Building upon my Minimalist theme for 2010 (in everything but quality), I introduce to you my early August look at the running back position for fantasy college football. Compared to the excellent project of our Cheatsheet Customizer from Drew Smith and Tim Dady, I list here some things you will NOT see in my Minimalist project:

One of Oregon State Jacquizz Rodgers 34 career TDs - can he do that in 2010 alone? (IconSMI)

RB by committee (RBBC) – I have long held that why should I draft an average-plus talent who shares carries above an average talent who will likely be the main guy. I will post my RBBC to watch later since there are some quality players and programs involved (e.g., Utah, Texas) that merit monitoring over the course of the next couple weeks.

“Achtung” list – Guys I just do not trust and should be handled with care (again, a future post).  I got close to 100 names here all of whom I would trust on my lineup, so I will just leave guys off here so as to focus on the valuable RBs.

Trust your preparation!

This was driven home to me a couple months back while golfing – I questioned my putt while in the stance, and of course I over-corrected and missed the par. I repeated the mantra as I approached the rest of the greens and performed much better. Very easy to apply this concept to many tasks, but focusing on fantasy college football here means to appreciate what is on the list, not what is absent.

After the jump, I will break out my RBs by tiers of expected performance (with rankings within the cohort less a concern) with important backups.

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.

Starting with Phil Steele’s 2010 projected defense rankings, but I ranked team rush D and team pass D separately, then used my distance theorem to come up with our first fantasy focused total defense ranking.

Can UCF defense help knock off NC State and Kansas State in 2010? We feel confident the Knights can help your fantasy season. (Icon SMI)

I then overlaid total rank of opponent OLs to be faced during the season, which led to some big surprises for your draft prep – several of the top projected Ds also face the nation’s worst OLs to amplify their badassitude.

Teams like Iowa (10), North Carolina (1, pre-sanctions?), Miami (FL) (4), Alabama (8), and Florida (6) are sure to be among the 1st Ds off the board on draft day, but may end up producing similar numbers to those 2nd-tier defenses with easier schedules like Southern Miss (25), UCF (40) or surprising Kent State (46) when it’s all said and done.

Below are the rankings, then the attachment illustrates the full power of this Death Star with conference, division, AQ status (to help you sort if playing AQ only) and all the individual variables discussed above. I bolded the Top 12 in each category (Top 10%) and italicized the bottom 10%.

Fantasy College Blitz Defense 2010

RANK
1    UNC
2    TEXAS
3    OKLAHOMA
4    MIAMI
5    OHIO STATE
6    FLORIDA
7    USC
8    ALABAMA
9    TCU
10    IOWA
11    NEBRASKA
12    BOISE STATE
13    PENN STATE
14    SOUTH CAROLINA
15    OREGON
16    WEST VIRGINIA
17    MISSISSIPPI ST
18    LSU
19    MISSISSIPPI
20    PITTSBURGH
21    VIRGINIA TECH
22    NOTRE DAME
23    FLORIDA STATE
24    AUBURN

25    SOUTHERN MISS Read the rest of this entry →

Matt Ryan and I collaborated to add some additional intelligence on top of the very early mock draft that ended last week. Below you will see the draft sorted by position to give you a sort of consensus depth chart.

WR (START 3)

