I take a look at some key stats & fantasy takeaways that stood out for 12 different teams last weekend and/or trends that are emerging over the course of the season. The “Stat to Know” from each team is bolded, as well as players who are mentioned.
Fantasy Takeaways from Week 7 (teams listed in alphabetical order):
Arkansas – Last weekend against Ole Miss WR Treylon Burks had a 11/137-1 receiving line. In the other game he played in this season where he wasn’t dealing with an injury he was 7-102-1. Last weekend Burks also picked up 4/46-0 rushing. And while Burks had 11 catches in week 7, no other Arkansas receiver had more than 2.
BYU – While it feels like WR Gunner Romney has gotten the early season press, let’s compare his receiving numbers to WR Dax Milne‘s. Romney on the season (21/456-2), Milne on the season (33/550-4). Milne is averaging 5 yards less a catch, but other than that the numbers favor him. And with Romney questionable with a hamstring injury (which limited his output last week), Milne’s stock is only rising.
East Carolina – a few weeks ago I basically shared the parity/mediocrity of the ECU RB situation. Since that time RB Rahjai Harris has emerged. Against South Florida Harris rushed for 19/115-2, and against Navy went for 22/172-1. RB Chase Hayden recently announced he was opting out, RB Darius Pinnix hasn’t done much, and RB Demetrius Mauney has been MIA, so Harris looks like the guy.
Kansas – With RB Pooka Williams opting out, let’s take a look at RB Velton Gardner so far this season. After 4 games Williams rushed for 51/196-2, while Gardner has 47/225-2. That equated to 4.8 yards per carry for Gardner to 3.8 for Williams. The hope going forward would be that Gardner becomes the featured back rather than starting to split carries with perhaps RB Daniel Hishaw. Williams showed a gifted RB can succeed at Kansas in recent seasons, now is Gardner’s chance to prove himself (or not).
Louisiana – They’ve played 4 games, so let’s look at the Louisiana RBs so far this season – Trey Ragas (47/222-3), Elijah Mitchell (33/249-4), Chris Smith (26/141-0). Ragas has played in all 4 games, Mitchell 3, and Smith 4 but was injured in one. Ragas is averaging (carries/yards) 11.75/55.5, Mitchell 11/83 and Smith 6.5/35.25 a game. In Mitchell’s three games his carries were 8, 16, 9. Simply put, the TDs keep Mitchell a viable option, but unless the carries increase this situation appears to be somewhat concerning from a fantasy perspective.
Miss State – Ok, there are obviously major problems here, but I still can’t resist digging in further. With RB Kylin Hill out this past weekend and his situation unclear, RB Jo’quavious Marks got the start. Marks rushed 7/25 (which led the team!) and was 9/40 receiving on 12 targets. That was 5 more targets than the next closest player, WR Osirus Mitchell, had. In fact Mitchell and WR Malik Heath combined for 13 targets combined, only one more than Marks had. If I had to broadly summarize the Miss. State offense since game 1 it seems like it has been throwing short dump off routes to the RB (at least on passes that are completed). Hard to believe I’m saying this, but until the QB situation gets settled and/or until they can either successfully pass downfield or create space to break short passes for longer gains, there may not be a player on this offense who is a safe start right now.
North Texas – Last week I celebrated that North Texas had finally abandoned their QB rotation and Austin Aune had two big games in a row. Then Aune had a slow start last weekend, Jason Bean was inserted in and passed for 12/17-181-2 and rushed for 10/169-3, the first player to pass and rush for 150 yards in a game this season. WR Jaelon Darden had another 200 yard game, so apparently the QB doesn’t matter much to him. UNT is off this week, and if the team will stick with one QB, whoever it is, they look worthy of a start, that’s a big if….
Notre Dame – How about a few mind-boggling stats, 4-0 Notre Dame’s leading receiver in receptions is TE Tommy Tremble with 10, the leader in receiving yards is WR Javon McKinley with 121 on 7 catches, with RB Kyren Williams just behind with 119 on 7 catches. Now Notre Dame has certainly dealt with injuries/covid-issues which has limited a number of WRs, but QB Ian Book is only averaging 178.25 yards passing a game. It will be very interesting to see if healthy WRs (Kevin Austin, Ben Skowronek, Braden Lenzy) open up the passing game or if this team is on the RB Kyren Williams train this season.
South Carolina – In preseason RB Marshawn Lloyd was injured, and there was a lot of conversation about a potential RB by committee. Well that committee is RB Kevin Harris. Harris has rushed for 81/409-6 on the season, a 5.0 average. Next closest is Deshaun Fenwick with 29/159-0. Harris has rushed for a TD in every game this season, and has averaged 22.7 carries over the past 3 games.
UMass – because it was their first game of the season (against Georgia Southern) I’m giving them a write-up, and only for that reason. The starting RB Ellis Merriweather had 16 rushes for 21 yards, a 1.3 average. WR Samuel Emilus was targeted 8 times (next highest was 3) and was 4/28 receiving. QB Mike Fallon shared time with QB (former TE) Josiah Johnson, and each passed for between 39-41 yards. It’s hard to imagine a scenario where you’d ever want to start a UMass player in their limited season.
Virginia Tech – QB Hendon Hooker got the start (and didn’t have to share time with anyone) and shined. Hooker threw for 11/15-111-1 against Boston College, while rushing for 18/164-3. Hooker had never rushed for more than 76 yards in a game before, and it was only the 2nd time he rushed for more than 1 TD. Between last season and this Hooker has dealt with a lot of shared time situations, but in the 10 games in his VT career when he was thrown at least 10 passes, in 5 of those he attempted 15 passes or less (like this week). While being the sole QB may open up his potential, a combination of not throwing many passes with historically (so far) not rushing for many yards isn’t a great combination. But I’m hoping last week was the start of something good.
Western Kentucky – In his first game as the starter QB Kevaris Thomas passed for 16/35-162-2, while rushing 13 times for 1 yard. QB Tyrrell Pigrome did not get into the game, so the stage belonged to Thomas. The numbers were pretty average across the board, and with RB Gaej Walker still only having put up 37/111-1 (3.0 average) on the season, there isn’t a lot to like about the WKU offense right now.
