As with any long offseason, you start to consider situations where you would draft a player that normally you are very against. One of those players/teams many of us at Campus2Canton are against in the Underdog Fantasy CFB tournaments is Shedeur Sanders and Colorado. I think I’ve come around to a situation where I’d want to go down the route of Deion Sanders and the Buffs.
And that’s with a team that leans completely into a Colorado team that produces all season long while playing awful defenses. If you’re stacking Colorado with high-value picks, then you should also be targeting their opponents throughout the season. Here’s how I’d attack the draft…
1st round: DJ Giddens, Kansas State
2nd round: Shedeur Sanders, Colorado
3rd round: Jalon Daniels, Kansas
4th round: Travis Hunter, Colorado
The top rounds consist of nabbing the top Colorado stack (Sanders and Hunter) as well as paying up for top opponents on the board. Jalon Daniels, when healthy, is an elite option in this tournament, and I’m playing into things going my way.
Colorado faces Kansas in the playoffs, so game stacks are going to be the name of the game for me, especially in those playoff weeks. Giddens plays Colorado in the middle of the season but just poses as a safe, high-end option with a bye week in Week 11 compared to Week 10, which helps down the line.
5th round: Brennan Presley, Oklahoma State
6th round: LaJohntay Wester, Colorado
7th round: Josh Kelly, Texas Tech
8th round: Cam Rising, Utah
Wester gets taken in the sixth to complete the Colorado double stack, while I take Brennan Presley in the fifth to help build the pivotal Week 14 stack with Alan Bowman. I suspect many of the teams that make the championship round will have Ollie Gordon II on the roster, so fading the run game and targeting Presley and his 125+ targets feels like a great pivot.
Cam Rising is the first of two Utah players I’ll take to ensure another playoff stack, this time in Week 12. Colorado faces off against Texas Tech in Week 11, and Kelly should help push us into the playoffs with that matchup.
9th round: Raheim Sanders, South Carolina
10th round: Corey Kiner, Cincinnati
11th round: Dorian Singer, Utah
12th round: Kaytron Allen, Penn State
This group is half unique bye weeks to help create a balanced roster and half matchups against Colorado focused. Cincinnati is a middle of the season matchup, but one that should pay off against a really weak Colorado defense. If you take Rising, then you must take either Brant Kuithe or Dorian Singer. I opted for the latter to help us land a better receiver option earlier in the draft and, instead, will be going cheap at tight end. Sanders and Allen are strictly here to help us avoid too many Week 6 and 10 bye weeks.
13th round: Quali Conley, Arizona
14th round: Ashton Daniels, Stanford
15th round: Devin Mockobee, Purdue
16th round: Alan Bowman, Oklahoma State
Like the group above, this foursome has two players to balance out bye weeks: Ashton Daniels and Devin Mockobee. In the spirit of stacking and playing for big points, I really wanted to target receivers against Colorado, so that’s why we see another bye-week-focused running back like Mockobee.
Quali Conley has some question marks as to true value, but in the second half of the draft, I’ll take the matchup against Colorado in the middle of the season and his unique bye weeks. Alan Bowman in the 16th finishes off the Cowboys stack in Week 14.
17th round: Favorite cheap Arizona Receiver
18th round: Jalin Conyers, Texas Tech
19th round: Garrett Oakley, Kansas State
20th round: Lawrence Arnold, Kansas
Daniels will utilize three receivers fairly equally, but I think Arnold is the one to own. If he’s gone by now then Luke Grimm is easily able to slot in here. In theory, you could take both Grimm and Arnold and sub out that cheap Arizona receiver you take in the 17th round. As I mentioned earlier, I’m going cheap at tight end, so I did so with guys who face Colorado, one late in the season.
Now that you’ve seen a heavily focused Colorado vs everyone build, what do you think? Is this one way to consider drafting in these Underdog drafts? I’m curious to hear what you think!
