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Christian Hackenberg

CloakNNNdagger said:
Would not have advocated Hackenberg presenting his case against Franklin at the Combine, but, knowing Penn State had lost there OL after BOB's exit, Franklin did nothing to compensate anything. The play calling was unimaginative and entirely predictable if not atrocious.............for both the passing game AND the run game. He failed miserably at developing any semblance of an offense under Hackenberg. Franklin never had a clue. He fired his OC..........but failed to do anything truly productive..............like firing himself............
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Yep. Some can try to blame Hack but that offense wasn't really an offense. It was a mess. Franklin tried to save face by firing his OC but he's the actual problem.
 
Christian Hackenberg's honesty reveals hypocrisy of NFL draft process
by Dan Wetzel March 28, 2016 1:41 PM Yahoo Sports


Christian Hackenberg apparently blundered during interviews with NFL teams in advance of next month's draft.

By telling the truth.

As a freshman at Penn State, the quarterback completed 58.9 percent of his passes, throwing for 20 touchdowns against just 10 interceptions. Some pegged him as an eventual No. 1 overall selection.

After that season however, Bill O'Brien left to go coach the NFL's Houston Texans. James Franklin took over with an offense that has traditionally skewed more to the spread than O'Brien's pro-style.

Hackenberg's numbers dropped to 12 TDs and 15 picks as a sophomore, only to rebound to 16 TDs, six interceptions as a junior. He isn't viewed as a great prospect anymore and is unlikely to be taken in the first round, let alone at the top of it.

Now he's dealing with interview issues. According to Robert Klemko of MMQB, at least two front-office executives said "when asked to explain his declining sophomore and junior numbers … Hackenberg has shifted blame to Coach James Franklin."
That has, according to the personnel sources, been a turnoff.

"Despite the fact that it's probably true," one source told MMQB, "you don't want to hear a kid say that."

Let's get a bunch of NFL draft caveats out of the way here.

This is two unnamed sources in a league with hundreds, maybe thousands of them. Even if these two didn't like Hackenberg's answer, their bosses (if they have bosses) might have loved it.

It also may have come across wrong. Or maybe Hackenberg has changed his answer for others. Or maybe it never even happened. Who knows? This is one side of the story and there is no context. A team might also be bad mouthing Hackenberg under the hope he drops in the draft to it. Far worse rumors have and will be floated.

For NFL teams in the weeks before the draft, the truth has no value. Nor, apparently, does it for potential draft picks.

For the sake of argument, let's assume the story is accurate and reported in context, because it sure sounds like something that would chap an NFL front office. It shouldn't, though.

As the quote itself suggests, teams want a player who will lie or downplay his true feelings – or ignore what actually happened – rather than just be a straight shooter. You know who was good at this? Johnny Manziel.

You can argue that Hackenberg should take all responsibility for everything himself and never speak ill of a coach, but what if it's, you know, true?

Hackenberg possesses a unique backstory. He was a five-star recruit out of Virginia who chose to play for Penn State mostly because of O'Brien, who'd just arrived from a stint as offensive coordinator for the New England Patriots. Hackenberg wanted to be an NFL quarterback, and here was a coach who'd just spent five seasons under Bill Belichick and three working directly with Tom Brady.

Hackenberg was loyal enough to and excited enough about O'Brien that he maintained his verbal commitment to Penn State, even after the school was hammered by NCAA sanctions following the Jerry Sandusky child molestation scandal.

Crippling scholarship reductions meant he'd play in State College with few fellow playmakers and a thin offensive line. In purely football terms, the smart move was to run the other way. Hackenberg didn't care. He signed anyway. He was hailed for keeping his promise to Penn State.

That first year it looked genius, the perfect marriage of coach and player.

And then O'Brien went pro before Hackenberg could.

Franklin has been a successful college coach and done wonders in restoring Penn State's recruiting momentum and overall enthusiasm. This isn't about comparing the relative coaching abilities of he and O'Brien.
It just wasn't a good fit with Hackenberg, where personalities clashed as the offense struggled. When Hackenberg was finally able to turn pro after his junior season, he issued a statement that notably didn't mention Franklin by name.

He did thank Bill O'Brien, though.

So this was toxic, and everyone knows it. As such, what would the point be of pretending otherwise? What is it about modern society that wants, even demands, people play pretend rather than discuss the obvious?

It's a culture that lies, or at least embellishes just about everything. From social media posts and pictures designed to reflect a better reality to a college selection process that rewards joining clubs and organizations because it'll look good on the application, not because the student cared about any of it.

Everywhere truths are bent or shaded for politeness and political correctness. You can't really trust anything.

Only this time, you might. A draft prospect was blunt and direct. He noted that losing the coach and system for which he was perfect mattered. He admitted that trying to square peg himself into a round-hole offense, while surrounded by a Sandusky-decimated roster, didn't work as well.

Isn't there something admirable about that? Has it gotten so bad that acknowledging the undeniable is no longer allowed?

Sure, coaching changes are part of the transient NFL, so Hackenberg better get used to the concept. Yes, some of it is on him. It doesn't mean some players don't excel under some coaches. Who would deny that?

If NFL teams want draft prospects to not say what is "probably true," then it says more about those teams and their culture than it does about Christian Hackenberg.

