Month: September 2021

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In notable injury updates, Bryan Antoine (Villanova, 2.3 ppg in 10 games last season) is dealing with a knee issue that does not need surgery but does sound like may cause him to miss time, and Earl Timberlake (Memphis) has not yet been cleared for contact (shoulder injury when at Miami, 9.3 ppg) but is doing drills as practice starts.

Keyontae Johnson (Florida) has not been cleared for activities but is attending practice in more of a coaching type role after his scary on-court collapse last season, Jemarl Baker (Fresno State) is cleared after a wrist injury while with Arizona last season, and Artur Konontsuk (Southern Miss, 4.6 ppg) will miss the season with a knee injury.

A reminder – with the NCAA transfer rule changes, most players who transferred should be immediately eligible, and most two-time transfers are also having their waivers approved with seemingly few issues. Thus I am not sharing transfer waiver approvals as “breaking” news, rather I will be more likely to tweet/share when a player’s waiver is delayed or denied for some reason. That said, I am still listing them below, as the assurance of eligibility can’t hurt, and among those being shared as eligible were Rasir Bolton (Gonzaga) and Marco Anthony (Utah).

(Injuries & Updates in the first section, Transfers down below.)

Injuries and Updates from Sept 28:

• Marco Anthony, Utah – Utah State transfer is eligible to play this season – 10.0 ppg
• Bryan Antoine, Villanova – has a patella knee injury, surgery not needed but is an issue
• Jemarl Baker, Fresno State – Arizona transfer cleared for the season (wrist) – 12.0 ppg
• Joey Baker, Duke – minor injury, should be back by next week, “had a great summer”
• Daniel Batcho, Texas Tech – Arizona transfer is cleared for the season (knee)
• Rasir Bolton, Gonzaga – Iowa State transfer is eligible to play this season – 15.5 ppg
• Marvin Coleman, UNLV – fully cleared for the season (stress fracture in leg)
• Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree, Villanova – not looking good, but haven’t given up hope for this season (shin)
• Both Gach, Utah – Minnesota transfer is waiting on waiver for eligibility
• Jaden Ivey, Purdue – tweaked his ankle in practice, was in and out
• Keyontae Johnson, Florida – has still not been cleared to practice
• Artur Konontsuk, Southern Miss – out for season, knee – 4.6 ppg
• Shereef Mitchell, Creighton – is almost back (foot)
• Brandon Newman, Purdue – missed practice Tuesday with a foot/ankle issue and got an X-ray, team should know more in the next couple days
• Nnanna Njoku, Villanova – almost cleared from concussion protocol
• Javon Ruffin, Colorado – is working his way back from a knee injury
• Earl Timberlake, Memphis – not fully cleared for contact yet, had a neck surgery to help with his shoulder pain, is participating in most drills

Transfer Updates from Sept 28:

• N/A

See For Yourself:

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Some of these 16 stats after Week 4 are just for trivia, but most are good to know as you look at fantasy trends/leaders across the season or for specific positions or teams.

Early in the season I like to find the players who have been consistently excellent, so lots of focus again this week on players who have had multiple games with strong statistical output, but certainly some explosive breakout stats mixed in as well. When I put these together I always find at least a few players stand out to me who I knew were playing well but didn’t realize were really excelling to a certain degree (at least statistically), this week those guys were Louisville QB Malik Cunningham, Syracuse RB Sean Tucker, Fresno State WR Jalen Cropper, and Pitt WR Jordan Addison. I hope a few jump out to you as well.

Army defeated Miami, Ohio last weekend 23-10. What is unique is Army did not complete a single pass, QB Christian Anderson was 0-5 passing. Nine different players carried the ball for Army, totaling 63/384-3.

SMU QB Tanner Mordecai has four games throwing for at least 4 TDs, no one else in the nation has more than two four TD passing games.

The only QB who has 4 games this season with both a passing TD and a rushing TD? – Louisville’s Malik Cunningham. Cunningham has actually rushed for 2 TDs in all four games he has played, with 5 total passing TDs. Five QBs have done it three times – Gerry Bohanon (Baylor), Austin Kendall (Louisiana Tech), Adrian Martinez (Nebraska), Chris Reynolds (Charlotte) and Malik Willis (Liberty)

Four RBs are averaging 130+ rushing yards a game – Kenneth Walker (Michigan State, 138.5), Sean Tucker (Syracuse, 134), Mataeo Durant (Duke, 131.25), and Chris Rodriguez (Kentucky, 130.5).

Looking for a high-volume QB? Only four QBs are averaging 40 pass attempts a game – Will Rogers (Miss State, 56.3), Brennan Armstrong (Virginia, 45.0), Carson Strong (Nevada, 40.7) and D’Eriq King (Miami, 40.7).

Since volume matters for RBs as well, two RBs had 30 rushing attempts in week 4 – Sincere McCormick (UTSA, 42/184-3), and Sean Tucker (Syracuse, 32/169-1). McCormick’s 42 were easily a season-high, breaking the previous mark of 34 by Minnesota’s Treyson Potts.

Only 4 receivers have at least 20 receptions on the season and average 20+ yards a catch – Jacob Cowing (UTEP), Jaivon Heiligh (Coastal Carolina), Dontayvion Wicks (Virginia) and Nick Mardner (Hawaii).

