This past week was a killer for many fantasy teams with Andre Anderson of Tulane and Tyrell Sutton of Northwestern being lost for the season.  Anderson especially will single-handily cost many owners the championship because he was a mid-round pick performing like a Top 5 pick which is the formula for fantasy success.

Nate Austin, Tulane :  Austin, a true freshman, is expected to get the first opportunity to replace the injured Anderson as the featured back for the Green Wave.  Tulane was the only team to offer him a scholarship so it would be foolish to expect him to be a stud out the gate.  However with that said Matt Forte and Anderson weren’t highly recruited either but excelled in what is becoming a great system for fantasy running backs.  While there is not a ton of info out there on Austin it does appear that he was more of a track guy in high school which tells me that he must be fast and also it is possible his focus on track led to schools not knowing who he is.  If you have Anderson or a dud on your roster then I suggest rolling the dice on Austin.  Why not? He is fast, could see 20+ carries and plays in a system that seems to give value to fantasy backs.

Omar Conteh , Northwestern : Conteh is the back that the Wildcats are expected to lean on now that Sutton had season-ending wrist surgery.  He is a senior who has been around for a while now and has some starts under his belt.  In 2007 Conteh started 5 games for the injured Sutton and put up serviceable stats on roughly 15 carries a game.  I would expect the same type of respectable stats for the remaining of the season.  Conteh makes for a decent free-agent pickup who you start in place of Sutton if needed or be a spot starter.

Atiyyah Henderson, San Diego State : Henderson came out of no where last week to put up 25-177-2 against Colorado State.  This type of game might have some owners jumping to pick him up hoping for some second-half magic but I just feel that is a poor bet.  It is true that the Aztecs need to run the ball more with their QB banged-up but this is a poor offense that just got a few big plays this past week.  Pass on Henderson.

Princeton McCarty, Idaho : McCarty is a tiny back (5-8 165lbs) with big play ability as he is sporting a 7.0 ypc on the season.  Last week against New Mexico State he had a line of 15-160-1 which get him popping up on the free agent lists.  The Vandals are still committed to giving Denote’ Jackson the ball so at this point McCarty is just a change of pace option who is capable of having a big game here or there but not someone you can count on.  Pass on McCarty.

Devin Moore, Wyoming : The Cowboys are desperate and out of desperation sometimes innovation is born, just ask Nevada with the ‘Pistol’ offense and Arkansas with the ‘Wildcat’.  Well we have a new offense called the ‘Outlaw’ that Wyoming unleashed against TCU last week.  The results of the game was a embarrassing 54-7 loss but out of that was a running game that confused the nation’s top rush defense as Moore ran for 25-114-1.  This is a player I want you to pick up if he is sitting on free agent scrap heap as he has always been talented, running in an offense that defenses haven’t seen yet and has some nice matchups in 3 of the next 4 games.

Kordell Young, Rutgers : It is very likely that Young is sitting out there on the free agent list because his overall stats are not anything impressive. He has always been the back that Coach Schiano seemed to favor and after returning from an injury a lot of people feared was season ending has now gotten 20+ carries three games in a row. The yards has not been there but any back getting 20+ carries is worth a roster spot for spot starts so snatch him up if available.