Louisville football’s top-ranked college fantasy player may surprise you

College fantasy football is back for year two, and the highest-rated Louisville football player for 2019 is rather surprising.

It’s been a long eight months, but by the grace of God, football and subsequently fantasy football is back. In years past for Louisville football and college football fans, that’s meant prepping for NFL Drafts but not anymore.

Last season was the inaugural season of college fantasy football, and my lord was it glorious. I played in my first league along with several other local Louisville sportswriters, and somehow I managed to win (yeah, I humble bragged).

While I didn’t really know everything there is to know about half of the players I had on my team, it forced me to do more research than ever before featuring many nights where my wife went to bed alone as I stayed up until the wee hours watching Arizona vs. Utah.

This season will be no different, except I will be more prepared. And while I am not an evangelist for fantasy football, I do think anyone who has any interest in college football should play.

Over the last few weeks, Yahoo has released its rankings for the 2019 season and it’s been rather interesting, to say the least, to meander through the list looking for players from Louisville.

In 2018, Jawon Pass, Dez Fitzpatrick, Jaylen Smith, and Micky Crum (still scratching my head on that one) were all considered draftable players from Louisville, but unfortunately, as you all know, none of them produced at the levels we expected, relegating them to the waiver wire.

It was Khalil Tate, the dual-threat quarterback from Arizona, who was regarded as the number one player in draft rankings leading up to drafts last season.

In 2019, Wisconsin’s Jonathan Taylor surprisingly leads the way at the top of the rankings, with Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa, Clemson running back Travis Etienne, Arizona State’s Eno Benjamin and Colorado wide receiver Laviska Shenault Jr. closing out the top five.

Who cares about all that, though? The real question is where the Louisville football players stand. The answer to who is ranked, where they are ranked, and what that means for team owners, may surprise you.

Who’s the highest-ranked player for the Cards?

To me, I thought the answer would be easy, but not so fast. Thinking that Scott Satterfield’s new offense, which is highly predicated on establishing a dominant run game, would make Hassan Hall the Cards top fantasy football option was incorrect thinking.

Instead, it’s redshirt junior wide receiver, Dez Fitzpatrick, who ranks as the 172nd best player overall in the 2019 rankings, and as the 43rd receiver.

I am biased, I’ll go ahead and say that (which you probably already know) but to me, that’s a tad bit too low. While the offense of Scott Satterfield is all about establishing the run game and doesn’t feature wide receivers like we’re used to, Fitzpatrick is still expected to have a breakout season.

After scoring nine touchdowns as a freshman, Fitzpatrick’s statistics took a bit of a hit last year with poor quarterback play and overall disfunction on the Louisville offense. My guess is that it has a lot to do with the rankings from Yahoo, as it’s much easier to project players who either are returning to a great situation or are expected to break out, over a guy who only scored one touchdown 2018, regardless of the situation.

Depending on team quantity and overall league rules, that puts Fitzpatrick as a late-round kind of a guy, giving your team a ton of value late if he has a big season as we expect.

Where do other Cardinal players rank?

Only four Louisville Cardinal made the college football fantasy football rankings in 2019, which I understand but disagree with. Again, you can’t blame the guys and gals who put these lists together as there’s just not a lot out there to support the fact that the Louisville offense is going to be a huge point producer both on the field and on the computer.

I know from my time covering the team this summer that there are plenty of capable players on offense who provide value, and since we’re a big family I’ll give you those players here in a second.

But here are the other players who made the top 380 players for Yahoo.

Seth Dawkins – WR

Overall yahoo ranking: 209

Position ranking: 63

Seth Dawkins is a guy who is really going to benefit from the attention that Dez Fitzpatrick draws from opposing defenses.

While I don’t think he’ll have a career year statistically, I do think he’ll have his best overall season in 2019, assuming he stays healthy.

Hassan Hall – RB

Overall Yahoo ranking: 354

Position ranking: 88

You don’t need me to tell you why I believe Hall is undervalued here. He’s going to be the lead back in a system that ran the ball 41 times per game on average in 2018, and he showed in limited snaps last year that he can produce.

Louisville hasn’t had a 1,000-yard rusher since Bilal Powell in 2010, until 2019. Hall breaks that, and maybe does it easy, and finishes somewhere in the top 50 in fantasy production at the running back spot.

Blanton Creque – K

Overall Yahoo ranking: 378

Position ranking: 29

Blanton Creque is going to be an extremely valuable member of the Louisville football program this fall, as he’s going to have the chance to keep the Cards in a lot of games if the offense can’t score touchdowns.

His ranking makes a ton of sense though, unlike the other guys on the list, as Louisville won’t score a ton of points – meaning there won’t be a whole of extra points to accumulate the scoring you need from your kicker.

Is there anybody else I should draft?

I’m glad you asked, the answer is easy: Yes.

Other guys left off the Yahoo rankings who could be drafted late or picked up after the first few weeks of the season include tight end Jordan Davis, who will have the potential to score in the red zone on goal-line situations, wide receiver Tutu Atwell, who should have ample opportunities for homerun plays out of the slot, as well as running back Javian Hawkins, who should get somewhere between 75 and 115 carries (assuming he’s healthy) in 2019.

Other than those three guys, I’d steer clear of any other Louisville players, including Jawon Pass and Malik Cunningham, until they prove otherwise.

I’d also watch out for the Louisville defense, especially in matchups where they can limit opposing offenses such as week two against Eastern Kentucky, week three against Western Kentucky, and maybe even in matchups against Wake and North Carolina State.

Fantasy football was fun before, but now that Louisville football is involved, it’s even that much more fun.