The draft strategy that Purple Reign hangs his hat on when it comes to College Fantasy Football is targeting specific coaching systems. It is a good strategy to target players that play in roles within their offense that have a history of good fantasy production. There are times when we know who the starter is going to be, but there are also times where we don’t. When fantasy owners don’t know which player will be “the man” they utilize the “Handcuff” technique.
Handcuffing a position is a way to “corner the market” on a specific position from a specific team. You want Texas’ starting RB but there’s two guys competing for the job, which guy should you draft? When utilizing the Handcuff technique, you’ll draft both. This ensures that whoever wins the starting job is on your roster.
If you want fantasy success just remember, “greed is good.”
**This article will be updated as position battles sort themselves out through the summer**
HONORABLE MENTIONS
COASTAL CAROLINA
QB Emmett Brown
QB MJ Morris
After an underwhelming offensive performance in 2024, Coastal Carolina hired Drew Hollingshead to take over the offensive coordinator duties. During his two seasons at Western Kentucky Hollingshead’s QB1 has averaged 297 fantasy points. The quarterback position was left wide open in 2025 for Coastal Carolina and the team hit the transfer portal to finds its next starter. Emmett Brown transferred in from San Jose State and would be the slight favorite in this position battle. But he was not able to pull away enough from Maryland transfer MJ Morris in spring camp, leaving this race open for fall camp.
Update 6/12
COLORADO STATE
WR Armani Winfield
WR Jordan Ross
WR Keyonta Lanier
Offensive coordinator Matt Mumme has a knack for producing fantasy relevant wide receivers. The outside WR1 in this offense is up for grabs and we don’t have a clear picture of who’s the favorite in this position battle. Armani Winfield is the most experienced candidate with 29 career game appearances. He would be the favorite to be the WR1 for 2025. Jordan Ross is equally talented but lacks career production like Winfield does. Beat writers have mentioned Northern Arizona transfer Tay Lanier as a potential breakout player for 2025. There is a good chance that the ball gets spread around this season and we don’t see a target magnet receiver from this group.
MIDDLE TENNESSEE
TE Tayvion Galloway
TE Evan Poticher
TE Hunter Tipton
Last season Holden Willis was one of the best players on the offense and the coaching staff utilized him as a TEINO (Tight End In Name Only). He was used like a wide receiver in the offense, garnering 85 targets. The big question is if there is anyone who could play the same type of role this year? Purdue transfer Tayvion Galloway has all the physical tools to be the next TEINO for Middle Tennessee and my personal favorite to win this job. He got injured in spring camp and missed time, meaning that we won’t get a great picture of the position battle until fall camp. Evan Poticher was splitting reps with Galloway on the first team offense before Galloway went down with injury this spring. Hunter Tipton played with the #1 offense during the spring game and scored a TD.
NOTRE DAME
WR Malachi Fields
WR Jaden Greathouse
If you ignore the historical fantasy performance of offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock’s 2023 season, his WR1 tends to top out its fantasy value around 160 fantasy points. I see the Notre Dame offense throwing the ball more this season with CJ Carr under center which means that the target share for the eventual WR1 should increase. Jaden Greathouse was the WR1 for the Irish in 2024 while playing in the slot. From 2023-2022 a balanced WR role was the WR1, meaning that Greathouse could potentially fill that balanced role in the offense. Malachi Fields transferred in from Virginia and is an outside receiver, which we see was the WR1 in 2018 and 2021. Greathouse had a great spring camp but you can’t ignore Fields’ past production and talent level.
OHIO STATE
TE Will Kacmarek
TE Max Klare
When Max Klare announced he was signing with Ohio State in the winter transfer portal everyone expected him to be the TE1. When spring camp opened Klare was running with the #3 offense and it was Will Kacmarek that was running with the #1 offense. Kacmarek was already in the program and likely started spring camp with the 1’s as a seniority thing, and Klare starting with the 3’s was probably a “earn your way” in the offense thing. By the end of spring camp Kacmarek was injured and walking in a boot. I still think Klare is the guy to bet on but we just didn’t get a good enough picture from spring camp to tell exactly where this position battle is.
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