There were two 200 yard rushing games in week 4 – Army QB Christian Anderson (15/236-2) and Northwestern RB Evan Hull (22/216-2). Anderson was the first QB to reach 200 this season, and also did it in the fewest carries (15), with the next fewest being 22 (also Hull this week).

Fresno State WR Jalen Cropper was the first receiver to have a 4 TD receiving game, bringing in 10/108-4 against UNLV. There have been seven 3 TD receiving games, with an impressive two of those by Pitt’s Jordan Addison.

Through week 4 there are three teams rushing for 300 yards a game – Air Force (357.25) and Army (344.5) are not a surprise based upon the offenses they run, but the third is Florida (322.5). Florida’s top two leading rushers by yardage are their QBs, Emory Jones (57/375) and Anthony Richardson (11/275). Their leading RB is Malik Davis with (41/259).

Only one player has three games with 10+ receptions – USC’s Drake London with games of 12/137, 13/170 and 10/165, plus one other game with 4/68. No player in the nation averages 10 receptions a game, London is at 9.8.

Four players have three games this season with 22+ rushing attempts – Sincere McCormick (UTSA), Treyson Potts (Minnesota), DeAndre Torrey (North Texas) and Harrison Waylee (Northern Illinois).

UNLV RB Charles Williams had 102 rushing yards and 96 receiving yards against Fresno State, the first with those numbers against an FBS team. The only other player with a 90/90 game this year is Syracuse RB Sean Tucker with a 132/121 line against Albany.

NC State WR Emeka Emezie tied the season-high for most receptions in a game with 14/116-1 against Clemson. Jalen Cropper also had 14 in week 3.

Five QBs have thrown 100+ passes this season but have 0 interceptions – Kaleb Eleby (Western Michigan, 121), Jack Plummer (Purdue, 118), Noah Vedral (Rutgers, 112), Bo Nix (Auburn, 103), Tanner McKee (Stanford, 102). Ironically Plummer and Nix are at risk of losing their starting jobs this week, perhaps they are being too conservative.

Only two teams are averaging 50 points scored a game – Ole Miss (52.7) is a not a surprise, but Pitt (52.5) I would not have guessed off the top of my head. Pitt has scored 51, 41, 41 and then 77 against New Hampshire in week 4. Pitt averaged 29.0 points a game last season.

Credit to the CFB Reference site for its stat-keeping, if you see any stats you feel are incorrect please let me know.

Javan Johnson, one of the most high-profile players still in the transfer portal, announced he will transfer to DePaul. Johnson began his career playing two seasons at Troy, then transferred to Iowa State where he sat out a season then averaged 9.7 ppg in ’20-21, playing 29.6 minutes per game.

Fall practice starts this week along with many teams having opening of camp media sessions, so I’d anticipate getting more updates on the status of previous injuries, transfer waiver updates, players unexpectedly not returning to teams, as well as news of injuries that occurred over the summer. Along those lines, Will McClendon (UCLA) was announced to be out for the season with a torn ACL, and Seneca Knight is eligible at BYU, after previous stops at San Jose State and LSU. Knight never played for LSU after a midyear transfer from SJSU, but his best season at San Jose was ’19-20 when he averaged 17.1 ppg.

Announcing transfer destinations were Javan Johnson (Iowa State to DePaul), Luke Brown (Stetson to Ball State) and Ivan Raut (Fordham to Palm Beach Atlantic).

(Injuries & Updates in the first section, Transfers down below.)

Injuries and Updates from Sept 24-27:

• Kyle Cuffe, Kansas – had arthroscopic knee surgery, will be out a few weeks
• Logan Duncomb, Indiana – had a strained shoulder earlier in preseason but is practicing full now
• Seneca Knight, BYU – San Jose State/LSU transfer is eligible to play this season – 9.3 ppg
• Jarren McAllister, VCU – back full-go this season, torn ACL
• Will McClendon, UCLA – out for the season, torn ACL
• Darius McNeill, UTSA – SMU transfer is eligible to play this season – 7.3 ppg
• Jose Perez, Manhattan – Marquette transfer is eligible to play this season – 3.1 ppg

Transfer Updates from Sept 24-27:

• Luke Brown, Stetson – transfers to Ball State
• Javan Johnson, Iowa State – transfers to DePaul – 9.7 ppg
• Ivan Raut, Fordham – transfers to Palm Beach Atlantic – 0.8 ppg

See For Yourself:

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I break down the injury news from this past weekend with notes on each player who may have been dealing with injuries.

A few notes about this list, being on it does not for sure mean a player is “injured”, but rather:

• They may have missed the game due to a known injury (ok, this does mean they are injured), or missed the game for another stated reason
• They may have gone out of the game due to injury and not returned (sometimes with an official announcement from the team)
• They may have left the game but returned, or at least attempted to return (sometimes these guys end up banged up enough to miss future games)
• They may have had a vague twitter mention about possibly being injured or leaving a game, so it’s something on my radar

I’ll continue to post any updates I see during the week, those will be added to daily updates as well as the injury database.

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See the updates to potentially be watching for today including starting QB battles and player injury statuses to be aware of.

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Reminder – the daily player update post as well as some other content moved to a premium content level in mid-August, to become a subscriber click Subscribe.