College football 2025 is finally here! Week 0 is upon us and will offer a tasty appetizer before Week 1’s main course. While Week 0 doesn’t allow us to play our first fantasy matchups, these games will give us a first-hand look into some offensive systems that still have a lot of question marks around them and will likely lead to some serious mad-dashing to the waiver wire before Week 1 even begins. Let’s dive into some of these burning questions swimming around in our heads so we know what to look out for this weekend.
Were We Right to Draft Dylan Edwards in the First Round?
Dylan Edwards has been one of the more interesting first-round options this season. Every single other first-round option we have seen extensively, either at their current school or another, has also proven they are a top-end asset. Edwards is the only true projection play in the first round, where much of his hype stems from the system he’s playing for, which has produced the likes of DJ Giddens and Deuce Vaughn, as well as his incredible bowl performance against Rutgers. In that game, Edwards looked like the clear next back for this system, with 18 carries for 196 yards and 2 TDs on the ground, with two catches for 27 yards and an additional TD. It feels like an open-and-shut case and is worth the first-round pick.
However, there are some reasons to be concerned. Edwards is by no means your traditional back. He’s listed at 5’9″ and 170 lbs, and that’s likely on a good day, far from the build of your typical 20+ touch workhorse. It doesn’t help that Kansas State has another back in Joe Jackson, who is talented in his own right and whose build is a lot more in line with what you’d expect a workhorse to look like in the Power 4.
Both Edwards and Jackson were listed as starters on the depth chart earlier this week, adding to the speculation and worry. However, as mentioned before, Edwards got the touches he did in the bowl game for a reason. This staff also made a workhorse out of Deuce Vaughn, who might be even smaller than Edwards. Regardless of what reservations we might have, we’ll know exactly how Edwards will be used, as there will be no reason to hold him back in a conference rivalry matchup in the first matchup of the season.
Who is Rocco Becht’s New Favorite Target?
Iowa State’s wide receivers have been a mainstay of college fantasy for years now. Jayden Higgins, Jaylin Noel, and Xavier Hutchinson all come to mind. It’s no wonder that college fantasy managers are looking here for the next man up, especially with Rocco Becht still under center. The expectation is that the Cyclones will once again funnel targets to 1-2 receivers again, and the college fantasy community has zeroed in on transfers Chase Sowell of East Carolina and Xavier Townsend. Given their skill sets and fits, it makes sense why. Sowell, in particular, has been a hot name, being drafted in the 4th-5th round of most CFF leagues. He’s expected to be that top outside option for the Cyclones, which is where Higgins and Hutchinson did their damage.
However, earlier this week, Iowa State dropped their depth chart ahead of the matchup. It caused a bit of a stir within the CFF community as both Chase Sowell and Xavier Townsend were listed as co-starters along with Dominic Overby and Eli Green. Depth charts are always meant to be taken with a grain of salt, but this does add some uncertainty where there seemed to be little, if any, previously. Much like Kansas State, Iowa State will have little reason to hold back their intentions of who they’ll rely on to win big games this weekend, so we’ll quickly have this sorted out.
Is there Fantasy Value in Year One of Dan Mullen at UNLV?
Dan Mullen has produced some absolutely monsters at quarterback in previous seasons of college fantasy. Kyle Trask, Emory Jones, and Nick Fitzgerald are the most recent examples. So when he decided to take a job at UNLV and bring in a ton of former Power 4 talent, the CFF community rightfully had its interest piqued. Mullen is, quite frankly, coaching below his expected level of competition in the Mountain West. We saw just last year that a good coach like Bronco Mendenhall can take a previously bad program and turn it into a threat in the Mountain West very quickly. We expect much of the same from Mullen and the Rebels; it’s just a matter of determining who those beneficiaries will be.
The starting quarterback job will fall to one of two quarterbacks who started for Power 4 programs last season: Anthony Colandrea of Virginia or Alex Orji of Michigan. Colandrea is known for his “eff-it” style of gameplay, characterized by deep shots galore and numerous wild, unpredictable, and fun plays. Meanwhile, Orji may not be much of a passer (to put it extremely kindly), but his legs offer a dynamic threat in the Mountain West, very similar to what we saw Matthew Sluka do to start 2024. It has been announced that both of these QBs will play against Idaho State this weekend, and we’ll get a good, long look at how each of them will be used. Most have their hopes on Colandrea based on best-ball ADP, but either one could be a tremendous asset down the line should they secure the job.
Who are the WRs to Own at Western Kentucky?
