College Football DFS Playbook & Core Plays: Week 1 Saturday Early Slate Top DraftKings & FanDuel CFB DFS Picks
College Football Week 1 continues on with a full Saturday slate of games for our CFB DFS lineups! If you're looking to build CFB daily fantasy lineups on DraftKings or FanDuel, we have you covered. Check out all the CFB DFS top picks, lineup strategy, teams to target, and value plays to lock in. Remember, you can access all of our College Football DFS coverage with a Fantasy Alarm All-Pro Subscription. If you have any questions about CFB daily fantasy lineup strategy for Week 1 or beyond, ask away in the Fantasy Alarm Discord chat. Plus, check out our college football daily projections and the CFB DFS lineup generator for more winning picks. Now, let's get into the CFB DFS top plays and lineup picks for College Football Week 1.
CFB DFS Playbook College Football Week 1
Before we get into the specific players, let's just discuss the setup of the college football daily fantasy slate for Saturday. DraftKings has a main slate consisting of games in the 12 pm ET block and through the 4 pm ET kickoffs. However, FanDuel does things differently with an all-day slate beginning early and including some night games starting at 7 pm ET and later. FD also has an early-only and night-only slates. This makes lineup strategy very different for the early games whether you're playing on FD or DK. In this playbook, we will mostly focus on the top plays for the DraftKings early main slate. There will be some players that are also on the main FD slate, but be sure to also get exposure to the Ohio State, Alabama and other top offenses. Keep an eye out for Pete Cole's night slate playbook for more top plays on the FD side of things. Without further ado, let's get into the CFB DFS top plays for Saturday's College Football Week 1 afternoon matchups.
College Football Week 1 Saturday Early Slate Betting Odds
- 12 pm ET – Sam Houston at Texas A&M (-30.5) – 48 O/U *DK ONLY*
- 12 pm ET – Rutgers at Boston College (-7) – 48 O/U
- 12 pm ET – NC State (-11.5) at East Carolina – 52 O/U
- 12 pm ET – North Carolina at Appalachian State (-1) – 56 O/U
- 12 pm ET – Buffalo at Maryland (-24) – 65 O/U *DK ONLY*
- 12 pm ET – Colorado State at Michigan (-30.5) – 62 O/U
- 2:30 pm ET – Bowling Green at UCLA (-23.5) – 56.5 O/U *DK ONLY*
- 3:30 pm ET – Cincinnati at Arkansas (-6.5) – 53 O/U
- 3:30 pm ET – Oregon at Georgia (-17) – 54 O/U
- 3:30 pm ET – Arizona at San Diego State (-6) – 46.5 O/U
- 3:30 pm ET – UTEP at Oklahoma (-30) – 57 O/U
- 3:30 pm ET – Houston (-4) at UTSA – 62 O/U
- 4 pm ET – Troy at Ole Miss (-21.5) – 57 O/U *DK ONLY*
- 4 pm ET – BYU (-12) at South Florida – 58.5 O/U *DK ONLY*
Top Implied Team Totals
- Michigan – 46.25
- Maryland – 44.5
- Oklahoma – 43.5
- UCLA – 40
- Ole Miss – 39.25
- Texas A&M – 39.25
- Georgia – 35.5
- BYU – 35.25
- Houston – 33
- NC State – 31.75
- Arkansas – 29.75
- UTSA – 29
- Appalachian State – 28.5
- North Carolina – 27.5
- Boston College – 27.5
- San Diego State – 26.25
- Cincinnati – 23.25
- South Florida – 23.25
CFB DFS Quarterbacks Week 1 Saturday
| Player | Team | Opp. | DK $ | DK FPPG | FD $ | FD FPPG |
| Dillon Gabriel | OU | UTEP | 9200 | 35.02 | 12000 | 33.89 |
| With Caleb Williams and Spencer Rattler both transferring out, we now have Dillon Gabriel as the Sooners’ QB this year. The UCF transfer ran a high-scoring, uptempo offense last year and he’ll do the same at OU with his former OC Jeff Lebby now running the attack with Lincoln Riley gone. It’s a lot of moving pieces, but Gabriel should be a stud DFS QB all year with the Sooners scoring 40-50 points regularly. He has the ceiling to throw for 300+ yards and 4 TD against a weak UTEP defense. Still, limit to GPPs because of the blowout factor and expensive price tag. | ||||||
| Dorian Thompson-Robinson | UCLA | BGSU | 9000 | 26.96 | ||
