It would be easy to just talk about the performances put up by some of the conference’s studs this weekend. Matt Barkley (257 yards and five touchdowns), Nick Foles (360 yards and two touchdowns), Andrew Luck (316 yards and four touchdowns), and Shane Vereen (95 total yards and three touchdowns) sure made their owners happy but they are supposed to put up big-time numbers. Here are the players that probably made the difference between winning and losing a fantasy contest this weekend.

Studs

1. Kenjon Barner, RB, Oregon. Playing as the feature back due to LaMichael James’s suspension, Barner showed top-end speed and that regardless of the depth chart he is one of the best runners in the conference. He put up 206 total yards and five touchdowns in the first 21 minutes of game action.

2. Ronald Johnson, WR, USC. The new go-to receiver for the Trojans didn’t disappoint. He caught seven passes for 59 yards and three touchdowns. He also was on the receiving end of a two-point conversion. The icing on the cake was his 89-yard punt return for a fourth score.

3. Juron Criner, WR, Arizona. He clearly showed he is Foles’s favorite target by hauling in 11 passes for 187 yards and a touchdown. The best news was that the coaching staff moved him all over the field to get him favorable matchups. They obviously are going to do anything they can to get the ball in his hands.

4. Cameron Marshall, RB, Arizona State. You are a stud if you can score 60% of the time you touch the ball. Marshall did just that this weekend by scoring three touchdowns despite only getting four carries and one reception. Oh and they 117 yards didn’t hurt.

5. Deantre Lewis, RB, Arizona State. Maybe the Sun Devils have something special going on in the backfield. Lewis came out of nowhere in fall camp to be the most talked about freshman in the conference. Then in his debut he goes out and scores three touchdowns. He carried the ball five times for 24 yards and had three catches for 100 yards.

Duds

1. LaMichael James, RB, Oregon. Sure he was suspended and didn’t play, but his owners can’t be happy with what transpired in his absence. Barner showed that he is too good to be on the bench and that translates into less carries for James. That alone was enough to make him a dud this weekend.

2. Kevin Prince, QB, UCLA. It is hard to be too critical of the signal-caller since he missed almost all of fall camp with an oblique strain but his performance on Saturday was putrid. He completed only 34.6% of his passes (9 for 26) and committed three turnovers. It remains to be seen if he has the ability to run the Pistol offense.

3. Allen Bradford, RB, USC. The thought was that Hawaii’s rush defense was so bad that the Trojans would be able to run multiple backs for big games. Bradford did end up with 52 yards on eight carries but didn’t find the end zone. It didn’t help that Marc Tyler rushed for 154 yards or that Barkley threw four touchdowns in the red zone.

4. Jeremy Stewart, RB, Stanford. There were grumblings that he would start due to his ability to pass protect and those rumors came true. The problem was that the Cardinal weren’t all that interested in running the ball while he was in the game. He did score a touchdown but only rushed five times for 21 yards in the blowout. I can’t be the only one scratching my head trying to figure out this mess going forward.

5. Ryan Whalen, WR, Stanford. He did manage to catch four passes for 64 yards, but his owners had to be expecting more with Chris Owusu out of the lineup. When they heard that Luck put up over 300 yards and four touchdowns in the first half they had to be ecstatic until they checked the box score.

Top Freshmen Performances

1. The aforementioned Lewis

2. Keenan Allen, WR, Cal

120 yards receiving and 38 yards rushing with two touchdowns

3. Marquess Wilson, WR, Washington State

108 yards receiving and one touchdown