Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/109500
While the Lions also have a returnee ��� sophomore Steven Bench ��� they still don���t have much experience at the quarterback spot. But they���ll have a four-way competition in the spring, and when Hackenberg and Seymour arrive in the summer, the race figures to get even more interesting. ���For all intents and purposes, the quarterback who plays for us next year will be somewhat of a rookie quarterback,��� O���Brien said on signing day. ���But we feel like we have competitive guys, smart guys, guys who come from good families, guys who are going to work hard in a classroom ���Christian fits right in there. He���s a tall guy, he���s got a very accurate arm, he���s got a strong arm, he���s smart. ��� He���s making the jump from high school to college, and that���s a big jump. The system that we run here at Penn State is not the simplest system in the world to learn for a quarterback, so he���s going to have to really begin to study and understand what it takes to play quarterback at this level.��� Could he learn the offense fast enough to get on the field in his first season? O���Brien isn���t ruling anything out. ���Christian, Steven Bench, Tyler Ferguson ��� any one of those guys could be our starting quarterback against Syracuse,��� he said. ���No question about it.��� Hackenberg has already done something similar. When he got to Fork Union as a sophomore, he beat out returning starter Richard Quittenton, a quality quarterback who had led the team to the state playoffs the year before and would go on to play college football for the University of Toronto. That was high school, of course, and the college game is a whole different story. But Hackenberg is a confident guy. ���I told Charlie Fisher and [recruiting coordinator] Charles London that one of the things you���re going to have to teach him is that a punt is not a bad play,��� Sullivan said. ���That���s something we got a little better with this year. But that���s what makes him who he is. He���ll take a chance. I don���t think Penn State would have recruited a kid to run that offense who didn���t believe in himself and believe that he could make every throw that needed to be made.��� SEC extends winning streak | t���s really been scary what the Southeastern Conference has been able to do for the past decade both on the field and in recruiting. Alabama has won three national championships in the past four years. SEC teams have won seven consecutive national titles, and just as impressive as the on-the-field performance has been the league���s total domination of recruiting during the past decade. That trend definitely continued this year. In the G&W Recruiting Report���s national top 20 rankings, six SEC schools made the top 10: Alabama (No. 1), Florida (No. 3), LSU (No. 5), Mississippi (No. 7), Texas A&M (No. 8) and Auburn (No. 9). And the league���s winning streak doesn���t end I there, as three additional schools finished in the top 20: Georgia (No. 12), South Carolina (No. 16) and Vanderbilt (No. 19). Despite the fact that Alabama recently won its third national title in four years and will probably end up with the consensus No. 1 recruiting class in the country, the two biggest storylines in the SEC this year involved the success that Mississippi and Vanderbilt enjoyed. Had anyone predicted last August that Ole Miss would sign a top-10 recruiting class, no one would have believed it. But that is exactly what happened. At the top of the Rebels��� 30-member Class of 2013 is the consensus No. 1 player in the country: defensive end Robert Nkemdiche of N AT I O N A L R A N K I N G S RIVALS SCOUT G&W REPORT ESPN 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 40. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 45. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Alabama Ohio State Notre Dame Florida Michigan LSU Mississippi Auburn Florida State Texas A&M Penn State Ohio State Michigan Alabama Notre Dame UCLA LSU Texas A&M Florida Georgia Mississippi Penn State Alabama Ohio State Florida Notre Dame LSU Michigan Mississippi Texas A&M Auburn UCLA Alabama Florida Ohio State Notre Dame Mississippi Michigan LSU Texas A&M Florida State 10. Georgia 24. Penn State