| DTR is back for UCLA and he’ll be a top-tier DFS QB yet again with his elite dual-threat ability. He ran for 612 yards and 9 TD a year ago and may even do more on the ground with another year in Chip Kelly’s system. Though he’s expensive, the upside for 30-40 DK points is there against a softer Bowling Green defense. The blowout risk is also in play here, but DTR may still do plenty for our lineups to build that lead. | ||||||
| Taulia Tagovailoa | UMD | BUFF | 8700 | 22.34 | ||
| The Maryland offense could go overlooked on this slate with so many other top players and teams in action. Tagovailoa deserves his high price tag because he’s shown the upside for 30+ DFS points in an offense that’s built around his throwing ability. Buffalo’s defense shouldn’t slow down the Terps much here and a Taulia pairing with one of his receivers is a great way to go. He has a great WR corps at his disposal with Demus, Jarrett and Davis all returning. Taulia is firmly in play in all formats with Maryland’s large implied team total and the Terps defense probably letting Buffalo hang around to keep the starters in. | ||||||
| Clayton Tune | UH | UTSA | 7900 | 20.58 | 9500 | 21.33 |
| This Houston-UTSA matchup is looking like a great one to target for DFS purposes. Both Clayton Tune and Frank Harris are solid options at QB if you want a mini-stack in GPPs. As for Tune, he’s coming off a good season of 3,544 passing yards and 30 TD at the helm of Houston’s pass-centric offense. With how much he’ll be throwing it, the floor for 20-30 DK is definitely there and there’s upside for more if he tosses 3-4 TD. The Tune-Dell pairing may be popular in cash. | ||||||
| Jaren Hall | BYU | USF | 7200 | 24.33 | ||
| The BYU-USF game could be a sneaky source of DFS production in the late-afternoon window. Jaren Hall returns as BYU’s QB after an impressive campaign last year. The USF defense was one to target last season and that should be the case again. Though Hall’s WR corps is a bit banged up (see below), Hall can still give us 25-30 DFS points at an affordable price point. Plus, he has a little bit of rushing upside after running for 307 yards and three TD last season. | ||||||
| Drake Maye | UNC | APPST | 7100 | 6.88 | 10200 | 37.26 |
| After winning UNC’s starting job this fall, Maye came out and threw 5 TD in last week’s opener. Yes, that came in an easy matchup against Florida A&M. Still, that upside is good to see from a first-year starter who should keep the UNC offense nearly as high-scoring as Sam Howell last year. This matchup on the road at App State gets tougher, but Maye is still weirdly priced low on DK. That may make him popular. It’s tough to pay for him on FD, though. | ||||||
| Gerry Bohanon | USF | BYU | 5600 | 20.4 | ||
| The Baylor transfer is now the starting QB for USF and he’s a really good value option on the DK slate. There’s no reason for Bohanon to be priced below 6k after averaging 20 DK last year and showing the upside for 30+ DFS points. He has some dual-threat ability with nine rushing scores a season ago and may be asked to do more of that for USF starting this week in a potentially high-scoring game vs. BYU. He makes for a solid Super-Flex cash QB. | ||||||
| Gavin Hardison | UTEP | OU | 4600 | 14.49 | 6200 | 16.62 |
| Hardison is extremely cheap for a starting QB no matter the circumstance. He’s especially attractive when you consider he’ll likely be throwing it a ton while playing catch-up to Oklahoma’s offense. Though the OU defense expects to be better, it was still very questionable last year and usually allowed decent DFS performances from opposing QBs. Either way, the volume alone should make Hardison a solid Super-Flex on the cheap. | ||||||
Other QBs To Consider:
- Jaxson Dart – Ole Miss (if starting)
- KJ Jefferson – Arkansas (GPP)
- Frank Harris – UTSA (Cash)
- Phil Jurkovec – Boston College (GPP)
- Cole Snyder – Buffalo (GPP)
CFB DFS Running Back Week 1 Saturday
| Player | Team | Opp. | DK $ | DK FPPG | FD $ | FD FPPG |
| Eric Gray | OU | UTEP | 8100 | 8.47 | 8400 | 5.68 |
