This holiday week is the start of something big! It’s the start of the many, many bowl games in not as many days. With Christmas taking place this week, I wanted to get out some content on the Saturday all-day slate that should be a lot of fun. Let’s take a quick look at our best options!
Quarterbacks
After an underwhelming Army/Navy game, Bryson Daily ($10,200) comes in as an elite option against Louisiana Tech. They’re big favorites, missing their stud running back (Kanye Udoh), and LT was added to bowl season late, giving them less time than expected to prep for this offense.
Shedeur Sanders ($9,700) is listed surprisingly despite his high likelihood of being a top-five pick. He’s thrown for 3+ touchdowns in four straight games, and you know he’s playing with the idea that he has a monster game for the NFL scouts.
Jake Retzlaff ($7,700) will be matched up on the other side of the field as Sanders, but instead of prepping for the draft, he’s prepping for a big 2025 season. We like that he has some rushing upside (16+ rushing yards in every game but two and has hit 50+ rush yards four times). We also like that this game could turn into a shootout.
Grayson James ($6.600) is listed because he’s been solid as a starter post-Thomas Castellanos, and there aren’t that many cheaper options to love. Nebraska is a tough defense, but we’ve seen a decent bit of upside with James’ ability to run 22/46/2 in the past three games.
CJ Bailey ($6,300) is my favorite of the cheap options, and with good reason. He’s hit 19+ rushing yards in four straight games and has been good through the air for a true freshman. They should have some nice advantages against East Carolina.
Katin Houser ($7,500) has certainly surprised us in 2024. He had three monster performances in a row against Army, Temple, and FAU, throwing for 13 touchdowns and rushing for two more. NC State is giving up 30 points per game, ranking them 102nd in the country. Vegas has ECU scoring 26 on Saturday.
Running Backs
Rahjai Harris ($6,500) is key to ECU’s success in this game against NC State. He’s seeing an uptick in usage recently and has found the end zone plenty while Katin Houser has cooled off. Harris has seven touchdowns in his last four games.
Kye Robichaux ($5,700) has taken over a huge role in his past four games. He’s gone from a season-high of 18 and 19 rushing attempts to 28/21/23/21 attempts since week 11. Thomas Castellanos leaving the program has impacted Kye immensely. He had six rushing touchdowns during that stretch but had only hit 100+ rushing yards once.
Mark Fletcher ($4,300) has seen some odd usage to end the season, but at this price and with his ability to find the end zone, I’m a fan of him against Iowa State. I could see him getting 15+ touches in this one.
Chris Hansen ($4,500) is listed because Abu Sama had such a poor game against Arizona State. While Hansen looked good with the football, Sama fumbled multiple times. They will want to beat big bad Miami, so I think they may steer clear of turnover-prone Sama.
Emmett Johnson ($5,400) is staying at Nebraska and lands in a potentially good spot with a thinned-out running back room. He has six receptions in three straight games and saw his rushing usage increase from 10 to 16 to 18 during that span, too. The matchup isn’t the best, as Boston College is giving up just 3.59 yards per carry on the season.
Wide Receivers
Travis Hunter ($9,500) appears to be playing in this game, and if that actually happens, then you should have him to at least some extent. No way he plays just to put up a pedestrian line, right?
Xavier Restrepo ($8,200) is a big play with WR2 Isaiah Horton in the transfer portal. He should see a healthy dose of targets against an Iowa State team that got torn up in the Big 12 Championship Game a few weeks back. With Horton out, both Jacolby George ($5,500) and Samuel Brown Jr. ($3,100) are in play. George has 26 targets to Brown’s 10 in their past three games. I like George more, but I am intrigued by the fact that Brown is near the minimum.
Anthony Smith ($5,300) and Winston Wright Jr ($5,800) are viable options, with Chase Sowell not playing this game. Both saw substantial targets before Sowell’s departure, so this receiver room thinning out is obviously good news.
Eric McAlister ($4,200) and John Paul Richardson ($3,900) are in the same boat as the above receivers. Savion Williams and Jack Bech are both out, thus leaving us with these two likely seeing significantly more targets and snaps in their bowl game. They’re double-digit favorites against Louisiana and have not shown any ability to run the football, minus Savion Williams, who is out.
