3 College Football Player Props for December 23

As the holiday week approaches, work productivity nosedives, sugar intake goes through the roof, and bowl games abound. From Friday, December 22 to the following Saturday, 27 bowl contests dot the schedule in the build-up to the CFP matchups on January 1. It would be easy to get ahead of ourselves and leave out some gems from this Saturday alone, which we’ll focus on in this article.

Two 11-win teams from the Sun Belt will put their impressive records on the line, beginning with the conference champions, Troy. In the 76 Birmingham Bowl, the Trojans are favored by seven points against the Duke Blue Devils, who will be without quarterback Riley Leonard after his transfer to Notre Dame was announced.

The conference’s darling from 2023, James Madison, is also a favorite entering their clash with Air Force in the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl. The Dukes snuck into a bowl despite eligibility requirements when not enough six-win teams filled the available slots.

The South Alabama Jaguars, favorites of 17.5 points, are expected to have the widest victory margin Saturday. They’ll play Eastern Michigan in the 68 Ventures Bowl, the latest in a long line of sponsors for this matchup in Mobile, AL.

Through the first bowl weekend, our record on props was a disappointing 0-2. Davis Brin, the Georgia Southern QB, tossed two touchdown passes on 42 attempts to sink our opening play on his under. Louisiana’s Jacob Kibodi didn’t suit up, which voided our bet on him, and Cal’s Jadyn Ott delivered a stinker during the Bears’ blowout loss to Texas Tech in the Independence Bowl to put a cherry on top of that day.

Now that we’ve hopefully exercised some demons by acknowledging how poor our picks were last week, the prop card for this Saturday’s handful of bowl games is lined up and ready for a rebound. All three of these can be found at DraftKings.

Grayson Loftis (Duke) OVER 1.5 Passing TDs (+170)

• Loftis appeared in seven games this season, starting their final four against tough conference opponents.
• In those four starts, Lofton threw eight touchdown passes to three picks despite completing just 53.4% of his throws.
• Loftis posted a 6.2% TD rate, higher than Georgia's Carson Beck and Clemson's Cade Klubnick.
• Troy will be a formidable opponent. They allowed 13 passing TDs this season and rank 13th in the country in TD passes allowed per game.
• That said, Troy can give up yards and scores to the right opponent. Kansas State's Will Howard, Louisiana's Chandler Fields, Louisiana-Monroe's Jiya Wright, and Western Kentucky's Austin Reed all threw multiple TD passes against the Trojans this season.

Braylon McReynolds (S. Alabama) OVER 94.5 Rushing Yards (-110)

• McReynolds has taken over in the Jaguars' backfield following the loss of 1,000-yard rusher La'Damian Webb to a toe injury.
• The sophomore from Mobile, where this game is being played, set a career-high in rushing attempts with 19 during South Alabama's season-ending loss to Texas State. He outpaced the rest of the Jaguars' backs by a wide margin.
• Eastern Michigan has been soft against the run this season, ranking 91st in opponent rushing average and 113th in total rushing defense.

Money Parks (Utah) UNDER 32.5 Receiving Yards (-115)

• Parks started the season on pace to surpass his previous career highs of 414 yards and two touchdowns. He had accumulated 138 yards and two touchdowns through the team's first three games but managed just 22 catches, 151 yards, and no scores over the next nine.
• Parks averaged 9.6 yards per catch on the season. Over those last nine games, he's posted 2.4 weekly receptions and 6.9 yards per reception.
• The Northwestern defense allows 192.1 pass yards per game, the 24th-best mark in the country.