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Bruno Mulé breaks down 10 under-the-radar college fantasy football sleepers to target on waivers and consider starting in Week 1 of the 2026 season.
Week 1 is where college fantasy football gets uncomfortable fast. A month of camp reports gives way to actual depth charts, transfer-heavy offenses finally take the field, and some of the players nobody wanted to draft suddenly become usable because of one good matchup.
That is the idea here. Every player below is rostered in fewer than 50% of Yahoo College Fantasy Football leagues as of Sept. 1, and each has a real case to make a Week 1 lineup. This is not a stash list. Some are safer than others, but the bar is immediate usefulness.
Week 0 also gave us something we rarely have this early: actual game evidence. USC's Trent Mosley already showed what his role can look like. For everyone else, the calls come down to matchup, depth chart, returning production and what changed during camp.
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Week 1 CFB Quarterback Sleepers
Avery Johnson, Kansas State (32% rostered): Johnson sitting at 32% rostered is one of the easier Week 1 cases to make. He started all 12 games for Kansas State last season, throwing for 2,385 yards and 18 touchdowns while adding 477 yards and eight more scores on 109 carries. That rushing work is the separator in fantasy. Kansas State opens the Collin Klein era at home against Nicholls, and Johnson does not need a huge passing day to get there. If the Wildcats control the game the way they should, his legs give him a clear path to a useful score before things get out of hand.
Sealed the deal @avery2johnson
— K-State Football (@KStateFB) September 13, 2025
Michael Hawkins Jr., West Virginia (4% rostered): Hawkins is the swing-for-upside option. Rich Rodriguez still has not publicly announced his starter, but multiple reports have Hawkins expected to win the job over Scotty Fox Jr. Rodriguez also admitted Monday night that he already knows who will take the first snap. Hawkins made four starts at Oklahoma as a freshman in 2024, when he ran 69 times for 204 yards, and he added 58 rushing yards and a touchdown in limited work last season. Coastal Carolina is a friendly opener for a quarterback in a Rodriguez offense, especially one who can run. Just understand that this recommendation carries more pregame uncertainty than the other quarterbacks here.
Bear Bachmeier, BYU (23% rostered): Bachmeier does not need a breakout argument. He already had one. The BYU quarterback completed 64.9% of his passes for 3,033 yards and 15 touchdowns as a freshman, then ran for 527 yards and 11 scores. Those 11 rushing touchdowns set a BYU single-season record for a quarterback. BYU would like him taking fewer hits in 2026, so another 147 carries would be a surprise, but the rushing part of his game is not disappearing. Utah Tech comes to Provo for the opener. A quarterback coming off 26 total touchdowns should not be available in more than three-quarters of Yahoo leagues for that matchup.
Week 1 CFB Running Back Sleepers
Daniel Hill, Alabama (11% rostered): Alabama's backfield took some hits during camp, and Hill enters the opener with a chance to matter immediately. He rushed 75 times for 284 yards and six touchdowns last season while catching 28 passes for 203 yards and another score. Five-star freshman EJ Crowell is expected to be available against East Carolina, so projecting Hill for a massive workload would be a mistake. He does not need one. At 234 pounds, Hill already has a history of finishing drives, and Alabama should give its backs plenty of chances Saturday. He is a much more interesting FLEX play than an 11% roster rate suggests.
Ty Clark III, Wake Forest (38% rostered): Clark's season totals do not tell the whole story. He finished 2025 with 326 rushing yards and three touchdowns, plus 17 catches for 209 yards and another score. Then came the Duke's Mayo Bowl, where he ran for a career-high 91 yards and caught three passes for 73 yards and a touchdown. Wake Forest opens at home against Akron with Clark at the front of a backfield that also includes K.D. Daniels and Sawyer Seidl. That rotation keeps this from being a volume lock. The matchup and receiving work are enough to make Clark usable anyway, especially in PPR formats.
Dawson Pendergrass, Baylor (24% rostered): Pendergrass did not play in 2025 while recovering from a preseason injury, which helps explain why he is still only 24% rostered. He is healthy now and listed as Baylor's starting running back for Week 1. The last full season we saw from him produced 671 yards and six touchdowns on 121 carries, plus 11 catches for 103 yards and another score. There is a catch. Baylor openly describes this as at least a three-back room with Caden Knighten and Michael Turner, and Auburn is not a matchup to chase. Pendergrass still has enough role certainty and prior production to work as an RB2 or FLEX if you need one.
Week 1 CFB Wide Receiver Sleepers
Jackson Harris, LSU (11% rostered): Clemson is not the matchup you would draw up for a sleeper article. Harris is here anyway. The Hawaii transfer caught 49 passes for 963 yards and 12 touchdowns last season, leading the Mountain West in receiving scores and yards per catch at 19.65. He had six 100-yard games and scored 11 times over his final seven appearances. That is not empty transfer-portal hype. There is enough proven big-play production here to take the matchup on. At 11% rostered, Harris has a real WR3 or FLEX case even against Clemson.
The real deal 👊
Jackson Harris ➡️ First-Team All-Mountain West#BRADDAHHOOD x @jackssonharriss
— Hawaii Football (@HawaiiFootball) December 2, 2025
Junior Sherrill, Vanderbilt (28% rostered): There is less guesswork with Sherrill than with most receivers available in more than 70% of Yahoo leagues. He played all 13 games last season, started 11, and finished with 54 catches for 784 yards and seven touchdowns. He also closed the year with eight catches for 123 yards in the ReliaQuest Bowl. Vanderbilt has a new quarterback in Blaze Berlowitz, but Sherrill remains the most established returning receiver in the offense. Austin Peay comes to Nashville for Week 1. That is a comfortable enough spot to trust the returning production while the Commodores sort out the rest of their passing game.
Trent Mosley, USC (6% rostered): Mosley already did the scouting report for us. The true freshman saw nine targets against San Jose State in Week 0 and turned them into seven catches for 118 yards and a touchdown. Six of those seven receptions either moved the chains or scored, and his 118 yards were the most by a USC true freshman in his debut since JuJu Smith-Schuster in 2014. He is also listed as a starter on USC's current depth chart. The receiver rotation could get more crowded as Tanook Hines and others get healthier, but that is a problem for later. Fresno State is up next, and Mosley has already shown he can earn targets in this offense.
The Trojan Family voted Trent Mosley the @iTrustCapital Trojan of the Game after opening his @uscfb career with 174 all-purpose yards and a TD.
— USC Trojans (@USC_Athletics) August 30, 2026
Week 1 CFB Tight End Sleeper
Lawson Luckie, Georgia (24% rostered): Tight end gets thin quickly in college fantasy, so Luckie does not need 10 targets to make sense here. He caught only 15 passes last season, but four went for touchdowns. Three of them came in the same game against Ole Miss, and Georgia enters 2026 with six of its top seven pass catchers from last season gone. Luckie is one of the Bulldogs' top returning targets and has seven starts from 2025 under his belt. Georgia opens at home against Tennessee State. Jaden Reddell, Elyiss Williams and the rest of a deep tight end room will still play, but Luckie's red-zone history gives him a better Week 1 path than most widely available options at the position.
Make sure to follow Bruno on X, @MuleKickSports.
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