Early college football DFS picks October 31: Breece yourself

AMES, IA - SEPTEMBER 12: Running back Breece Hall #28 of the Iowa State Cyclones scores a touchdown in the first half half of the play at Jack Trice Stadium on September 12, 2020 in Ames, Iowa. The Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin"u2019 Cajuns won 31-14 over the Iowa State Cyclones. (Photo by David K Purdy/Getty Images) /

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BLOOMINGTON, IN – NOVEMBER 02: Indiana (RB) Stevie Scott III (8) during a college football game between the Northwestern Wildcats and Indiana Hoosiers on November 2, 2019, at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington, IN. (Photo by James Black/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

College football DFS running back picks October 31:

Top Tier:

This is a superb matchup for Breece Hall. Even if he doesn’t play after halftime, I’d still bet he goes over150 and three touchdowns. There is very little risk with Hall here. Far less than with Etienne.

There are so many great options in the middle tier that I don’t see much of a reason to gamble with Leddie Brown against a solid K-State defense or with Herbert, who was locked up by Wake last week. Chuba Hubbard is worth considering on the fringe of the elite tier, but Texas’s run defense hasn’t been the sore spot. They are far worse against the pass.

Middle Tier:

Considering what opposing backs have done to Virginia Tech so far this year, Javian Hawkins looks like a really nice option. So does Stevie Scott. He is the heart of the Indiana offense. While Rutgers is much improved, their defense only looked great because of the takeaways last week. I still think Scott is in for a nice game.

That’s what I was waiting to see before going back in on Deuce Vaughn. He was the leading rusher and receiver against the Jaychickens last week. He is the heart of the offense with Thompson out, and he should still be a nice play based on volume alone against West Virginia.

This is where running back really gets loaded. Gerrid Doaks has a great matchup against a Memphis defense that isn’t nearly as good against the run as they used to be. Tank Bigsby against LSU looks nice. The best of this tier could be Jerrion Ealy against the awful Vanderbilt run defense.

Bargain Shoppers:

Rodrigues Clark of Memphis has been a cash game dream this year. He has no less than 98 yards rushing in any game and no more than 112. You know what you are going to get out of Clark. He’s plenty cheap enough to use in cash games, but there isn’t a ton of upside.

Velton Gardner was a large part of the Kansas offense and he is really cheap. That said, all three of Kentucky’s running backs should get significant usage with their quarterback never having taken a snap in a game.

Snoop Conner gets a lot of run for a guy in this price range. Ole Miss ran 51 times last weekend and likely will against Vandy as well. I really like Conner as a GPP punt.