Week 12 college football DFS must-starts: Time to bench Fournette

After sticking with him over the course of the season, it's time to keep Leonard Fournette out of your lineups this week against Ole Miss.

By Matthew Coca

Nov 19, 2015 at 10:00 am ET • 5 min read

This is the toughest thing for me to say this season. Even typing it does not feel right. But it is time to fade Leonard Fournette until he has a better matchup. The return-on-investment to get Fournette in your lineup is not there over the last few weeks. Ole Miss has played great defense against the run lately and the Tigers have looked like a mess on offense. When a team’s quarterback is no threat whatsoever like Brandon Harris is for LSU, the run game is going to struggle. That is what we are seeing with LSU. IF you do want to start Fournette, he should be a tournament-only guy.

(Because I just wrote that, it can only mean that Fournette is going to run for 150 yards and two touchdowns.)

There are plenty of great matchups this weekend to choose from and it all starts with West Virginia getting a chance to play at Kansas. The Jayhawks are one of the worst teams in football against the run and that just so happens to be the Mountaineers strength. Mountaineers running back Wendell Smallwood has averaged 164 yards in his last two games and he should make a great tournament or cash play. This would definitely be a game where you could play both Smallwood and Rushel Shell because of their production and how poor Kansas is against the run.

Update: Utah running back Devontae Booker has been ruled out for this week's game.

With Houston quarterback Greg Ward banged up and Memphis quarterback Paxton Lynch playing on the road at Temple; I am most likely going to fade the AAC at quarterback. That does not mean that the skill position guys from those teams are out of play though. Houston running back Kenneth Farrow has a good matchup against Connecticut and Memphis is has plenty of skill guys that could score, but it is always tough to determine who that is going to be.

Must Starts

Quarterbacks: J.T. Barrett, Ohio State (vs. Michigan State); Marquise Williams, North Carolina (at Virginia Tech); Vernon Adams, Oregon (vs. Southern California)

Running backs: Ezekiel Elliott, Ohio State (vs. Michigan State); Royce Freeman, Oregon (vs. Southern California); Jahad Thomas, Temple (vs. Memphis)

Wide receivers: Laquon Treadwell, Ole Miss (vs. LSU); JuJu Smith-Schuster, Southern California (at Oregon); Jordan Payton, UCLA (at Utah)

Tight ends: Jake Butt, Michigan (at Penn State); Jordan Leggett, Clemson (vs. Wake Forest); Evan Engram, Ole Miss

Purdue at Iowa: It is finally time I show Iowa some fantasy love. The way they have been able to run the football this season no matter who their running back is has been a thing of beauty. Averaging 43.9 rushing attempts per game should make you feel safe investing in the Hawkeye’s ground attack.

The one problem you face when playing Iowa running backs is that it is hard to determine which back is going to have the best game. The three backs, Jordan Canzeri, LeShun Daniels Jr. and Akrum Wadley, have all rushed for 195-plus yards in a game this season. Each of them has posted 37-plus FanDuel points as well.

Purdue is ranked 112th in country when it comes to stopping the run, allowing 22 rushing touchdowns on the season. The Boilmakers live in the 100s of every defensive rushing statistic.

Daniels Jr. is most likely going to start this game for the Hawkeyes. He went for 195 yards and three touchdowns last week. Jordan Canzeri is going to get carries as the number one backup. This may be a week where you want to have a lineup that stacks the Hawkeyes backs like I have recommended with the Oklahoma Sooners backs in some weeks.

Under-the-radar

C.J. Beathard, QB, Iowa (vs. Purdue); Wendell Smallwood, RB, West Virginia University (at Kansas); Justin Jackson, RB, Northwestern (at Wisconsin); Bralon Addison, WR, Oregon (vs. Southern California); Charone Peake, WR, Clemson (vs. Wake Forest); Braxton Deaver, TE, Duke (at Virginia)

USC at Oregon: The Oregon Ducks are a completely different team with a healthy Vernon Adams at quarterback. Look at this situation like the Ohio State one. When J.T. Barrett is the quarterback for the Buckeyes, every skill player becomes a playable option. The same goes for Adams. Healthy Adams makes every Ducks player playable.

Wide receivers Darren Carrington and Bralon Addison are lethal when Vernon Adams plays. Carrington has yet to have a game where he has not scored double-digit FanDuel points. The fact that USC has been terrible against the pass this season makes Carrington a must-start for me.

When talking about Oregon, running back Royce Freeman must always be mentioned. He is having one of the best seasons this year and because of all the problems at quarterback, no one has even spoken about him. 13.8 FanDuel points is his lowest mark of the season and that is only because he failed to get into the endzone in that game. Expect him to be a reliable running back option once again.

As far as the Trojans fantasy options go, wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster and running back Ronald Jones II are the only playable guys for me. Smith-Schuster always seems to find the endzone even when he plays hurt. The Ducks pass defense is allowing 369 yards at home this year. Smith-Schuster should be in for another big game.

Michigan State at Ohio State: The biggest game for the Buckeyes season thus far is happening this weekend and I think they make a B1G statement. Quarterback J.T. Barrett is one of the best in the country when he is not wasting away on the bench. In his only two starts of the year so far he has averaged 30.72 FanDuel points.

Michigan State’s defense has not been that special this season. The secondary is allowing 7.5 yards per passing attempt and 243 passing yards per game.

Ohio State wide receiver Michael Thomas remains a great No. 2 receiver in fantasy play whenever Barrett is at the helm. Barrett and Thomas have a great rhythm together and the Spartans secondary should not slow them down.

Ezekiel Elliott is an interesting play at running back for Ohio State. Michigan State has been good this season at stopping the run, but they have not played a team like Ohio State yet this year. Elliott ran for 154 yards and two touchdowns last season at Michigan State. This year’s game is at home and Elliott should be able to have the same success.