DraftKings College Football: Main Slate Week 13

This article is part of our DraftKings College Football series.

Welcome to this week's Main Slate breakdown for Week 13 over on DraftKings. We have another 11-gamer featuring 12 teams with implied totals north of 30 points. From there, we'll have plenty of teams and games to target when constructing our lineups. Oklahoma State, Iowa State, and USC will all be popular teams to stack but there are some other games off the beaten path, like Syracuse-Louisville, that offer some intrigue.

Below you'll find our suite of DFS Tools along with a sortable cheat sheet and a breakdown of my favorite plays from each position. 

DFS Tools

Stats

Targets

Team Trends

Defense vs. Position

Team Rankings

DFS Primer

Lineup Optimizer

Value Report

Podcast

Cheat Sheet

Link to above data

Position by Position

Quarterback

Kedon Slovis, USC ($7,000) vs. UCLA

Slovis was my favorite quarterback play on the board before the Spencer Sanders/Dru Brown news broke Thursday afternoon. He's 11th-most expensive quarterback on the board but he's averaging the most fantasy points per game of any signal caller on the board over the last four weeks at  33 DKPPG. With weapons like Michael Pittman Jr., Amon-Ra St. Brown, Tyler Vaughns and Drake London, Slovis is surrounded with the best receiving corps west of Louisiana. And Slovis is no slouch in his own right. In the aforementioned hot streak, Slovis is completing 68.6 percent of his passes with 15 touchdowns. And the volume has been absurd, too, with Slovis attempting 43.8 passes per game on average in that span. 

As for the matchup, UCLA allows 298.4 passing yards per game, and that number balloons to 306.7 against PAC-12 opponents. Slovis offers a great combination of skill, value, team context and favorable matchup to make him one of the best quarterback plays on the board. 

Micale Cunningham, Louisville ($6,100) vs. Syracuse

Cunningham's rushing production has tailed off in recent weeks but his skills as a passer have sharpened to the point where he's a real threat through the air. He was surgical against both Miami and North Carolina State, completing 65 percent of his passes with a 12.1 YPA and a 6:1 TD:INT. Now he'll carry that wave of recent success into Saturday's matchup where his Cardinals are 10-point favorites against Syracuse. 

Syracuse is a perfectly average defense, ranking 58th in S&P+ on that side of the ball that gives up 7.9 YPA to conference opponents. This is not a defense to be feared, even in the wake of its shutdown of Duke in Week 12. Being able to start a quarterback with Cunningham's projection at just $6,100 is a rarity, and he'll be in several of my lineups this weekend.

Dru Brown, Oklahoma State ($4,900) at West Virginia

I'd be remiss to not at least mention Brown this week as we're getting the starting quarterback of a high-powered offense at what equates to a mid-level receiver or running back in terms of salary. So Brown is going to be extremely high-owned this weekend and this could be a "Whoever has the best Brown lineup wins" type of slate. So we know Brown is going to crush value and we also know you're probably not separating yourself from the field by using him. What do we do with that? 

I want to get Brown in at least 40 percent of my lineups, and maybe more. With Brown we have a quarterback who's experienced in a system that is like clockwork when it comes to churning out production from that position. And Brown has been sharp when he's been on the field this season, completing 13 of 18 passes for 223 yards and three touchdowns. Even without Tylan Wallace, there's reason to believe Brown can post strong production over 60 minutes against a West Virginia defense that ranks just 84th in S&P+. 

Running Back

Joshua Kelley, RB, UCLA ($6,700) at USC

The USC passing attack is getting a lot of my attention from this game, but Kelley is a standout on the UCLA side that I'll be investing in come Saturday. Kelley, first and foremost, is a workhorse. Only eight running backs have more carries than Kelley since his 2019 debut in Week 2. Looking at the backs on this slate, Kelley has the most carries (76) of any back over the last three games, and he's tied with SMU's Xavier Jones and Ohio State's J.K. Dobbins for the lead in touchdowns with six. And yet there are six running backs with higher price tags than Kelley this week. And in terms of the matchup, USC allows the fourth-most yards per carry on the slate at 4.63 YPC. I would have felt comfortable rostering Kelley up into the mid-$7,000s this week, so the fact that he's this cheap will make it tough to submit too many lineups that don't feature him. 

Breece Hall, Iowa State ($6,700) vs. Kansas

We established last week just how bad Kansas' run defense is. That hasn't changed. The only difference is that the starting running back going against the Jayhawks will cost you about $2,000 less than Chuba Hubbard did in Week 12. 

Hall is averaging 120 rushing yards on 5.7 YPC since taking over the No.1 job in this Iowa State backfield. He hasn't seen less than 18 carries in those five outings and has also been efficient in the passing game with 15 catches on 16 targets. Now Hall is about to be unleashed on a Kansas defense coughing up 232.7 rushing yards per game. And with Iowa State favored by 24.5 points, the run figures to factor heavily into the Cyclone gameplan. Even if things get out of hand and Iowa State pulls its starters late, it'll likely be due to Hall getting loose and having a big day against the Jayhawks.

