College Football Daily Fantasy Helper: Saturday 10/19/19 Late Slate

Week 8 of college football is here! FanDuel's Saturday night college football DFS late slate includes 12 games.

In case you're unfamiliar with how it works, you can check out the rules and scoring on FanDuel, where you can hit the lobby each week to see the full array of slates and contests being offered.

As for the basics, your roster consists of a quarterback slot, two running back slots, three wide receiver slots (which also includes tight ends) and one super flex slot. In the flex, you can insert one player from any position, including quarterbacks.

Here, our goal is to help you field a roster full of fantasy goodness, and in true numberFire fashion, we'll use our in-house projections as well as betting totals and advanced statistics to tackle as many slates as possible in the lead-up to the College Football Playoff. This week, we are only breaking down Saturday's late slate, which locks at 7:00 p.m. EST.

Let's breakdown which players are in great spots as well as identify some players with cheap price tags that will allow you to roster the high dollar players.

Quarterbacks

Anthony Gordon, Washington State (10,900) - Gordon leads the nation with 2,612 yards passing in six games this season. The senior signal caller is tied for second nationally with 25 touchdown passes. If that's not impressive enough, Gordon has cleared 420 yards passing in five games this season. There's no telling how much damage Gordon will inflict upon the Colorado Buffaloes' defense this week. Colorado has surrendered 14 touchdown passes in six games, and they're allowing 307.2 passing yards per game.

Kedon Slovis, USC (8,300) - The freshman has done an outstanding job directing the Air Raid offense. In the three full games that Slovis has started and finished, he's averaging 304 yards passing and slightly more than two touchdown passes. Slovis should have no problem piling up yardage and tossing a couple of touchdown passes against the Arizona Wildcats' atrocious pass defense. The Wildcats rank 129th in passing yards allowed (out of 130 FBS teams).

Jordan Love, Utah State (7,600) - Based on talent and matchup, the Utah State Aggies' quarterback is underpriced this week. Pegged as an early round NFL Draft pick in 2020, Love has had an inconsistent junior season. The Aggies' signal caller is averaging 222.8 passing yards, one touchdown, and slightly more than one interception per game this season. I'm expecting Love to play his best game of the year coming off a bye week. He should have no issues taking advantage of the Nevada Wolf Pack's porous pass defense. The Wolf Pack have given up 20 passing touchdowns to opposing quarterbacks this season (also allowing 297 yards passing per game).

Others to consider: Tua Tagovailoa, Sam Ehlinger, Jamie Newman (if he plays), Sam Hartman (if Newman is out), Cole McDonald, Kellen Mond, Dillon Gabriel, Donald Hammond III, Chase Cord (if Hank Bachmeier is out), and Carter Stanley

Running Backs

Kenneth Gainwell, Memphis (9,900) - Gainwell has eclipsed 100 yards rushing in four straight games. The freshman running back has found paydirt in five straight games. The talented runner leads the Memphis Tigers with 726 yards rushing and seven touchdowns on 95 carries. He also has 25 receptions for 237 yards and one receiving touchdown this season. Patrick Taylor Jr., may return this week but he's been out for five games. I'd imagine that he'd be limited if he returns to the lineup this week. Gainwell is my top running back on this slate.

Max Borghi, Washington State (9,100) - Borghi, the multi-purpose back, leads the Washington State Cougars with 407 yards rushing and five touchdowns on 58 carries. He's also caught 27 passes for 271 yards and one touchdown. The former Colorado-commit has averaged 129 total yards in three PAC-12 conference games this season. Colorado and Washington should have no problem lighting up the scoreboard this week as both teams rank in the bottom 15 of the FBS in total defense.

Markese Stepp, USC (6,600) - With Vavae Malepeai out, Stepp is expected to split playing time with Stephen Carr in the Southern California Trojans' backfield. Stepp should receive the majority of carries since Carr is more of a receiver than runner. The freshman ran for 82 yards on 10 carries and scored a touchdown in last week's loss to Notre Dame. At 6,600, Stepp is underpriced for the role he's stepping into this week.

Others to consider: Cam Akers, Najee Harris, Adrian Killins Jr., Greg McRae, Otis Anderson, Alex Fontenot, Pooka Williams Jr., George Holani, Robert Mahone, Kadin Remsburg, Gerald Bright, Brian Robinson Jr.

Wide Receivers

Easop Winston Jr., Washington State (9,500) - Winston Jr. has a strong connection with Cougars quarterback Anthony Gordon, going back to junior college in San Francisco. The junior wide receiver has 26 receptions in the Cougars' last three games. Five of those receptions have gone for touchdowns. Look for Washington State's leading receiver to have a field day against Colorado's atrocious pass defense.

Laviska Shenault Jr., Colorado (8,400) - Colorado's star wide receiver caught 86 passes for 1,011 yards and scored eight touchdowns in his 2018 breakout season. Shenault Jr. is off to a relatively slow start this campaign. He has 21 receptions, 296 yards receiving, and two touchdown receptions in five games this season. A matchup with Washington State is precisely the type of matchup that could get Shenault Jr. back on track. Washington State has allowed five pass receptions over 50 yards in the last three games. The Cougars are allowing 47.7 points per game in the last three games.

Amon-Ra St. Brown, USC (7,800) - St. Brown had, arguably, his best game of the season versus Notre Dame, catching eight passes for 112 yards and one touchdown in last week's loss. The sophomore wide receiver has at least five receptions in four out of five games this season. With USC's second leading wide receiver, Tyler Vaughns, availability in question, expect St. Brown and Michael Pittman Jr. to be targeted early and often. As noted in the Slovis section, the matchup with Arizona is phenomenal.

Others to consider: Cedric Byrd Jr., Sage Surratt, Gabriel Davis, Jerry Jeudy, JoJo Ward, Devin DuVernay, Henry Ruggs II, John Hightower, Dez Patmon, Michael Pittman Jr., Jauan Jennings, Quartney Davis, Tamorrion Terry, Scotty Washington, Kendall Hinton, Elijah Moore, Andrew Parchment, Jhamon Ausbon, Tony Brown, Siaosi Mariner (if he plays), Travell Harris, Collin Johnson, Gerald Sanders, Brennan Eagles, Savon Scarver, Jordan Nathan, Renard Bell, Jaylen Waddle, Davontavean Martin, Ainis Smith, Caleb Repp (if he plays)

Matthew Hiatt is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Matthew Hiatt also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username easternmh. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his/her personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in his articles are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.