| With Kennedy Brooks gone, Eric Gray moves into the lead RB role for Oklahoma this season. Even though Lincoln Riley is gone, the Sooners will still be an uptempo and high-scoring offense under former UCF and Ole Miss OC Jeff Lebby. We should see a big statistical jump for Gray this year after he played a backup role to Brooks last season. It may be tough to pay up for him in a likely blowout, but Gray could easily go for 100+ yards and 2-3 TD to build that lead. | ||||||
| Zach Charbonnet | UCLA | BGSU | 7900 | 21.53 | ||
| Charbonnet gets one of the better matchups on this slate against a Bowling Green rush defense that struggled last year. Even though the blowout is in play, we could see him put up a big stat line of 100+ yards and multiple scores. People could stay away because of the expensive price, but the upside to be the slate’s highest scorer is there. Charbonnet quickly emerged as a workhorse for UCLA last year and he should get fed a ton of carries early on until the offense finds other playmakers outside of DTR. | ||||||
| Zach Evans | MISS | TROY | 7800 | 22.63 | ||
| After transferring from TCU, Evans is now the starting RB for Ole Miss. He beat out Ulysses Bentley for the lead role and looks set for a huge season as the top rusher for this high-powered Ole Miss offense. The Rebels backfield is replacing all of Snoop Conner, Jerrion Ealy and Henry Parrish from last season and Evans will be a huge part of that. He’s one of the best RBs in the country and racked up 778 total yards and six TD in just six games last year. Expect him to be popular on the DK slate for cash. | ||||||
| Christopher Brooks | BYU | USF | 6100 | 11.65 | ||
| The Cal transfer is now the starting RB for BYU with Tyler Allgeier leaving. He’s built similarly to Allgeier as a bigger-bodied bruising RB that the Cougars love to feature, and the team is expecting big things. Even though he played on a bad Cal team last year, Brooks still averaged 5.2 ypc and showed his pass-catching ability out of the backfield. There’s a chance BYU leans on Brown and the run game with a banged-up WR room and as two-score favorites on the road against a suspect USF defense. The price is very nice and he makes for an excellent cash option. | ||||||
| Jordan Houston | NCST | ECU | 5900 | 2.71 | 7500 | 2.50 |
| Houston is now NC State’s starting RB after backing up Zonovan Knight and Ricky Person Jr. last year. Though he hasn’t done much in his career to this point, the Wolfpack backfield has been productive from a real-life and DFS standpoint in recent seasons. The competition for touches is a lot better with Knight and Person gone. ECU’s defense was soft against the run last year and we may see an under-the-radar performance from Houston here. | ||||||
| Donovan Edwards | MICH | CSU | 5000 | 8.81 | 6600 | 7.49 |
| Edwards is a very good value on both sites. Michigan’s backfield workload is expected to be split between Edwards and Blake Corum as co-starters. This was a similar situation last year with Corum and Hassan Haskins. With Haskins gone, Edwards now moves into a more prominent role in the Michigan offense and he won’t not be this cheap for long. There’s a realistic scenario where Edwards and Corum both go for 100+ yards and multiple scores in a higher-scoring blowout win over Colorado State. Edwards is massively cheaper than Corum though. | ||||||
| Roman Hemby | UMD | BUFF | 4000 | 10.1 | ||
| The redshirt freshman was named the starting RB for Maryland but he’s not priced like it. The cheap salary could make him popular in cash. The Terps have rotated in backs under Locksley, so just keep in mind that risk when rostering Hemby. Still, we have a starting RB at 4k for a sizable favorite on a Maryland team projected to score 40+ points. Those facts cannot go overlooked despite how many times this backfield has screwed us in the past. | ||||||
| Keegan Jones | UCLA | BGSU | 3700 | 1.9 | ||
| Charbonnet is the headliner in the Bruins backfield, but don’t overlook Jones here as the backup. During Chip Kelly’s tenure at UCLA, he consistently uses a two-back system with the second guy seeing plenty of touches despite not being the “starter.” Jones only had 26 carries last year but he’s expected to take on a much bigger role with Brittain Brown gone. There’s definite upside to smash value if he’s getting second-half carries with UCLA up big on Bowling Green. | ||||||
