Somewhat unwittingly I’ve become the spearhead for the anti-Christian Hackenberg movement. Some posts I made on Twitter regarding the rising junior Penn State quarterback made their way into the ESPN the Mag College Football Preview (page 84).

Here is deeper context. I was at The Big House to see Penn State play Michigan, and I was excited at the prospect of seeing the much-hyped Hack in person. During warm-ups I intently watched him throw, and it was akin to seeing Matthew Stafford in practice sessions about 30 miles to the east. His arm was “wow”. I saw Jeff George in high school and college (his Purdue stop) and that’s the greatest arm strength and zip I’ve ever seen in person. Stafford is second. Hackenberg is right there with Colin Kaepernick and Jay Cutler as third.

Then the game started and the bright skies turned dark. Hackenberg was panicky, albeit somewhat justifiably by having the human turnstile that is Donovan Smith (pray for Jameis Winston!) as his left tackle. Yet his lack of composure bled into plays where he had ample time to throw. Like Stafford, he had some inexplicably wild throws. The quarterback I was most reminded of, however, was Brandon Weeden. His utter failure to handle pressure, and his reaction to it even when it was simply a ghost, brought back painful memories of the first-round failure from Oklahoma State.

I caught portions of Hackenberg playing pretty well in a close loss to Ohio State and thought maybe I just caught him on a bad night in Ann Arbor. That happens. Well, it shouldn’t happen when you’re touted as a potential No. 1 overall pick, but that’s a different conversation.

Then came the Indiana game. This was an epiphany of sorts for me.

The first quarter wasn’t bad. His first throw of the game was an aesthetically perfect deep ball, though it went to a heavily covered wideout and was nearly intercepted thanks to great coverage technique down the field. He completed 5-of-10, mostly on quick throws to the sides where the ball was out of his hands in less than two seconds. He was also sacked twice, one of which was clearly his own fault.

His final throw of that first stanza epitomizes my worries about Hackenberg.

It’s 3rd and 12. This down and distance requires a quarterback to stand in and face the rush in order to give the routes enough time to develop far enough to actually pick up the needed yardage. Tight end Jesse James is open on the flat out route, well shy of the first down marker but with enough room to make some magic after the catch. A good throw here hits him in stride and allows the athletic James (a 5th round pick by the Steelers) to make a play.

Instead, this happens:

The quarterback’s feet are fine here, but little else goes right. He doesn’t step into the throw or follow through. There is some pressure coming at him but he has time to deliver. Watch his motion right after the release. He’s falling off the throw, not towards his target. I might add, a target he’s stared at from the instant he caught the shotgun snap. Instead of leading James or even hitting him where he has to break stride, Hackenberg just flat-out misses him. James is a 6’7” target and no defender is within seven yards of him. That’s throwing a dart at your local watering hole and hitting the guy waiting in line for the bathroom instead of the double 10.

Okay, a really bad, drive-killing throw. I’m a Lions fan, I watch Matthew Stafford throw a couple of these every week. Heck, I watched Andrew Luck shred Reggie Wayne’s ACL with a clunker like this. Let’s keep going and see how Hack (Twitter shorthand, not an intentional pun-ny slap at the QB) responds.

His next throw is scouting Viagra.

His mechanics here are fantastic. He holds the coverage with his eyes expertly. The throw is a laser beam between layers of coverage and hits the receiver, freshman tight end Mike Gesicki, in perfect stride. Now we’re back in Hackenberg for President territory! After showing bad touch on a poorly-conceived designed rollout, Hack again throws a great strike down the right sideline to Geno Lewis with exceptional touch and a fluttery arc over the defense. Is that No. 1 overall pick I see?

At this point he’s 7-of-12 and moving the ball well. Sure, Indiana’s weak has given up 135 points in the three prior games. I’m generally liking what I’m seeing from the 6’4” signal caller with the arm strength like Nuke Laloosh, “blessed by the Gods”.

And then he turns into Ricky Vaughn sans glasses, straight out of the California Penal League.

