Spring practice has been unusually newsy at the State University of New Jersey this year and that continued on Tuesday afternoon after Rutgers announced quarterback Tylin Oden was dismissed from the football program for a violation of team rules.
“We wish Tylin nothing but the best in his future decisions,” Scarlet Knights head coach Chris Ash said in a short statement.
Oden appeared in six games last year in his debut season for Rutgers. While he did take part in the quarterback derby in 2016 that the Scarlet Knights went through, the young signal-caller wasn’t quite ready to become the starter and was limited mostly to rushing for 144 yards in spot duty. He completed just one pass on eight attempts and mostly sat behind Giovanni Rescigno on the depth chart.
The departure of Oden cuts down the number of options behind center for new offensive coordinator Jerry Kill, who is hoping to jumpstart one of the worst FBS offenses from a year ago. Zach Allen, a redshirt senior graduate transfer, and Rescigno figure to keep battling it out for the starting job this spring before the arrival of Temple QB Tommy Wyatt and recruit Johnathan Lewis this summer.