While it may seem like the season just started, the college fantasy football regular season is rapidly approaching the halfway mark of the season. A good place to start if you need to bank some wins is to read the 2023 College Football streamers for Week 4.
Most NFL fantasy regular seasons go 13 weeks. Generally, it means that you can withstand a slow start and still make the playoffs if you finish strongly. A typical college fantasy football regular season is only 10 weeks. That means in a 12-team league that only plays one matchup per week, you won't even play every opponent. Some leagues try to decrease the variability of luck and ensure that the best teams reach the playoffs by playing multiple opponents each week. It also means that we're almost halfway done with the regular season already!
No matter how you've started your regular season, I'm sure you're dealing with injuries. A wide number of early-round talents including Frank Harris, Raheim Sanders, Frank Gore Jr., and Oronde Gadsden are all dealing with various injuries at this time. Gadsden has already been ruled out for the season with an ankle injury in what has already become a very thin tight end position.
One way to counter the injuries is to find effective streamers off the waiver wire. The best way to find those is to read the 2023 college football week 4 streamers article.
2023 College Football Week 4 Streamers
Become an All-Access Member to get access to the Award-Winning Rankings, Draft Tools, and more.
If you are already a member, sign in.
Mikey Keene, QB, Fresno State Bulldogs
Embed from Getty Images
If you are looking for a quarterback to start this week, look no further than Mikey Keene. First of all, Keene has been given plenty of volume. Through three games, Keene has attempted 132 passes which places in the top-5 nationally in pass attempts. Those three games included Purdue and Arizona State who are most likely the toughest matchups the Bulldogs offense will face all season.
The weakness that Keene has is that he is unlikely to give you any rushing production. In fact, he likely will lose yardage as a rusher. In college football, sacks count against a quarterback's rushing total. Therefore, Keene at this point has a negative 83 rushing yards.
FRESNO STATE!! Mikey Keene ➡️ Jaelen Gill for the 42 yard TD! The Bulldogs lead 23-0 @ ASU pic.twitter.com/ukQWvrtjqP
— Video from: @TSV__1 (@TSV__1) September 17, 2023
I mentioned earlier that Fresno State has already gone through the toughest portion of its schedule. I can say with confidence that this weekend's matchup against Kent State won't be one of the better defenses they face. Kent State has lost both of its matchups against FBS-level foes in UCF and Arkansas. The combined score in those two matchups is 84-12. A quarterback with an appealing matchup who is likely to get at least 40 passing attempts is someone I'm willing to play in most matchups.
Darius Taylor, RB, Minnesota Golden Gophers
Embed from Getty Images
When I discussed the Golden Gophers in the Big Ten preview in late May, I referenced the importance of finding the lead-back in Minnesota if they give someone a full workload. When that was written I figured that lead-back would be either Zach Evans or Sean Tyler, but that is the best part of college fantasy football. Players can truly emerge out of nowhere and become a league winner.
True freshman Darius Taylor is looking like he may just be one himself. In his first collegiate game, Taylor received one carry for just three yards. Then, in week two he received 33 carries for 193 yards and a touchdown. Before recommending him, I wanted to see whether week three would be more like week one or two. After another 22 carries for 138 yards and a touchdown against North Carolina it would appear that Taylor is the workhorse back we crave in college fantasy football.
Minnesota's offense has been awful this year, but freshman RB Darius Taylor is a star
2-Time Big Ten Freshman of the Week, love the high-step into acceleration here to destroy an angle and gain like 10 more yards than he should have pic.twitter.com/yBxtnd5Uje
— Daniel Olinger (@dan_olinger) September 19, 2023
This week the Golden Gophers take on the Northwestern Wildcats. Northwestern has performed admirably on the field while still dealing with the off-field hazing controversy that cost former head coach Pat Fitzgerald his job. However, this past week Duke was able to rush for 270 yards and five touchdowns as a team on just 39 carries as a team. That is almost a 7-yard-per-carry average! I expect Taylor to get plenty of touches to be worthy of a fantasy start for your team.
Caullin Lacy, WR, South Alabama Jaguars
Embed from Getty Images
We have seen South Alabama have a fantasy star at wide receiver in just the past few seasons with current Dallas Cowboys receiver Jalen Tolbert. Tolbert's last collegiate season in 2021 included 82 receptions, 1,474 receiving yards, and eight touchdowns. Could Caullin Lacy be the next must-start Jaguars wide receiver?
Through the first three weeks, the answer to that question has been a resounding yes. The Jaguars have already played two very formidable foes in Tulane and Oklahoma State, Lacy's production has been rock solid. If you're playing in a PPR league, so far Lacy's least productive week was a still very solid 13-point effort against Tulane. His most recent two games have each been 27 points apiece including the big upset of Oklahoma State this past weekend.
South Alabama WR Caullin Lacy (@CaullinLacy) reached a max speed of 20.1 mph on this 57-yard TD pass from Carter Bradley (@carterbradley10). #ReelSpeed
? https://t.co/orrD059ykP pic.twitter.com/F0KGdRQQnn
— Reel Analytics (@RAanalytics) September 18, 2023
This week the Jaguars take on the Central Michigan Chippewas. Over the past two games, the Chippewas have surrendered 823 passing yards and 7 passing touchdowns. One of those matchups was to Notre Dame, but the other was to FCS-level New Hampshire who threw for just shy of 500 yards against the Chippewas. I expect Lacy to be heavily involved in the passing attack again this weekend meaning you can feel confident playing him in your fantasy lineups.
Tanner McLachlan, TE, Arizona Wildcats
After a week one game when Tanner McLachlan was nonexistent in the Wildcats' victory over Northern Arizona, McLachlan has been reliable the past two games in more difficult matchups. According to Fantrax, he has been targeted four times in each of the past two games and has caught every one of those targets. When it comes to tight end production in college fantasy football, I look for consistency and shoot for upside elsewhere. McLachlan seems like a safe bet to score at least eight points in a PPR format.
McLachlan and the Wildcats have a very challenging schedule upcoming, but not quite yet. This week the team takes on Stanford. Stanford has struggled this season including losing last week to FCS-level Sacramento State. I expect Arizona to move the ball consistently against the Cardinal defense. This may be the week McLachlan scores his first touchdown of the season.
Tulane Green Wave
We're getting closer to conference play throughout the country which generally means less enticing streaming options each week for defenses. This week though, there is one defense that stands out to me. Tulane's defense is under 20% rostered on Fantrax and takes on FCS-level Nicholls State.
Tulane has already played some formidable offenses including the aforementioned South Alabama Jaguars. They also played a top-25 opponent in Ole Miss and Southern Mississippi. Tulane has been able to generate sacks regardless of the opponent with at least three in each game. They're also giving up less than 300 total yards of offense per game on average which makes scoring on them difficult.
Tulane will take on their easiest opponent this season when they take on the Nicholls State Colonels. The Colonels have already faced one FBS-level opponent this season in TCU. In that game, TCU was victorious by a score of 41-6. I'm not sure if the score will be that one-sided, but I would expect that Tulane will do enough to make them worthy of a start this week.
Be sure to check out the rest of the F6P College Fantasy Football content!
