, 44 Ru-Yds, 0 Ru-TD
There’s trouble brewing with McCall. After a good season debut, his stats have nosedived. The Tennessee game was a mismatch of talent, but the Week 3 game with Louisiana Tech was not. Over the last two games McCall is averaging less than 5 yards/pass attempt and has no passing TDs. I’m not mentioning other stats since he left the Louisiana Tech game early with an injury. But injury aside, his passing production is way too low, and he is not getting the rushing opportunities to make up for it. I’m leaving him on the Keep list for now because he has a good stretch of match-ups starting in Week 5 with Northern Illinois, Wake Forest, and Syracuse.
QUARTERBACKS: Cut
Jalon Daniels (Kans)
Fantrax Ownership 68%
Season Stats: 71 Att, 39 Comp, 442 P-Yds, 3 P-TD, 6 INT, 21 Ru-Att, 100 Ru-Yds, 2 Ru-TD
The time has come to bury Daniels from fantasy relevancy this season. The dynamic runner got the majority of his rushing yards and all of his rushing TDs in Week 3. The ground production just isn’t there and that’s probably because he or the coaches are concerned about his prior back injury. Without the type of rushing production we were expecting Daniels would need to be throwing the ball at least 30 times a game and he is coming up well short of that. To add on top of all of this, Daniels is averaging 2 INTs per game and while he is a veteran, he’s not a strong enough passer to cut down on the INTs dramatically moving forward.
Brayden Schager (Hawaii)
Fantrax Ownership 40%
Season Stats: 118 Att, 63 Comp, 682 P-Yds, 4 P-TD, 3 INT, 31 Ru-Att, 47 Ru-Yds, 2 Ru-TD
There were hopes that Schager would elevate his game in year two as the starting quarterback but that doesn’t appear to be the case. He had a good showing in the season opener against an FCS team, but things have gotten worse since then. Against UCLA and Sam Houston State, Schager averaged 239.5 yards on 42 pass attempts and 1 TD per game. The fact his stats are nearly identical in both of those games is concerning as you would have liked to see his production increase against Sam Houston State. Its hard to have faith in him as a spot-start fantasy QB moving forward if he isn’t able to come through against a school like Sam Houston State.
RUNNING BACKS: Keep
Ollie Gordon (OkSt)
Fantrax Ownership 100%
Season Stats: 61 Att, 194 Ru-Yds, 3 Ru-TD, 9 Tgt, 7 Rec, 66 Rc-Yds, 1 Rc-TD
Should we start getting worried about Gordon? Kind of. His rushing workload is good as he’s averaging 20.3 carries per game, but he is only averaging 3.18 yards/carry. He has not broke 3.0 yards/carry in the last two games against Arkansas and Tulsa. The Tulsa game is eye-catching to me as this should have been a game where he averaged over 5 yards/carry. The offensive line might not be up to snuff yet this season and that’s something to watch for as the year progresses. The other item of concern is how the offense is throwing the ball more in the red zone compared to letting Gordon hammer it in. Don’t give up just yet and wait to see how he performs against West Virginia in Week 6.
RUNNING BACKS: Cut
Gavin Sawchuk (Okla)
Fantrax Ownership 99%
Season Stats: 16 Att, 35 Ru-Yds, 0 Ru-TD, 3 Tgt, 2 Rec, 10 Rc-Yds, 0 Rc-TD
I keep saying this every week, DROP SAWCHUK. In three games he has produced the stat line listed above and I am absolutely flabbergasted that he is still being owned in 99% of Fantrax leagues. 16 carries in three games! I believe my readers are smarter than the folks holding onto him but if by chance you still have him on your roster please understand, this isn’t going to get better.
Jahiem White (WVU)
Fantrax Ownership 98%
Season Stats: 31 Att, 182 Ru-Yds, 2 Ru-TD, 5 Tgt, 3 Rec, 10 Rc-Yds, 0 Rc-TD
White has fallen victim to the split backfield workload. He is currently running as the RB1-B but being productive in his limited opportunities. For White to be fantasy relevant he needs a larger amount of carries since he is being involved in the passing game seldomly. Last week’s game with Pitt gave us all we needed to see with the split carry question. He played a quality Power 4 opponent in a game that was competitive until the end. The coaches have made up their minds and I have a hard time seeing White averaging more than 15 carries/game moving forward.
Marcus Carroll (MIZ)
Fantrax Ownership 86%
Season Stats: 30 Att, 154 Ru-Yds, 1 Ru-TD, 4 Tgt, 4 Rec, 24 Rc-Yds, 0 Rc-TD
I was honestly shocked to see that Carroll was still being rostered in 86% of Fantrax leagues. We heard in fall camp that he was running second string. Through all three games this season he has been #2 behind Nate Noel and only averaging 10 carries/game. This has not wavered once in three weeks. If you are one of the fantasy owners still hanging onto Carroll you need to change that FAST!
