UAlbany’s Tyler Oedekoven, twice SportsCenter Top 10 star, enters transfer portal
When University at Albany wide receiver Tyler Oedekoven entered the NCAA transfer portal, he had two great highlights in his reel to attract interest from other schools.
Oedekoven, who made the ESPN SportsCenter Top 10 Plays in consecutive weeks during the 2019 season, said Tuesday he’s moving on for academic reasons. He announced his decision to leave Monday on Twitter.
Oedekoven, who’s on course to receive his bachelor’s degree in business administration this spring, said he wants to study business analytics in graduate school. He has two years of eligibility remaining.
“Albany has an information systems program, which is more of the IT direction,” said Oedekoven, who aspires to become a CEO. “But I wanted more of the business side of analytics, rather than the IT side. It was all academic reasons why I wanted to leave, for the most part. After the season, I contemplated about what transpired and what was the best decision for me moving on. It was a really tough decision because I love Coach (Greg) Gattuso. I love Albany. It’s been a great school for me. Coach gave me a great opportunity to play football at a high level and gave me a scholarship.”
He’s one of several players to transfer from last season’s 2-9 team.
Oedekoven said he hopes to continue playing at the Football Championship Subdivision level and is in the process of selecting a school.
He leaves UAlbany with 44 catches, including 14 last season, for 601 yards and six touchdowns. His two most noticeable grabs were one-handers against Stony Brook in the 2019 regular-season finale and Central Connecticut in the first round of the FCS playoffs. Both made the SportsCenter Top 10. They were the first two plays on his highlight tape posted on Twitter.
“Getting on it first, you never would have thought,” Oedekoven said. “You’re always in the backyard, thinking about it, whatever, as kid watching it. But to make it back-to-back weeks, that was crazy.”
He said he never really spoke to new UAlbany offensive coordinator Jared Ambrose before deciding to enter the portal.
“I’ve heard good things about him,” Oedekoven said. “I’m still going to be following Albany and hopefully we can see a turnaround in the program.”