Christian Hackenberg has reportedly told several NFL teams the reasoning behind his poor play in 2014-15 at Penn State was his teammates and coaches.
Christian Hackenberg was the No. 1 pro-style quarterback prospect coming out of high school in 2013. He committed to Penn State to play for then-head coach Bill O’Brien. After three lackluster passing years in the Big Ten, Hackenberg has decided to forgo his final year of eligibility with the Nittany Lions to enter the 2016 NFL Draft.
While he isn’t projected to go in the first round, some teams maybe willing to use a second or third-round selection on him. It would be based on still believing he has high upside, despite never completing 60 percent of his passes in college.
How Hackenberg conducted himself during the interview process at the 2016 NFL Scouting Combine at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis should wave some red flags for the Penn State passer.
According to Benjamin Albright of Denver’s AM 1340, Hackenberg has reportedly “pawned off poor play over last two seasons on coaching and teammates.”
That is exactly what teams don’t want to hear out of a potential franchise quarterback. Penn State has made it to bowl games under new head coach James Franklin the last two seasons, as the Nittany Lions are well on their way back to relevancy in the Big Ten.
Franklin wins everywhere he goes. He was a great coordinator at Maryland under head coach Ralph Friedgen, he was the best coach Vanderbilt had in a century. Now he’s doing a great job redefining what it means to play at Penn State in the continued fallout of the Jerry Sandusky scandal.
Unless O’Brien plans to use one of his first two draft picks on Hackenberg to bring him to Houston, Hackenberg’s comments about his former players and coaches will have certainly capped the number of teams willing to draft him this spring.