Jordan Waters (NCSt)
Fantrax Ownership 65%
Season Stats: 37 Att, 155 Ru-Yds, 2 Ru-TD, 3 Tgt, 2 Rec, 19 Rc-Yds, 0 Rc-TD
Waters just isn’t getting the type of workload you need out of a fantasy running back. In the last two weeks he has averaged 8.5 carries/game, and against Louisiana Tech could only produce 36 yards. All of his TDs this season came against an FCS opponent. As the Wolfpack head into conference play they will need to lean on the passing game since the offensive line is struggling to open holes for the running backs. Just cut your losses and move on.
Kaleb Jackson (LSU)
Fantrax Ownership 64%
Season Stats: 20 Att, 69 Ru-Yds, 0 Ru-TD, 2 Tgt, 2 Rec, 13 Rc-Yds, 0 Rc-TD
Two major factors have killed Jackson’s fantasy value. The first is the coaches insistence on using a three running back rotation. The second is that LSU just isn’t running the ball very much, instead opting to throw the ball over and over again. Jackson is only averaging 6.66 carries/game and when it comes to carry distribution he is typically the second or third option of the running backs. This is another example of just too many cooks in the kitchen keeping Jackson from having a fantasy relevant workload.
Roman Hemby (MD)
Fantrax Ownership 52%
Season Stats: 36 Att, 134 Ru-Yds, 1 Ru-TD, 8 Tgt, 8 Rec, 28 Rc-Yds, 0 Rc-TD
Last week I advised to keep Hemby as long as he gets around 18 carries against Virginia. Going into that game he was averaging 13 carries/game but against Virginia he received just 10 carries. It looks like the coaches are set in their approach of splitting carries between Hemby and Nolan Ray. The writing is on the wall and it says cut and run from Hemby.
WIDE RECEIVERS: Keep
Ricky White (UNLV)
Fantrax Ownership 100%
Season Stats: 20 Tgt, 10 Rec, 126 Rc-Yds, 3 Rc-TD, 1 Att, 1 Ru-Yd, 0 Ru-TD
I do think there is genuine concern right now when it comes to White. If you remove the FCS game from his production, White only has 5 receptions for 15 yards and 0 TDs. OUCH! One thing that is not helping White is QB Matt Sluka’s 43.8% completion rate. This needs to improve and hopes are that it should start improving once conference play starts. UNLV has played the majority of it’s difficult non-conference opponents. The two games where White’s stats have been awful have been against Houston and Kansas. Conference play is coming and White should bounce back.
Evan Stewart (Oreg)
Fantrax Ownership 100%
Season Stats: 16 Tgt, 11 Rec, 153 Rc-Yds, 1 Rc-TD
There is valid reasoning behind holding onto Stewart until conference play starts as he produced his only good game this season against Boise State. That game was the most competitive game Oregon has had, and it might show that he can be a top target in these contested match-ups where Oregon can’t just run the ball as they please. But in the other two games he has a total of 9 targets for 6 receptions, 41 yards and no TDs. Outside of Tez Johnson this passing game looks like it is spreading the ball around to all the pass catching options. You won’t get a good match-up to evaluate if Stewart is worth keeping until Week 7 when Oregon plays Ohio State. The UCLA and Michigan State games before that will likely feature an Oregon ground game that will be able to do what it wants.
Joey Hobert (TxSt)
Fantrax Ownership 99%
Season Stats: 23 Tgt, 18 Rec, 190 Rc-Yds, 2 Rc-TD, 2 Att, -1 Ru-Yds, 0 Ru-TD
What I like most about Hobert is that you can see he is still the top target that the passing offense wants to work through. His 7.67 targets/game is just below the 9 targets/game he averaged last season. What’s concerning about Hobert is the lack of productivity stats. He has yet to break 100 yards in a game (ave 63.3 yards/game), and has not been a regular red zone target. In fact the Texas State passing game has been targeting #3 and #4 WRs most in the red zone this season. Is this a shift in the coach’s focus? Is QB Jordan McCloud just looking at other WRs? Or have defenses been locking down on Hobert which is creating the scoring opportunities for these other WRs? At this time I don’t have the answers to those questions. Until we have a better idea of what those answers are, just sit tight and ride out the storm.
WIDE RECEIVERS: Cut
Noah Smith (SamHu)
Fantrax Ownership 95%
Season Stats: 10 Tgt, 5 Rec, 19 Rc-Yds, 0 Rc-TD, 3 Att, 10 Ru-Yds, 0 Ru-TD
This is the last week I’m going to cover Smith in this article, even if his Fantrax ownership remains so high. The key to Smith’s fantasy value last season was a heavy workload and that is just not happening for him in 2024. Last week against Hawaii he saw 4 targets for 2 receptions and just 3 yards. In fact he has been held under 10 yards receiving in two of his three games. This is just a pathetic performance this season by Smith.