Christian Hackenberg headed to the locker room after suffering a shoulder injury in the second quarter of the TaxSlayer Bowl
The TaxSlayer Bowl in Jacksonville, Florida went from being the interim coach bowl, to the back up quarterback bowl. The Georgia Bulldogs and Penn State Nittany Lions have each had to go to their benches now, but for different reasons.
Greyson Lambert was benched by Georgia due to being 1-of-six passing to start the game. Now, Christian Hackenberg of the Nittany Lions headed to the locker room midway through the second quarter of what is a slow 3-3 game so far.
The quarterback appeared to injure his shoulder early on the drive that saw Pen State tie the game up. His passes looked off and he winced after a couple of throws that landed incomplete.
He managed to stay in and lead six of the seven plays on their drive that ended with backup quarterback Trace McSorley, a red shirt freshman, runing for two yards on a third and long as the team was content to go for the tie.
As the Lions set the field goal up, Hackenberg was shown running to the locker room with a training staff.
Penn State quarterback Christian Hackenberg leaves field with injury in second quarter of TaxSlayer Bowl https://t.co/NN2wKqORqQ
— Pennsylvania Sports (@pasports) January 2, 2016
The 6’4″, 234 pound junior quarterback is widely believed to be heading to the NFL following this bowl game, which likely makes some Penn State fans nervous that their last look ay Hackenberg may have just taken place.
On the day Hackenberg is 8-of-14 passing for 139 yards and one interception.