Devy Fantasy Football Risers & Fallers: Mitchell Evans, Devontez Walker, Cameron Ward, Luke Hasz

Week 6 of the college football season featured an instant classic between Texas and Oklahoma in the Red River Rivalry and a slew of season-altering top 25 upsets. In total, six ranked teams lost to unranked or lower-ranked opponents in what morphed into a wild and unpredictable weekend of college football action.

Devy Risers & Fallers

If you’re unfamiliar with the format, devy (developmental dynasty league) is a type of fantasy football league that goes a bit deeper. In these leagues, you draft and stash potential NFL prospects years before they enter the league. Scott Fish, the creator of the massively popular Scott Fish Bowl tournament, is also credited with creating devy back in the 1990s, and the format has gained popularity ever since.

Regarding risers, we refer to players whose perceived value has increased based on their on-field performance. However, when we talk about fallers, we consider several factors, such as on-field performance, injuries, playing time, and even some extenuating circumstances, which can impact a player’s value.

Risers

Mitchell Evans (TE – Notre Dame)

Death, taxes, and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish producing NFL tight ends. The Iowa Hawkeyes rightfully receive a ton of praise for their recent run at the tight end position, but Notre Dame’s active streak might be even more impressive.

The Hawkeyes have produced more quality at the position, but you can’t argue with the quantity being churned out of South Bend, Indiana. Dating back to Anthony Fasano in 2004, eleven consecutive opening-day starting Notre Dame tight ends have been drafted into the NFL.

With another impressive performance in Saturday’s 33-20 loss to Louisville, Junior Mitchell Evans is well on his way to growing that number to twelve straight. Evans has 60+ receiving yards in 4/5 games this season and has receiving totals of 71, 134, and 75 yards over the past three weeks. Evans looks like an NFL tight end on tape.

Devontez Walker (WR – North Carolina)

In the very first Devy Risers & Fallers of the year, I mentioned how unfairly the NCAA treated UNC wide receiver Devontez “Tez” Walker. Instead of applying some common sense to his unique situation, the NCAA and UNC squabbled in person, through the media, and were on their way to the courtroom before the NCAA’s abrupt change of heart.

The NCAA is blaming UNC for withholding key information that could have ended this mess weeks ago. The university countered that they presented information as it was given to them. Stuck in the middle of this pointless blame game is a 22-year-old kid who just wants to play football.

No matter who you blame for this entire fiasco — and it’s almost always the NCAA in these situations — all that really matters now is that Walker is officially eligible and has joined his teammates on the football field. Walker had a modest 43 receiving yards in his debut against Syracuse, but his devy stock will continue to rise as the season progresses.

Fallers

Cameron Ward (QB – Washington State)

Up until this week, Washington State quarterback Cameron Ward has been one of the top quarterbacks in college football. In Washington State’s first four contests of the season, Ward averaged 347.5 yards per game, completed 74.6% of his pass attempts, and had a 13-0 TD-INT ratio.

The opposite transpired in Washington State’s 25-17 defeat to Pac-12 rival UCLA. Ward finished with a season-low 197 passing yards, completed less than 50% of his pass attempts, and threw his first two interceptions of the season.

We won’t let one bad performance outweigh all the good he’s done this season, but we also can’t ignore it. Washington State’s offense struggled without top wide receiver Lincoln Victor, and Ward was outplayed by UCLA’s super-talented freshman quarterback Dante Moore. Ward is still an intriguing devy prospect — especially in Superflex leagues — but the hype train took a hit this week.

Luke Hasz (TE – Arkansas)

Freshman tight end Luke Hasz had been a rare bright spot for a struggling Arkansas football team. Unfortunately, Hasz suffered a broken clavicle one drive into the Razorbacks’ Week 5 defeat to Texas A&M and will miss the remainder of the season.

Life didn’t get easier for head coach Sam Pittman and company in this weekend’s matchup with Ole Miss. Arkansas was competitive for much of the game, but the Razorbacks lost their fourth consecutive contest to drop to 2-4 on the season. Looking into the future, Hasz shouldn’t be massively impacted by the injury. A broken clavicle ends a promising freshman season, but expect a full recovery by next season.