Friday Night Lite – Start your Tigers against Nevada, and do you remember Colin Kaepernick?
September 25th, 2009 by Vince Mullins
9pm kickoff tonight on the four letter network…
Tiger WR Jared Perry should show the back of his jersey to the Nevada defenders tonight, as he has done may times to Illinois. (Icon SMI)
Missouri Tigers travel to the cold evening autumn desert of Reno to play the Nevada Wolfpack and you likely know this game is full of fantasy stars – particularly, your lineup should be full of Tigers tonight.
And I am particularly keen to watch if QB Colin Kaepernick can break his cold streak – so cold that he has scored as many points in two games as Army’s Trent Steelman and Florida QB for 2010 John Brantley. TD heavy leagues have CK ranking in the 750 range.
The Nevada defense has been horrible this season, many of you may recall the aerial beatdown handed out by Notre Dame in Week One? Wolfpack rate #111 in the BlitzIndex after visiting the Irish and the vaunted Colorado State offense. The stat that stands out most? 7.2 yards per PLAY allowed ranking 115 of 120 – that is the only pure defense stat in the system (Points measures involve the offense effectiveness and field position).
The home field is a nice touch, but it cannot make up for facing a pretty hot QB Blaine Gabbert and WRs Danario Alexander and Jared Perry. Even RB Derrick Washington, who has underperformed so far ranking in the #300′s overall per Athlon/USports should break out. The Missouri offense and special teams set up the D well, as they are in the top ten in yards per point allowed (#9 with 25.44).
But if you drafted Kaepernick and do not play him in this home opener you open yourself up to a lot of scrutiny - you cannot leave your #1 on the bench in a situation like this. I will admit to slotting Zac Lee vs ULL first in my favorite league, but his non-throwing hand injury and the emergence of Roy Helu last week is enough to promote CK to starter tonight. Kaepernick has a tough task – he has yet to develop a rapport with receivers, even the much pre-season hyped Chris Wellington. Freshman Brandon Wellington had a nice game last week versus Colorado State but neither looks like a start against the #20 defense in the land. But Kaepernick has to be.
Related posts:
- FCB FANTASY PLAYER OF THE WEEK….Colin Kaepernick, QB, Nevada
- FCB Blog Day Live – Cal at Nevada Friday at 10pm ET
- 2011 Senior Bowl Road Trip Sounds: Colin Kaepernick, Jake Locker, Christian Ponder, Rodney Hudson
- MAC Title Game: Sleeper Sneaky Entertaining Friday Night Game
- NEVADA WOLF PACK 2009 PREVIEW
