Christian Hackenberg is off to a hot start in the Pinstripe Bowl as the Penn State sophomore quarterback is looking to end his disappointing second season on a high note with a win against Boston College.
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The first year without Bill O’Brien in Happy Valley didn’t result in much happiness when you looked at the play of second-year signal-caller Christian Hackenberg as his numbers regressed with James Franklin as the team’s head coach. But the talented quarterback is looking to shed his sophomore slump and set the foundation for a resurgent junior campaign with a strong performance in the Pinstripe Bowl and he’s well on his way.
Hackenberg got the Nittany Lions on the board with a 72-yard touchdown strike to Chris Godwin with 5;22 remaining in the first quarter to give them a 7-0 lead.
Hackenberg is 7-of-12 passing for 128 yards and a touchdown with four minutes remaining in the first quarter at the time of publishing. He threw eight touchdowns to 15 interceptions this year with 2,606 yards on 54.4 percent passing after throwing 434 times behind a patchwork offensive line.
Last year Hackenberg threw for 2,955 yards with 20 touchdowns to only 10 interceptions while completing 58.9 percent of his passes on 231-of-392 passing under the watch of O’Brien who left to take the head coaching job with the Houston Texans.
If Hackenberg can have a great game this could be what he needs to revert to the form he displayed as a freshman and enter the 2015 season as one of the top draft-eligible quarterbacks.
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