After three years and three consecutive national championships, the SEC has one heck of a resume to hang their hat on.  However, all that bling serves as a shield toward a pretty awkward couple of issues: the league only runs two deep at the top right now and fantasy players tail off in a hurry down south of the Mason Dixon.  Attrition caused its own mess, so …now what?  Now we have a couple of guys who are impact players, a few guys who could be, and then a heck of a lot of hope.

Big arm, big body, big-time coach - yes, Arkansas' Ryan Mallett looks like the real fantasy deal (Icon SMI)

At least we have trophies…

QUARTERBACK
1.  Ryan Mallett, Arkansas
2.  Cam Newton, Auburn
3.  John Brantley, Florida
4.  Jeremiah Masoli, Ole Miss

Let’s start with the obvious: Ryan Mallett is as close to a fantasy QB beast the SEC is likely to get for the near future.  He has a system designed to maximize his talents, he has a quality crop of WRs, and he’ll get the opportunities.  After that …. yikes.  Sure, Stephen Garcia is still floating around, and Greg McElroy is a great real-life QB, but they have systemic issues – McElroy isn’t in an offense that lets him pass enough, and Garcia is going to be yanked out of at least 3-4 games (plus is still playing behind a swinging gate of an offensive line).

Instead, we’re left with what systems are likely to produce.  Newton, Brantley, and Masoli are all untested in SEC play, excepting Newton’s garbage time as a Gator his freshman year.  However, they’re all in systems that can maximize their talents (and to be brutally frank, I flipped their order a few times writing this).  For now, I trust Newton more than either of the two guys ranked below him.  Brantley has all the tools, but after what happened to Florida’s offense under Steve Addazio last year, I’m a bit gunshy.  Masoli by all rights should be going to an offense that will let him run – Matt Jones in 2004 as a good example of Masoli’s potential – but there’s the simple matter of, well, not trusting that Houston Nutt has any idea how to coach QBs.  At all.  Couple that with Ole Miss breaking in three new guys on the line and there are some red flags here, even with Masoli’s production last season.

Don’t get me wrong – Newton, Brantley, and Masoli all have a chance to be the best fantasy QB in the SEC.  But in the absence of any history, we’re left to fall back on what we’ve seen guys like them do, and the production potential of those three guys doesn’t outweigh what we already know about Mallett.

On to the feature backs… Read the rest of this entry →

Chief Fantasy Officer Drew Smith’s eponymous fantasy college football draft preparation tool is live for 2010:

The Fantasy College Blitz Cheatsheet Customizer!

Drew ordered and projected over 1000 players for 2010 so you will not be left without names at the end of your draft!

Many of you personalize your leagues with unique scoring systems so Drew allows anyone to input their matrix so they can evaluate each of skill position!

Drew will update his projections constantly throughout August right up to kickoff – stay tuned for his updates and an tune to the podcast discussing our early August views for 2010.

Florida State TE Caz Piurowski (thanks Icon SMI)

Is the Tight End position the black hole of Fantasy College Football?  In a season that seemed destined to be the year of the Tight End with players such as Jermaine Gresham, Dennis Pitta, Tony Moaeki and Rob Gronkowski being drafted extremely early in expert league drafts, most teams have been left playing TE roulette in 2009 considering how putrid the position has performed.  Yet as we entered the year, who would have guessed? 

Gresham was ranked as the top Tight End by 4 of the 5 experts, yet he played as many snaps this season as I did- zero.  After suffering a season ending injury, Gresham was quick to make the decision that he had played his last down as a Sooner and was going to enter the NFL Draft.  If that was not bad enough for owners, Gronkowski, who was ranked by many as the second best Tight End, had back surgery right before the season kicked off and never played a down for the Wildcats in 2009.  Read the rest of this entry →

Just as last week was difficult for me to provide decent stats for you due to weak performances, this week was equally as difficult- but for the opposite reason. There was so much offense in the ACC this past week that it was difficult to really pick the best performers out. I actually have to expand this week from providing helmet stickers for the top three performers to actually four and in some cases five performers. Without further ado, here they are. Read the rest of this entry →

While I had the inkling in the preseason, I had no idea that the college football TE depth chart would be such a Wild West situation. When an already thin class loses its top two prospects it is imperative that fantasy owners dig in to the entire TE group to find useful matchups each week.

Dorin Dickerson (2) getting love in the end zone, and so far that is a lot of love with 4 TD in 2009. (Icon SMI)

Consensus #1 Jermaine Gresham of Oklahoma was likely still the best receiver on the squad, but he was lost to a knee injury before even suiting up. Rob Gronkowski of Arizona has been questionable all season long with back issues and has yet to put on the pads, but he might be a go for Iowa.

As we go into Week 3, I would like to introduce you to the nations most productive fantasy college football TE by far, Pitt’s Dorin Dickerson.

Dickerson was listed as the #2 TE behing Nate Byham in the pre-season, but the 230 lb-er has fulfilled his role as the pass catching TE in spades wheras Byham is more the complete player. Granted, Byham deals with post-concussion issues and has yet to get in the statbox but you cannot deny two games with a TD and three in the first half this past weekend.

Given the fractious nature of the Big East, Dickerson embodies a tremendous option to shore up your TE situation.

Marshal Thundering Herd’s Cody Slate is #2 in fantasy points but unlikely a free agent. The rest of the Top Ten is mostly a who’s who (Hence the need for this article…)More snapshots of the hottest TE after the bump

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