If you want more Action Network content, be sure to add us as a preferred source on Google.
Saturday's slate offers loads of value with No. 22 Arizona traveling to No. 13 Texas Tech, Illinois visiting Maryland, and Georgia Tech heading to Pitt; there’s a great lineup of games to add to your betting card.
I’ve pinpointed three player props for Saturday, including picks for Arizona’s Noah Fifita, Illinois’ Aidan Laughery, and Georgia Tech’s Justice Haynes.
With that said, let's dive into my top three college football player props and NCAAF picks for Week 9 on Saturday, Oct. 31.
College Football Player Props, Picks
- Noah Fifita Over 1.5 Passing Touchdowns (+110 · TheScore)
- Aidan Laughery Under 97.5 Rushing Yards (-115 · bet365)
- Justice Haynes Over 51.5 Rushing Yards (-115 · bet365)
Be sure to download the Action Network app for more picks and analysis!
Noah Fifita Over 1.5 Passing Touchdowns (+110)
Noah Fifita is on one of the most productive touchdown runs of any quarterback in the country. He has 18 touchdown passes through seven games, a pace of more than 2.5 a week, and he has thrown at least two in six of those seven. The lone exception was the road loss at BYU, when he got one.
Since that loss, Arizona has averaged just over 40 points a game, and Fifita has gone for 4, 4, 2, 3, and 2 touchdowns, with a 308-yard, two-score performance in the 39-3 win over Iowa State last week. He’s completing 74.2% of his passes at 9.1 yards per attempt and has now made 42 straight starts.
The matchup is the best path to a multi-touchdown game he could ask for. Texas Tech ranks 126th nationally against the pass at 266 yards allowed a game and has already given up 16 touchdown passes in seven games.
Cincinnati’s quarterback threw four against the Red Raiders on just 172 yards, which shows how efficiently the secondary can be beaten. Tech’s strength is its run defense, which ranks in the top 25, and Arizona’s offense is built around the pass anyway, ranking ninth nationally at 311 yards a game.
The Wildcats have eight different players with a touchdown catch and one of the deepest receiving rooms in the Big 12, so there’s no shortage of targets in the end zone.
The game script should help too. Texas Tech is a field-goal favorite in a game with a total around 54.5, which means Arizona likely needs to score in the mid-20s to keep pace. Arizona also ranks in the top five of the Big 12 in time of possession while Tech is near the bottom, so the Wildcats should have plenty of snaps.
Tech’s defense does create turnovers, with 13 interceptions and five returned for scores, but Fifita has thrown just four picks all season, and at plus money you only need him to do what he’s done in nearly every game.
Pick: Noah Fifita Over 1.5 Passing Touchdowns (+110)Â
Be sure to download the Action Network app for more picks and analysis
Aidan Laughery Under 97.5 Rushing Yards (-115)
Aidan Laughery’s yardage line is built on two outlier plays. His 6.9 yards per carry is the best mark in the Big Ten outside of one player, but it’s inflated by a 77-yard touchdown against Southern Illinois and a 75-yard touchdown against Oregon.
Strip those two runs out, and he averages about five yards a carry, which would require roughly 20 attempts to reach 98 yards. His season high is 17 carries. He has cleared this number in only two of seven games, and one of those, the 93-yard day against SIU, came on just four carries.
His workload is modest by design. He averages about 11 carries a game, and his two biggest outings came against Ohio State and Oregon, when he ran for 113 on 11 carries and 123 on 13. Those games needed long gains to get there.
In the other games, he ran for 70 on 17 carries at Michigan State and 49 on 12 against Purdue, and he had just 66 yards across Illinois’s first two games combined. Even at a heavier workload, a normal Laughery day lands in the 70-to-90 range, which stays under the number.
Illinois is a small road favorite in a game with a total above 52, and freshman quarterback Michael Clayton II has the offense leaning on a balanced, quick-hitting attack, as his 84-yard performance against Oregon showed.
Maryland comes in on a five-game losing streak after firing its coach, and the Illini have the type of lead they can protect without pushing the ball downhill. The under only needs Laughery to have a typical outing and not another 75-yard breakaway.
Pick: Aidan Laughery Under 97.5 Rushing Yards (-115)
Justice Haynes Over 51.5 Rushing Yards (-115)
This line asks very little of a back with Justice Haynes’s track record. In the six games he has played this season, he has run for 64, 81, 141, 107, 69, and 53 yards, clearing 51.5 every time. He missed the Virginia Tech game with an injury, then returned and scored last week against Boston College.
His workload has been steady at 14 to 22 carries a game, so even at his lowest efficiency of the year, 3.8 yards a carry, he lands right at this number. He’s a 5-foot-11, 210-pound senior who ran for 7.1 yards a carry at Michigan last season, and Georgia Tech’s offense gives him every opportunity to get touches.
The market has priced in Pitt’s run defense, and that’s the discount here. The Panthers allow just 65 yards a game on the ground, the best mark in the nation by some measures, and they have held five of eight opponents below 100.
That is a real obstacle, but Haynes needs only about half of his season average of roughly 86 a game. Pitt is also dealing with a quarterback change after Mason Heintschel’s season-ending injury and has lost three straight, so the Panthers’ offense has been far less explosive. A tighter, lower-scoring game keeps Georgia Tech in the run game longer.
Georgia Tech’s offense will also look for ways to establish itself early, and Haynes handled 14 carries even in a 22-point loss last week, which shows the staff’s commitment. At -115, you’re paying a modest price for a player who has gone over this number in every game he has played.
Pick: Justice Haynes Over 51.5 Rushing Yards (-115)