For The Bold

Jarveon Howard, Syracuse  ($3,700) at Louisville

This is a GPP-only type of play, but if you're strapped for cash at your flex or one of your running back spots, there's reason to go after Howard. He's coming off a breakout week against Duke when he took 10 carries for 133 yards and a score, and Syracuse has seemingly turned to a more run-heavy approach overall in recent weeks. The Orange have had at least 42 rushing attempts in the last three weeks and while Moe Neal projects to see the most volume, Howard has earned his fair share of carries. And with Louisville coughing up 4.74 YPC, Howard is positioned to take advantage of this matchup and return the type of yardage most other running backs in his price range simply can't.

Wide Receiver

Michael Pittman Jr., USC ($7,600) vs. UCLA

Again, getting exposure to USC's passing game this week will be a backbone of most of my lineups. Pittman is the best way of going about that, and it's reflected in his price that is second only to SMU's James Proche on the slate. While he's been a beast all year, I'd like to narrow our focus to the last four weeks. In that span, He's averaging 12.0 targets per game in that span (2nd behind Proche) while recording 10.8 YPT. In total, that's 39 catches on 48 targets for 519 yards and four scores. No one else on this slate has more than 400 receiving yards in that stretch. So now that we've established Pittman's dominance, let's look at the matchup.

UCLA gives up the third-most passing yards per game on the slate (298.4) along with 2.7 passing scores per game. Its defense as a whole ranks 81st in S&P+. And when USC has the 12th highest passing play percentage (56.34) in the FBS, we're going to see the Men of Troy take a lot of cracks at this Bruin defense. Pittman is the No. 1 option for USC, and while he's expensive, his blend of explosiveness and volume going against this weak UCLA secondary make him a borderline must-play this week. 

Trishton Jackson, Syracuse ($6,700) at Louisville

Was Syracuse's 49-point outburst against Duke an aberration or the beginning of an offensive awakening for the Orange? It's difficult to say for certain, but a matchup down in Louisville should give us some clarity. Either way, Jackson's an appealing play this week. 

He's third in the ACC among receivers in fantasy points per game at 13.9 and now faces a Louisville defense that surrenders the fifth-most passing yards per game on the slate (257.0) and 2.7 passing scores per game. Jackson not only has a high target share within this offense -- 31 percent over the last four weeks -- he's also been explosive in his own right with 10.5 YPT and three scores in that span. As the No.1 option in an offense that projects to be playing from behind (10.0-point road 'dogs), Jackson checks the boxes as a quality one-off option from Syracuse whose price tag should keep the ownership percentage down.

Chatarius Atwell, Louisville vs. Syracuse

Sticking with this game but looking at the other side we have Atwell, who as you know has been a favorite of mine throughout the season. There's plenty to like about his game and how it will translate to this matchup. For one, he's explosive. In his last three games, he's putting up 16.2 yards per target. Only West Virginia's George Campbell (20.7) has more YPT in that span among receivers with at least 12 targets. Secondly, he's the clear No.1 in this offense. Atwell owns a 36.2 percent target share -- that's second in the nation behind only Mississippi's Elijah Moore among receivers on non-option teams. So we know Atwell will be relied upon Saturday, and he has proven over the course of the season that he can reward the Louisville offense for its trust in him. 

Vegas also expects Louisville to put up 36.0 points according to the implied total, making the Cards one of the best sides to target for DraftKings lineups. And at $5,900, that's cheap exposure to an offense held in a high regard for this week. I particularly like Atwell as a pairing with Micale Cunningham, too. 

Kylen Granson, SMU ($5,200) at Navy

This isn't a dig at James Proche by any means. But when such a large chunk of Proche's value comes from his volume, it's hard to expect him to have his normal output this week against a Navy team that can limit opponent possessions and effectively drain the clock. This puts a bigger emphasis on per-target efficiency, and that's where Granson gets the edge from me here. 

Granson has dominated since the Reggie Roberson injury, racking up 17 catches for 291 yards and six touchdowns on 24 targets in those last three games and looking like a bull in a china shop along the way. Those six touchdowns since Week 9 lead all pass catchers. And he hasn't needed that many targets to get there. So in a game where making the most of the targets is paramount, Granson's value ticks up.

Drake London, USC ($4,700) vs. UCLA

Considering what we've already laid out re: USC's passing game edge here against UCLA, let's dive into London's profile. 

London, a freshman, is both a receiver and a shooting guard at USC and has rounded into form on the gridiron of late. This is what he did last week against California when he took home PAC-12 Offensive Player of the Week honors 

And this is the kind of bounce he shows on the basketball court: 

At 6-foot-5 with that level of athleticism, London is a problem for opposing defenses. He has gone for 13 grabs for 192 yards and three scores on 18 targets in the last three games. Even if Tyler Vaughns (ankle) is back to full strength this week, the USC offense goes to the air enough to where a player like London can still produce even if he's No.4 in the pecking order for targets.