Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/144988
| elentless change has defined Penn State football for most of the past two years. Longtime coaches and administrators are gone. Players have transferred, and recruits have switched their allegiances. That inspiring senior class has graduated. One member of the new coaching staff has already moved on. Some 20 months after everything changed, it's been left to some unlikely candidates to represent a consistent presence with the program. It didn't take long to get familiar with the new head coach, of course, omnipresent as he's been. There are returning players whom, if not yet household names nationally, the Beaver Stadium faithful certainly know well enough by now. And then there is the small, select group of young men – and one young man in particular – who haven't yet had the chance to put on a game-day uniform. There's nothing new about college football fans familiarizing themselves with incoming recruits, especially when those recruits are among the best prep quarterbacks in the nation. But in a time of such upheaval, Christian Hackenberg has, since February 2012, been something much more than just another hyped signee. He has, in a unique and vital way, been one of the constants of the Penn State program. Hackenberg is official now, of course: on campus since June, enrolled in summer classes and fully immersed in off-season workouts. But going all the way back to when he eschewed offers from the likes of Alabama, Florida and South Carolina to sign with Penn State 18 months ago, Hackenberg has steadily become one of the names most connected to this new, uncertain era of Nittany Lion football. He was a focal point when he became Bill O'Brien's first 2013 recruit, and again when he reconfirmed that commitment in the wake of NCAA sanctions. He was the guy who gave fans hope for a near future that wasn't an on-field disaster, and whose very presence drew other Michael Gennaria top recruits. Now, on the eve of his first preseason camp, he's once again the guy everybody's talking about. Just imagine what might happen when he actually takes a snap. The spotlight had cooled (temporarily, at least) in late May, when BWI caught up with Hackenberg shortly before he left Virginia for State College. He long ago grew used to all the attention, and no doubt he understands his elevated place in the alternate universe that many Penn State fans are still getting used to. But just because he understands the narrative – Hackenberg as all-conquering, five-star savior – doesn't mean he's buying into it. "I don't really pay that much attention to the media anymore," he said. "I'm a freshman – I'm starting from square one again. All the stars, all the hype, whatever everyone else has said, all that goes out the window." All of which is sure to please O'Brien, who has as much use for the number of stars next to a recruit's name as he does for popular social media sites like Spacebook and Tweeter. Both coach and player seem to appreciate that whatever Hackenberg accomplished as a high-school All-American will mean exactly nothing when it comes to earning the starting job this fall. That said, O'Brien sent the clearest possible signal this spring when he allowed Steven Branch to transfer and placed Hackenberg and juco transfer Tyler Ferguson side by side on the post-spring depth chart. The message? O'Brien believes his true freshman QB is capable of making the jump from square one to starter in the space of a single preseason camp. "I think we have to be patient with Christian, make sure that we're putting him in the right position, and letting him soak it in and learn the offense," O'Brien told reporters during the Coaches Caravan in late April – just six weeks before he tabbed Hackenberg as a co-favorite for the starting job this fall. It might seem contradictory, but it's simply a reflection of the limitations O'Brien is working with. Cer-