The truth should set him free. Or, at least not cause to fall past the third round.
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He should have stayed with his Combine explanation of he lost 60% of his starting OL and also lost all 3 starting WRs including first team All American Allen Robinson. Certainly plausible, made sense and makes him sound like a team guy instead of a me guy.

Coaches may suspect that O'Brien may have dumbed down his offense for his freshman QB and when Franklin arrived he took the dumb down out of the offense. When those NFL coaches put Hack on the white board it won't take long to figure it out.
 
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I'll be honest, I stand behind Hackenberg here. He's not dragging Franklin's name through the mud in the media. These are private interviews. Now we don't know the whole story and I'd like to think that he's owning up to his part in it, but he's not wrong. Franklin played a huge role in how ineffective he became.

I just find the double standard to be ridiculous. You can be honest when you evaluate the player's accuracy, toughness, or arm strength but he can't be honest when you ask what he thought about his coach. And not even that, the scouts are even saying "he's right, but he shouldn't say that". GTFO.
 
Texian said:
He should have stayed with his Combine explanation of he lost 60% of his starting OL and also lost all 3 starting WRs including first team All American Allen Robinson. Certainly plausible and makes him sound like a team guy instead of a me guy.
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I think he should have just said he was proud of what he & his teammates did. It wasn't pretty, but they won 7 games & we're invited to a bowl game. They represented Penn State & Penn State football as best they could. Would have liked to have left with a win, but it wasn't for lack of trying.

I'd even throw in, "I could have played it safer, get my completion percentage higher, maybe my ypa, but I chose to play to win... that's what it's about at Penn State & they'll be winning a lot of games soon because of it."
 
Texian said:
He should have stayed with his Combine explanation of he lost 60% of his starting OL and also lost all 3 starting WRs including first team All American Allen Robinson. Certainly plausible, made sense and makes him sound like a team guy instead of a me guy.

Coaches may suspect that O'Brien may have dumbed down his offense for his freshman QB and when Franklin arrived he took the dumb down out of the offense. When those NFL coaches put Hack on the white board it won't take long to figure it out.
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My understanding is that these comments came out of the combine, so you have a couple guys stating one story and others presenting a different side... do you really believe in any of the pre-draft talk coming out?
 
thunderkyss said:
I think he should have just said he was proud of what he & his teammates did. It wasn't pretty, but they won 7 games & we're invited to a bowl game. They represented Penn State & Penn State football as best they could. Would have liked to have left with a win, but it wasn't for lack of trying.

I'd even throw in, "I could have played it safer, get my completion percentage higher, maybe my ypa, but I chose to play to win... that's what it's about at Penn State & they'll be winning a lot of games soon because of it."
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Losing First Team All American plays well, those coaches understand what that can do. Imagine what would happen to the Texans offense if NUK wasn't around.
 
JB said:
My understanding is that these comments came out of the combine, so you have a couple guys stating one story and others presenting a different side... do you really believe in any of the pre-draft talk coming out?
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Well they may have but what he said from the podium at the Combine and the other public interviews he gave he was saying all the right things. Now what he said in those private 15 min meetings I haven't a clue.
 
NFL Coaches/scouts that were interested enough to entertain or interview Hackenberg no doubt would have had accurate independent knowledge of the level of contribution that college coaches would have had on their team's or players' success or failure.............and that, if anyone was saboutaged and thrown under the bus, it certainly wasn't Franklin.
 
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The fact that Hackenberg showed that he would attempt to throw someone under the bus clearly illustrates a character flaw, a red flag. Blaming someone else for your short comings. This could be a precursor to being a potential locker room problem. Would he be the kind of person that would blame his teammates and coaches for his poor performances in the NFL???
 
rated Hackenberg a 4th/6th rd prospect and my 12th rated QB....hate his personality for a NFL QB ...comes across as very shy in interviews and lists weight lifting, fishing and hunting as his top hobbies...all 3 best done alone

never improved as a player in college and barely above 50% winning record at Penn St. Few victories in close games...great person..love him to date my daughter just not lead my team

that he hasn't played in the 1st 2 preseason games ain't good...
 
Why are we talking about Hackenberg?

Not even the Jets ate talking about Hackenberg
 
poplarbluffman said:
rated Hackenberg a 4th/6th rd prospect and my 12th rated QB....hate his personality for a NFL QB ...comes across as very shy in interviews and lists weight lifting, fishing and hunting as his top hobbies...all 3 best done alone
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I know this been done before, but just for the sake of it being brought up again I'll reiterate ... don't think it's near a consensus that those are anywhere near best preferably done alone. Those are absolutely things people like doing with pals.
 
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poplarbluffman said:
rated Hackenberg a 4th/6th rd prospect and my 12th rated QB....hate his personality for a NFL QB ...comes across as very shy in interviews and lists weight lifting, fishing and hunting as his top hobbies...all 3 best done alone

never improved as a player in college and barely above 50% winning record at Penn St. Few victories in close games...great person..love him to date my daughter just not lead my team

that he hasn't played in the 1st 2 preseason games ain't good...
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I don't know anyone that prefers to hunt & fish alone... and I've been doing them for the last 50 yrs
 
lets say hunting, fishing and weight lifting are not hobbies of a screaming extrovert...I want a qb who wants to be the center of attention and not in a crowd of 3/4 other fishermen or hunters

in a crowd of 40/50 people and in front of tens of thousands of fans...not many show that kind of personality when I watch their interviews

Hackenberg didn't.I mean SCREAMING extrovert
 
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