With the hire of Rick Bowie as offensive coordinator and his quarterback, Maverick McIvor, following him to WKU, many in the CFF community are having flashbacks to Zach Kittley and Bailey Zappe in 2021. Those are the highest of high hopes for this offense this year, and thankfully, we know exactly which quarterback will be under center. What is far less clear is who he will be throwing it to. Unfortunately for us, WKU released a flawed depth chart ahead of their Week 0 matchup, listing each position by jersey number.
There are four main guys the CFF community has their eye on. The one being drafted the highest is Matthew Henry, who you will often see taken around the 15th-20th round of your drafts. Henry was a stud at Western Illinois in 2024, catching 63 balls for 1,179 yards and six touchdowns. He seems set to be the #1 option for this offense, but WKU veteran KD Hutchinson is locked into the slot and could rotate with Henry to be the favorite week-to-week.
In all likelihood, there is enough passing volume in this offense to feed both. Late round shots have also been taken at Cameron Flowers, who flashed as a freshman last season and has gotten praise this offseason, as well as Moussa Barry. In a conference matchup, we should be able to identify which WR McIvor relies on early in this matchup and subsequently see that they’ll outperform their late-round ADP.
Who is the Phil Longo WR1 for this Season?
The Hilltoppers are not the only WR room with questions heading into the season. With Phil Longo running his offense, unperturbed, at Sam Houston this season, we expect to see a top-end fantasy option emerge quickly from the Beakats. Longo has been responsible for developing the talents of many CFF greats, including AJ Brown, Dazz Newsome, Dyami Brown, and Josh Downs. Information has been tight-lipped this off-season for the Bearkats, giving us little indication as to who will emerge here. It doesn’t help that in response to WKU’s bogus depth chart, Sam Houston released their own bogus depth chart, which many of their beat reporters have said not to take seriously, as it is missing multiple obvious starters. So it’s hard to take much away from it.
The players the CFF community has their eye on boil down to three players. The first is the system play in Malik Phillips, who will be in the slot. The slot has historically been where Longo has defaulted his top WR to, even going as far as to move his best receiver into the slot, even if they don’t have a traditional slot build for a WR. Phillips returns to playing time after missing a year, which is always fun to bet on for CFF purposes (sarcasm if you can’t tell).
The talent play is Qua’vez Humphreys, who was incredibly efficient with his receptions last year, putting up 19.3 yards per catch and 1.93 yards per route run. We’ve seen Longo favor the outside WR (like in the case of Dyami Brown and AJ Brown) when the talent demands it. Humphreys has flashed enough to warrant consideration for that scenario, although he needs to catch more than 41.7% of his targets. It is also noteworthy that Humphreys was listed as a backup on the Week 0 depth chart, although once again, we should take that with a grain of salt.
The last name is someone you can get for free, and that is Michael Phoenix II. In addition to his awesome name, Phoenix has been consistently mentioned when it comes to the starting rotation for this group. Just by being a starter, he should be one to watch out for. Just like with any team facing a conference foe, Longo and Sam Houston will have little choice but to run their full system against what could be the conference favorite. They’ll fire everything they have and consistently get who they think are their best players the ball to try to start Longo’s reign off with a great upset.
Does the Hawai’i Run-n-Shoot Finally Achieve Its Potential This Season?
The last question we’ll address in this Week 0 slate is the Hawai’i Rainbow Warriors’ offense. We got a tantalizing taste of what this offense could look like with Micah Alejado under center when they destroyed New Mexico in the final week of the regular season in 2024. The offense looked like what we’ve wanted Timmy Chang’s run-n-shoot to look like for years.
The only major problem is that the result came against New Mexico’s defense, which was one of the bottom-five units in the FBS last season. Because of this, despite the hype, there have been some reservations about their ability to make the jump this off-season, despite what we saw in that final game. The good news is that CFF managers will get a good look at this offense against one of their toughest defensive opponents of the season.
If the run-n-shoot can put up points against a Power 4 opponent in Stanford, CFF managers will feel very good about their ability to score points the rest of the way. Hawai’i already gets the benefit of playing in the Mountain West, but their other out-of-conference games include Arizona, Sam Houston, and Portland State. It’s a prime schedule for this offense to go absolutely nuts against, and if Hawai’i runs it up vs. Stanford, there could be hell to pay for those who didn’t draft Rainbow Warriors the rest of the way.
With that, those are the six major questions I believe will be answered in this great Week 0 slate. Other questions will be answered beyond that, like Kansas’ running back situation, Sam Roush’s impact at Stanford, etc, but these feel like the ones that’ll have the most impact for their CFF managers down the line. The wait is over, let’s get some answers to these teams we’ve spent so much time speculating about!
