Blue White Illustrated

T he words surrounding Christian Hackenberg are overwhelming. The conversation is a whirlwind, opinions swirling from every di- rection, purporting to size up what Penn State's junior quarterback has been, is, and will ultimately be. And it's been like this for nearly five years now, having begun when he received his first college offer following his sophomore season at Fork Union Military Academy in Virginia. Deciding to play for Bill O'Brien at Penn State, maintaining that commitment in the wake of serious NCAA sanctions against the program, claiming Big Ten Freshman of the Year honors following a sparkling debut season, again choosing to remain with the Nittany Lions amidst the coaching transition to James Franklin and staff, and playing two subsequent years of grueling football – that's been the story of Hackenberg's rise to national prominence. At no point therein has the dialogue quieted, even briefly. Instead, it has intensified into a hurricane of un- ceasing verbiage. So, given an open opportunity to talk about any of it, or really, anything at all, Hackenberg balks. He's plainly over it. "I wouldn't talk about anything, to be completely honest with you," he said. "I'm content." Hackenberg's restraint, coming just days after a lopsided loss to Michigan State on the final afternoon of the regular season, is reflective of a new mindset. A year earlier, the hyper-competitive quarterback might have used drastically different words. He doesn't search for them now, though, drawing on a broader perspective he couldn't always see previously. Hackenberg harkens back to his origin story, one in which his relationship with the Nittany Lion football program, its players and personnel, the university and its community, could all be mistaken for a first love. Penn State felt like home, 300 miles from his family's home in Palmyra, Va. It had a head coach in O'Brien whose specialty was developing quarterbacks, and it had a culture that offered what Hackenberg saw as a seamless fit. He had not been a diehard "fan" of the program growing up, preferring to root for individual players such as Flori- da's Tim Tebow and Notre Dame's Brady Quinn. But his earliest college football memories were of the Nittany Lions. He was born in Tamaqua, Pa., and remembers attending games at Beaver Stadium when he was 4 years old. When he was in middle school, Hackenberg and his younger broth- er bought Daryll Clark and Derrick Williams jerseys outside the stadium. It was the final game of the 2008 regular season, and the Lions crushed Michigan State, 49-18, to secure a trip to the Rose Bowl. That navy blue No. 17 jersey still hangs in his closet at home. Although he didn't realize it at first, Hackenberg was developing into a premier quarterback himself. His father, Erick, didn't want him playing organized football until he reached eighth grade, but the Hackenbergs would sling a football around in between Christian's Little League base- ball games, and his coach, former Pitt Panther Joe Stone, was so impressed that he asked Erick to relent. As Christian re- members it, the reasoning was simple enough. "I always threw stuff hard," he said, recalling a stern lecture from a parent after beaning an opposing batter. "I didn't always know where it was going, but I threw it hard." Spending time around his dad – a former college quarterback himself – at practices while growing up, Christian had been em- ulating three- and five-step drops from a young age. So when Erick agreed to let him join a school team as a sixth-grader, the skill set to complement his remarkable size was already taking shape. As a sophomore at Fork Union, Hack- enberg beat out two seniors for the starting job, and suddenly everything started get- ting a lot more serious. The University of Virginia began taking a closer look, as the Blue Devils brought home a VISAA Divi- sion I state championship in 2010. Other schools were curious, too, but as the in- terest surged, the Hackenbergs narrowed their focus. "I realized I could do what I always wanted to do," Hackenberg said. The goal? Following in the footsteps of his father, who had played at Virginia and Susque- hanna. "From that point on, it was one of those things where we worked really well together. That's where I got obsessed with just trying to refine things, get better, find PEACE MIND OF Challenges have helped Christian Hackenberg gain perspective |

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