Why I like Christian Hackenberg

... and hope that he succeeds in the NFL

I played QB as a youngster, but was not that great. I coached QBs, and had more success in that realm.

None of that is why I like former Penn State quarterback Christian Hackenberg. If a person needs to go through purgatory in order to reach heaven, Hackenberg is on his way.

I like him because he is a quality human being, not necessarily because of his physical accomplishments, though they are related.

Assessing the QB

First, why do the media put the word polarizing in front of his name? The people who polarized him were the PSU football fans and the national fans who believed that he was overrated from the start.

Johnny Manziel was a polarizing QB. Christian Hackenberg himself was not.

I hope that they are wrong about him in the NFL.

If he was that polarizing, would Jets coach Todd Bowles, GM Mike Maccagnan, OC Chan Gailey, QB coach Kevin Patullo and two scouts personally drive to State College in secrecy before the NFL draft to put him through a workout?

And would they have selected him with their second round pick, 51st overall if they were convinced that he was polarizing?

Problems at PSU

Hack performed well at Penn State when he was competing in a pro offense, when he had a coach teaching him the right way to do things, and when he had an offensive line in front of him.

In that season, he completed 231 of 392 passes (59 percent) for 2,955 years and 20 touchdowns. He threw just 10 interceptions.

That is impressive for a freshman by any standards.

Character

What I liked most about Hackenberg that so many Nittany Lion fans ignore is that he could have reneged on his decision to play there on two occasions. The first was when the NCAA sanctions were levied just before his freshman season, including no bowl games and severe restrictions on scholarships.

That was a serious concern for any athlete, to not play in a bowl game for two or three years. Hack and his family agreed to play there since he wanted to play for Tom Brady's offensive coordinator.

I admired Hack and his family for staying when Nick Saban and his cohorts wanted to pick him off for the Tide after the sanctions -- and he perhaps would have won a national title if they had.

Again, he could have left Happy Valley after his freshman season when the coach who lured him there -- and promised him that he was going to stay -- bolted Penn State for the NFL Texans.

That was traumatic for an athlete who enrolled at a school to be tutored by a coach who then is fed a line by a coach seeking big bucks.

Yet again, he stayed. That to me is a character issue.

Nothing polarizing about him in those two cases.

Penn State woes

O'Brien could have bolted PSU for many reasons, but as we know now after watching them for the past two years -- the offensive line was gone. decimated, and it would need major surgery despite losing scholarships to sanctions.

That was a major reason for his decision.

The new coach, James Franklin, also fed him and his father some lies too about the kind of offense that he was installing. Franklin also lied about the quality of offensive coordinator who was going to tutor Hack.

Start of the Franklin Era

In the first game under Franklin, Christian led a tremendous comeback against Central Florida and a future number one pick in Blake Bortles. The Lions won 26-24 as time expired, but George O'Leary's team scored 21 second-half points to take the lead.

The UCF Knights had appeared to have won the game after their second-string QB ran the ball in from six-yards out to give them a 24-23 lead with just 1:13 left.

Enter Hackenberg, who directed the Lions into field goal territory so that Sam Ficken could nail a 36-yarder to win the game.

Unreasonable assumptions

After leading that comeback, some media and clueless PSU fans were talking about his being a potential winner of the Heisman.

Then the roof caved in, and the Franklin era faced reality. The coaching at Penn State was not the best, particularly on the offensive side of the ball. Ultimately, Franklin fired his offensive coordinator John Donovan after the 2015 season.

Hack's problem?

All of these geniuses who learned their football from playing John Madden football or Madden NFL on video games said that his feet were a problem, his arm was not strong enough, his accuracy was horrible.

I will not argue with any of those points, but would add another. In three seasons, his final one in high school, his season with O'Brien, and his first season under Franklin, he was forced to learn three different systems.

Three different offenses in three season? Try it some time.

Those, however, were not his major problem.

Former NFL Hall of Fame Steeler QB and now Fox pundit Terry Bradshaw could tell the problem because he suffered from them in his first three years in the NFL: not from poor eyesight, not from a low IQ, not from lack of leadership ... all of which were argued by the Steeler geniuses who were urging Chuck Noll to trade him for a bona fide QB.

Happy Feet

Four Super Bowls later, Terry could tell people what was wrong with him: Happy Feet.

What causes Happy Feet? The same thing that Terry lacked in his first years in Pittsburgh and Christian lacked in his final two seasons: self-confidence.

Self-confidence = no Happy Feet = no overthrown passes = no poor accuracy ... blah, blah, blah.

Hack went from a 134 QB rating under O'Brien to a woeful performance his last two years because of lack of confidence.

That may sound too simplistic for John Madden gurus, but ask Terry B about it.

The man forgot more about football than any of these geniuses.

Character

And that is the reason that I want Hackenberg to succeed. He has shown character. He could have justifiably ripped many people at Penn State, but after he left, he did not.

Penn State fans could have praised him for setting seven passing records in three years, including 8,457 yards and 48 touchdowns. He is the only PSU QB to throw for more than 8,000 yards, and if he had experienced any quality coaching the past two seasons, maybe he could have been a Heisman candidate.

Yet, Hackenberg did not rip anybody when he left. That shows me that he is a quality person, one with character.

That is not something you may learn on John Madden football.