He blows two red-zone throws. The first is a floater where he allows the defender too much time to get back and make a play. It’s defensive pass interference, but it should have been a touchdown. The next throw is a simple read on a predetermined route. James is releasing into the left flat and Hack is rotating back to him off play-action, which he sells nicely. Yet James got chipped hard at the line and his timing is off a count. There is no defender anywhere near him to make the play. Hackenberg never really looks at the play side, however. He just heaves it like it’s 7-on-7 practice, never noticing that James isn’t where he expects him to be. A TD throw my 10-year-old can regularly complete sails incomplete.

Hackenberg would finish this game 12-of-29, with zero TDs and two INTs. Indiana ranked 97^th in the nation in passing yards allowed, 99th in completion percentage allowed and 102nd in TD passes surrendered. This is worse than Jake Locker vs. Nebraska, folks.

I saw two more Penn State games in the regular season, Michigan State and Illinois. Against a very talented, well-coached Spartans defense, Hackenberg completed 21-of-45 with no TDs and one INT. He was under near-constant duress throughout the blowout loss. Here’s what the AP had to say about Hackenberg in the aftermath,

Hackenberg twice blew chances in the quarter to make the game more competitive. He just overthrew Eugene Lewis on a corner route shy of the end zone and his final pass attempt of the half was bobbled by Chris Goodwin in the end zone and intercepted by Trae Waynes.

Okay, Hack struggled against a defense with several future NFLers in a game where Michigan State ran back the opening kickoff for a TD. I’m not thrilled with him missing a few open targets and often standing flat-footed in the pocket, but this was a really tough situation.

At Illinois though? In a game which should forever be erased from any viewing database, Hackenberg completed half his 16 passes, accounting for just 93 yards and one TD. He had the benefit of a great running game to ease the pressure in this one, but it didn’t help. Illinois did have a strangely decent pass defense last year for a .500 team (they were annihilated by Louisiana Tech in their bowl game to finish 6-7) but this is the kind of game where a legit future NFL star QB takes over and spares no rod. Hack instead looked like a guy who might need to look over his shoulder the next week in practice.

Penn State’s bowl game brings back the hope. Hackenberg was masterful against Boston College in the thrilling Pinstripe Bowl, rallying his team from an early 21-7 deficit and throwing four TDs to eke out a 31-30 overtime win. Poised, strident in his delivery and looking more spry on his toes than he had all season, this game is the rallying cry for the Hackenberg sycophants, the ones who want their favorite NFL team to tank the 2015 season to land him with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft. He was that good in Yankee Stadium.

I’ll take a more patient view. Hackenberg still has a full college season in front of him. He’s got some relatively easy early games (Temple, Army, San Diego State, Buffalo) to pad the stat lines and build confidence heading into a Big Ten schedule where some strong defenses will come after him hard. A shot at redemption versus Indiana precedes a trip to the Horseshoe and the preseason No. 1 Buckeyes, a team with as many as 10 future NFL starters on defense. Hack has played well both times he’s faced Ohio State, and the bright lights of prime time are an ideal scenario for the lightning rod QB to catch fire and strike down naysayers like myself.

If he is going to change my negative outlook, here is what Hackenberg needs to do in his junior season:

- Improve his feet. Hack is flat-footed in the pocket way too much, and it’s often accompanied by a stiff front knee. That breeds inaccuracy and puts undue strain on the shoulder and elbow. This is where his superior arm strength is as much a curse as a blessing.

- Stop staring at his intended target from even before the snap. This seems self-obvious but is often quite difficult to correct. Eli Manning was plagued by this for years, hence his high INT totals in the NFL.

- Stand tall in the pocket. The pressure ghosts need to be just that, phantasms of imagination to be ignored like some Kardashain selfie. Feel the actual pressure, not the one he thinks might develop.

- Be a leader. One of the things which bothered me in Michigan was his posture and demeanor both on the field and on the sidelines. There was no patting a wideout on the helmet after a missed connection, no rallying the troops on the bench to get enthused about the next drive. Even if it’s adversarial, it’s always nice to see a quarterback interacting with his teammates and leading them. I didn’t see that with Hackenberg against the Wolverines. I did see it against BC in the bowl game, which portends well.

There is still quite a bit of the story of Hackenberg as a prospect that will be written. Right now the book has a beautiful cover but too many negative chapters, too few gripping moments which make the reader scurry to the bookstore and purchase every work the author has penned. He’s still writing his NFL résumé. Many will keep writing about his résumé, too. Nobody knows how it ends yet.