| Omarion Hampton | UNC | APPST | 3000 | 0 | 8700 | 22.10 |
| What is DraftKings doing with this pricing? Hampton led UNC’s backfield with 14 carries for 101 yards and two TD last week despite previously being listed as a backup to DJ Jones on the depth chart. Expect Hampton to be very popular on DK at the min price tag for whatever reason. He’s priced up on FD and tough to trust at that salary until we see how the workload shakes out in this second game. It’s possible Jones sees more carries, but Hampton has clearly earned more playing time moving forward. | ||||||
Other RBs To Consider:
- Devon Achane – Texas A&M (GPP)
- Ta'Zhawn Henry – Houston (GPP)
- Nate Noel – Appalachian State (Cash/GPP)
- Trelon Smith – UTSA (GPP)
- Mike Washington – Buffalo (GPP)
CFB DFS Wide Receivers Week 1 Saturday
| Player | Team | Opp. | DK $ | DK FPPG | FD $ | FD FPPG |
| Josh Downs | UNC | APPST | 8200 | 23.04 | 9700 | 24.30 |
In last week’s opener, Downs picked up right where he left off a year ago. UNC’s top wideout had nine receptions, 78 yards and two TD and it looks like he’ll be Drake Maye’s favorite target just like he was last season with Sam Howell. He was a PPR machine last year and should see a healthy amount of targets and receptions every game. There are rumors he’s dealing with some type of injury from last week, but fire him up in cash if he’s active. We should see Maye lean on Downs yet again in a tougher road environment. EDIT: Downs appears out today after not going through warmups. Gavin Blackwell gets a boost now. | ||||||
| Nathaniel Dell | UH | UTSA | 7800 | 22.39 | 9500 | 16.75 |
| Dell is back as Houston’s clear-cut top WR and he’s one of the best receivers in college football. As Tune’s favorite target last season, Dell had 90 receptions for 1,329 yards and 12 TD. His DFS floor is pretty high as a PPR machine and a guy that Tune looks for early and often. Yes, he’s expensive, but there’s enough value on this slate to get him into cash lineups. | ||||||
| Dontay Demus Jr. | UMD | BUFF | 6800 | 20.94 | ||
| Demus is back from a torn ACL last year and all reports in camp are that he’s ready to go this week. Maybe his snaps will be limited in the first game back, but he can still go off for 100+ yards and multiple TDs as Tagovailoa’s top target when he’s on the field. Demus was a stud before getting hurt last season and should get right back to being a favorite target for Taulia. Rakim Jarrett and Jeshaun Jones are worth consideration too if you want a piece of Maryland’s passing game. | ||||||
| Joshua Cephus | UTSA | UH | 5500 | 14.17 | 6800 | 12.29 |
| The UTSA receiving corps may go a bit overlooked on this slate with so many other ways to go. However, we may want a piece of the UTSA offense in a likely back-and-forth and high-scoring battle with Houston. While Zakhari Franklin is the headliner, Cephus is much more affordable and could end up with a similar stat line. He was a reliable target for Frank Harris most of last year and can put up 15-20 DFS points easily with the upside for more. | ||||||
| Jake Bobo | UCLA | BGSU | 5000 | 14.03 | ||
| UCLA needs to replace the receiving production of Kyle Phillips and Greg Dulcich with both off to the NFL. In comes Jake Bobo, a Duke transfer who’s coming off an impressive season of 74 receptions for 794 yards. He was the main playmaker for Duke and could be a top target for Thompson-Robinson in the UCLA offense right away. The 5k price tag on DK is very affordable for someone who was a PPR machine last year. | ||||||
| Matt Landers | ARK | CINCY | 4900 | 15.34 | 7100 | 11.62 |
