College Fantasy Football Invitational Draft and Week 1
In mid-August CollegeSportsMadness.com participated in the Fantasy College Football Invitational draft, pitting the best college fantasy minds in the world. The Madness will go up against the likes of Athlon, CBS, College Fantasy Football Insider and SI.com. During the draft, war rooms were created across the country while 18 teams prepared for the big day. At The Madness, it was pretty much just me.
My usual draft strategy for such leagues (2 QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, 1 TE, 1 RB/WR/TE, 1 K, 1 DEF) is to draft three running backs right away. However, this season I thought it would be worthwhile to take a top wide receiver in the first round since there are quite a few quality running backs in the middle rounds. However, my strategy was dashed pretty early when I ended up with the second overall pick. At three or four, I was willing to take Justin Blackmon, but with the second pick I assumed I would end up with LaMichael James. However, Fantasy College Blitz opted to avoid the curse of Case Keenum. Thus, I got stuck with the curse.
And the curse began pretty quickly afterwards. In the second round we had to add a running back. Chris Polk was on the top of the board, so he is our premiere back…and, of course, he will not likely play in week one. The curse has begun. In round three we didn’t really know what to do, but Kyle Padron was a top 20 player on our board. Picking up a second quarterback so early was a little scary, but having two of the top quarterbacks in the nation is a nice thing to build around. In round four we finally got a wide receiver in D.J. Woods and a few picks later we got Rex Burkhead as a number two back. Heading down round six we really wanted to pick up some running backs. However, Isi Sofele went off the board earlier in the round. And my super sleeper that I really wanted, Silas Redd, was taken just a few picks before us. Thus, we scrambled and ended up with a couple wide receivers in Jeremy Ebert, who I was very happy to get, and Jermaine Kearse.
Later in the draft we added a bunch of backs, including Cierre Wood, Ed Wesley, Paris Cotton and Asher Clark. They will have to do. We also picked up Chris Relf and Russell Wilson, along with David Piland to protect our first round investment, for when UCLA hurts Keenum in week one. In rounds 18, 19 and 20 we picked up a tight end, kicker and defense. They will be rotated on a weekly basis depending on the competition. With 120 teams out there, those positions will be platooned on a weekly basis.
Week One vs. Athlon
We start off with a tough game against Athlon. The bad news for us is that our second round pick, Chris Polk, probably won’t play and our third round pick, Kyle Padron, plays against the toughest defense he will face all year in Texas A&M. As a result, just a couple weeks after the draft, we are already benching our second and third round picks. That is a bad sign. In my opinion Athlon has a pretty weak group of quarterbacks, led by Arkansas State’s Ryan Aplin, who should struggle with the Illini defense. His running backs alone could beat us. Ronnie Hillman and Montee Ball will put up huge numbers this week.
We opted to start, for now, Relf beside Keenum at quarterback. We also expect big numbers from Burkhead against Chattanooga. We filled in with Wood and Clark at the running back spot. Wood I’m not too sure about, but Clark should be able to at least get us 100 yards against South Dakota and hopefully make one of his rare trips to the end zone. Ebert and Woods made the starting cut at wide receiver. Danny Noble, tight end from Toledo, David Harman, Central Michigan’s kicker and the North Carolina State’s defense round out CollegeSportsMadness.com’s starting lineup.
Check back next week to see how we did against Athlon and we’ll look ahead to our week two matchup, hopefully carrying a 1-0 record.
