Blue White Illustrated

PRACTICE NOTEBOOK BY NATE BAUER Christian Hackenberg is going to get his fair share of media play throughout the next few days. Of the 22 questions asked by reporters during Bill O'Brien's press conference on Tuesday, six regarded the true freshman quarterback. (As a side, a total of zero questions were asked that directly related to Kent State's football team.) Hackenberg is completing more than 70 percent of his passes through three games, but O'Brien said he expects Hackenberg "to complete every pass." O'Brien said Hackenberg is a self-confident player who will continue to improve. If he were to give Hackenberg a grade for his performance thus far? It would be a B. Yet, when it came time to offer criticisms on what Hackenberg needs to improve upon, O'Brien instead praised Hackenberg's game management. After winning his second Big Ten S E P T E M B E R Freshman of the Week honor in three weeks for his performance vs. UCF, clearly, Hackenberg is off to a hot start in his career as a Nittany Lion. Under O'Brien's guidance, the 18-year-old from Palmyra, Va., appears poised to continue making improvements. •O'Brien once again indicated this week that Garry Gilliam and Adam Gress will continue to share playing time at right tackle. While he praised the entire offensive line's effort, O'Brien said Gress played his best game of the season against UCF last week. Gress also spells Donovan Smith at left tackle, so he said he doesn't feel like his playing time has been limited. "It's a good thing," Gress said. •Stephen Obeng-Agyapong has been moved to Will linebacker, and into an 'OR' battle with Nyeem Wartman on the depth chart. Personally, I have no doubt that the staff believes Wartman is the better option as a linebacker. On more than one occasion, however, I've been told that the staff will use various additional motivational tactics with Wartman to elicit his absolute best play. 1 8 , 2 0 1 3 16 • O'Brien more or less tamped down some of the early criticisms that have arisen over the production of Penn State's tight ends. O'Brien stated that the tight ends have played "solid for us" to this point in the season. He further explained the details of the injury that Kyle Carter suffered on the fake field goal against Syracuse – "He almost broke his arm, O'Brien " said – and what impact that has had on the receiving output of the position unit. • Additionally, O'Brien offered a film evaluation of Deion Barnes, who through three games has yet to record a sack or tackle for loss. O'Brien said he's seen a "great effort" from the redshirt sophomore. "He's an excellent player, added " O'Brien. "I believe [offenses] are running away from him. I think that people are giving the tackles help in protection with him. I would, too. We've got to do things to move him around and help him out a little bit. We will and we have. But Deion, to me, is playing well. I'm glad that he's on our team – I can tell you that. " BL UE W HI T EON L I N E. COM

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