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Saturday's slate is loaded again, and with Vanderbilt traveling to No. 2 Georgia, Auburn visiting Tennessee, and Cincinnati heading to Arizona in a Big 12 showdown, there's a great lineup of games to add to your betting card.
I've pinpointed three player props for Saturday, including picks for Georgia's Gunner Stockton, Tennessee's Faizon Brandon, and Arizona's Kedrick Reescano.
With that said, let's dive into my top three college football player props and NCAAF picks for Week 5 on Saturday, Oct. 3.
College Football Player Props, Picks
- Gunnar Stockton Under 29.5 Rushing Yards (-115 · bet365)
- Faizon Brandon Under 1.5 Passing Touchdowns (-115 · bet365)
- Kedrick Reescano Under 39.5 Rushing Yards (-115 · bet365)
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Gunner Stockton Under 29.5 Rushing Yards (-115)
Gunner Stockton's rushing production this season has been almost entirely opponent-dependent rather than a steady weekly role. He exploded for 97 yards on just seven carries against Arkansas — a 13.9-yard-per-attempt clip driven by a single 62-yard scramble — but in his very next start, against Oklahoma's significantly tougher defensive front, he was held to just five rushes for zero yards.
That's the range this prop lives in. Stockton is a legitimate running threat when the pocket collapses, or Georgia wants to sprinkle in designed QB runs, but he's not a primary ball-carrier by design, and his output swings hard based on matchup and game script.
This afternoon's game script works against a big rushing number. Georgia is favored by nearly four touchdowns, and a team that comfortable rarely needs to keep feeding its starting quarterback read-option and scramble opportunities into the second half — especially with a disparity this steep, Georgia's staff has every incentive to protect Stockton from unnecessary hits and start rotating in backups once the lead is firmly in hand.
Georgia's defense, which ranks third nationally in EPA per rush allowed, should also make quick work of limiting Vanderbilt's possessions, compounding the likelihood of a running clock and an early close to Stockton's workload.
The market's own numbers back this up. The rest of the market is around 27.5 yards at the time of writing. Between his volatile role, Georgia's lopsided favorite status, and a defense that should make this one largely academic by halftime, the under carries real value here.
Pick: Gunner Stockton Under 29.5 Rushing Yards (-115)
Faizon Brandon Under 1.5 Passing Touchdowns (-115)
Freshman phenom Faizon Brandon opened the season in historic fashion — five total touchdowns in his debut against Furman, tying a Tennessee freshman record — but his passing-touchdown production has steadily declined as the level of competition has risen.
He threw 3 touchdowns against Furman (FCS), 2 against Georgia Tech, and just 1 in each of his last two starts against Kennesaw State and Texas. That's two consecutive one-touchdown passing performances, the second of which came in his worst statistical game of the season: 17-of-29 for just 145 yards and a season-low 112.0 passer rating, while Tennessee's offensive line allowed 10 sacks and the run game was held to a season-low 70 yards.
Tennessee's offensive line will impact Brandon; despite Auburn's defense being regarded as one of the weaker units in the SEC on paper, Brandon's own recent form, not just the matchup, is clearly concerning, and it trickles down.
A true freshman working through his first real taste of SEC-caliber pressure doesn't necessarily snap back to his season-opening form in one week simply because the next opponent grades out as beatable; confidence and protection issues can linger.
Tennessee's staff also has every incentive to lean on the run game and a more conservative, play-action-first approach to take pressure off its freshman quarterback after the beating he took last week, which would naturally cap his touchdown-throwing opportunities even in a favorable matchup.
Faizon Brandon Under 1.5 Passing touchdowns (-115)
Kedrick
Kedrick Reescano has been a key piece of Arizona's offense this season, but his workload has never translated into a true workhorse role. He's sharing the backfield with Ismail Mahdi, Antwan Roberts and Quincy Craig in what the beat has openly described as a "three-to-four-headed" committee.
His carry totals have ranged from 7 to 15 per game, and his season-high rushing total is just 49 yards, set in Week 2 against BYU. Across his four games this season, he's totaled 161 yards on 40 carries (4.0 yards per attempt) — a per-game average that sits right around tonight's line, but one built on a shared workload rather than a featured role that could push it well above that mark.
Cincinnati presents a genuine two-way challenge for this prop. The Bearcats boast one of the best rushing attacks in the country at 270 yards a game, which means Arizona's defense will be focused heavily on stopping the run on the other side of the ball.
However, it also means Arizona's own offensive staff may lean more on Noah Fifita's passing attack to keep pace in a game that projects as competitive and potentially high-scoring, rather than establishing a heavy, featured ground game through Reescano.
Arizona has already thrown nearly as often as it's run this season, and nothing about this matchup — a shootout-shaped total near 56 points against an explosive Cincinnati offense — points toward a sudden shift to a run-it-at-all-costs approach.
Pick: Kedrick Reescano Under 39.5 Rushing Yards (-115)