| The Toledo transfer has earned a starting WR role with Arkansas. He could end up having a big role in a Razorbacks offense that will have to replace the production of Treylon Burks. The former Georgia transfer has a ton of physical ability and has drawn praise from the coaching staff in camp. He’s very affordable on DK and shouldn’t be that cheap for long. The Cincy defense expects to take a step back from last year and Landers may soon emerge as a favorite target for KJ Jefferson. | ||||||
| Matthew Golden | UH | UTSA | 4900 | 0 | 5300 | |
| As mentioned above, this Houston-UTSA game could be a great game to target. If you want a cheaper piece of the Cougars’ offense, look at Golden who can easily return value. The freshman is expected to be an immediate contributor for Houston’s attack and he’s drawn praise from head coach Dana Holgerson in recent practices. While Nathaniel Dell is the headliner, Golden could fly under-the-radar on this slate. There is risk because we haven’t seen him in action yet, but there’s a chance he’s not this cheap again with one big game. | ||||||
| Dashaun Davis | APPST | UNC | 4500 | 4.77 | 5000 | 0.80 |
| App State needs to replace a ton of receiving production after losing its top three WRs from last year. Corey Sutton, Thomas Hennigan and Malik Williams each went for over 800 yards in 2021 and now there’s a big void to fill. Christian Wells, Dashaun Davis, and Christian Horn are the likely guys to step up. Unfortunately we don’t have an official depth chart for App St, but Davis is expected to start in the slot. Transfers Kaedin Robinson and Tyler Page are also in the mix now. Any one of these App St wideouts could go off against a UNC pass defense that got shredded last week. | ||||||
| Jimmy Horn Jr. | USF | BYU | 4400 | 6.92 | ||
| We don’t totally know what to expect from the USF offense with Gerry Bohanon now at QB. One WR who showed flashes last year on a bad team was Jimmy Horn. He has the speed and playmaking ability to break out with a better QB throwing to him. If BYU has a lead in this one, the USF offense should be passing late and Horn has the ability to put up 15-20 DK points to return value. Xavier Weaver is another USF receiver worth considering, but Horn is much cheaper. | ||||||
| Keanu Hill | BYU | USF | 4200 | 8.04 | ||
| Though Gunner Romney and Puka Nacua are expected to play, per reports, there’s also a very real possibility both sit this week. The BYU wideouts have missed parts of fall camp with injuries and the coaching staff has been coy this week about whether or not they will play. This very well could be a situation where we find out either way during warmups before the 4 pm ET kickoff. If they are out, then Keanu Hill gets a big boost as the lone starting WR left on the depth chart. He flashed at times last year in a reserve role, but is now a starter with Neil Pau’u gone. He could be an under-the-radar late-swap GPP pivot if Romney/Nacua are out. | ||||||
| Jalil Farooq | OU | UTEP | 4100 | 5.45 | 6500 | 1.00 |
| Marvin Mims and Theo Wease are the headliners in the Oklahoma WR corps, but both are a bit too expensive on this slate. Instead, Jalil Farooq offers cheap exposure to the high-scoring Sooners offense and may end up being a favorite target for new QB Dillon Gabriel. After barely playing last year, Farooq has earned a starting WR spot. He had a good showing in OU’s bowl game last season and carried that over into strong spring and fall camps. It’s risky because he’s unproven, but Farooq is too cheap to ignore. | ||||||
Other WRs To Consider:
- Marvin Mims – Oklahoma (GPP)
- Zay Flowers – Boston College (Cash/GPP)
- Evan Stewart – Texas A&M (GPP)
- Justin Marshall – Buffalo (Cash)
- Keyon Lesane – NC State (GPP)
- Tyrin Smith – UTEP (Cash)
- Malik Heath – Ole Miss (GPP)
- Melquan Stovall – Colorado State (Cash)
- Jeshaun Jones – Maryland (GPP)
CFB DFS Core Plays
DraftKings Cash:
- Christopher Brooks – BYU
- Omarion Hampton – UNC
- Jake Bobo – UCLA
FanDuel Cash:
- Nathaniel Dell – Houston
- Donovan Edwards – Michigan
DraftKings GPP:
- Zach Charbonnet – UCLA
- Dontay Demus – Maryland
- Jalil Farooq – Oklahoma
FanDuel GPP:
- Eric Gray – Oklahoma
- Matthew Golden – Houston
- Jordan Houston – NC State
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