Overall, Round, Pick by Round, Overall by Position

13    2    1    1    Michael Floyd (right, Icon SMI)   WR    Notre Dame    JR
18    2    6    2    Ryan Broyles    WR    Oklahoma    JR
25    3    1    3    James Cleveland    WR    Houston    SR
26    3    2    4    Greg Salas    WR    Hawaii    SR
28    3    4    5    Jeff Fuller    WR    Texas A&M    JR
31    3    7    6    DeAndre Brown    WR    Southern Miss.    JR
32    3    8    7    Randall Cobb    WR    Kentucky    JR
33    3    9    8    Titus Young    WR    Boise State    SR
38    4    2    9    Vincent Brown    WR    Florida    SR
39    4    3    10    Aldrick Robinson    WR    SMU    SR
40    4    4    11    Eric Page    WR    Toledo    SO
44    4    8    12    Austin Pettis    WR    Boise State    SR
48    4    12    13    Mohamed Sanu    WR    Rutgers    SO
52    5    4    14    Jonathan Baldwin    WR    Pittsburgh    JR
54    5    6    15    James Rodgers    WR    Oregon State    SR
56    5    8    16    Armon Binns    WR    Cincinnati    SR
57    5    9    17    Greg Childs    WR    Arkansas    JR
59    5    11    18    Damaris Johnson    WR    Tulsa    JR
60    5    12    19    Keith Smith    WR    Purdue    GRAD
63    6    3    20    Tyron Carrier    WR    Houston    JR
67    6    7    21    Dwayne Harris    WR    East Carolina    SR
68    6    8    22    Jerrell Jackson    WR    Missouri    JR
70    6    10    23    Julio Jones    WR    Alabama    JR
71    6    11    24    Jerrel Jernigan    WR    Troy    SR
75    7    3    25    A.J. Green    WR    Georgia    JR
81    7    9    26    DeVier Posey    WR    Ohio State    JR
84    7    12    27    Detron Lewis    WR    Texas Tech    SR
87    8    3    28    Tandon Doss    WR    Indiana    JR
90    8    6    29    Tyler Stradford    WR    North Texas    SO
91    8    7    30    Ronald Johnson    WR    USC    SR
96    8    12    31    T.Y. Hilton    WR    FIU    JR
101    9    5    32    Alshon Jeffery    WR    South Carolina    SO
104    9    8    33    Jermaine Kearse    WR    Washington    JR
114    10    6    34    Alex Torres    WR    Texas Tech    SO
119    10    11    35    Juron Criner    WR    Arizona    JR
121    11    1    36    Rodney Bradley    WR    Hawaii    SR
122    11    2    37    Vidal Hazelton    WR    Cincinatti    SR
123    11    3    38    Deonte Thompson    WR    Florida    SR
124    11    4    39    Nick Toon    WR    Wisconsin    JR
125    11    5    40    Patrick Edwards    WR    Houston    JR
131    11    11    41    Jameel Owens    WR    Oklahoma    JR
133    12    1    42    Hubert Anyiam    WR    Oklahoma State    JR
134    12    2    43    Kyle Prater    WR    USC    SO
138    12    6    44    Kris Adams    WR    UTEP    SR
139    12    7    45    Kendall Wright    WR    Baylor    JR
140    12    8    46    Darvin Adams    WR    Auburn    JR
143    12    11    47    Jereme Brooks    WR    Utah    SR
147    13    3    48    Chris Owusu    WR    Stanford    JR
148    13    4    49    Wes Kemp    WR    Missouri    JR
156    13    12    50    Tai-ler Jones    WR    Notre Dame    FR
158    14    2    51    Bert Reed    WR    Florida State    JR
159    14    3    52    Armand Robinson    WR    Miami (OH)    SR
161    14    5    53    LaVon Brazill    WR    Ohio    SR
171    15    3    54    Russell Shepard    WR    LSU    SO
192    16    12    55    Donovan Varner    WR    Duke    JR
194    17    2    56    Tracy Moore    WR    Oklahoma State    SO
196    17    4    57    Andre Debose    WR    Florida    SO
200    17    8    58    Ryan Whalen    WR    Stanford    SR
203    17    11    59    Uzoma Nwachukwu    WR    Texas A&M    SO
205    18    1    60    Mike McNeill    WR    Nebraska    SR
208    18    4    61    Malcolm Williams    WR    Texas    SR
210    18    6    62    Josh Smith    WR    UCLA    SR

Also:

QB | RB | WR | TE | D | K

Matt Ryan and I collaborated to add some additional intelligence on top of the very early mock draft that ended last week. Below you will see the draft sorted by position to give you a sort of consensus depth chart.

Jacquizz Rodgers, courtesy Icon SMI

RB (START 3)

Overall, Round, Pick by Round, Overall by Position

Also:

QB | RB | WR | TE | D | K