Hackenberg still adapting to changes at Penn State

Christian Hackenberg committed to a Bill O'Brien-led Penn State program two weeks after his 17th birthday.

After a standout freshman season with the Nittany Lions, the native of Palmyra, Va., saw O'Brien jump to the NFL's Houston Texans. A revamped staff led by James Franklin entered Happy Valley in January.

Although Franklin came to Penn State with high praise, the combination of a new staff and a less-experienced roster has not yielded overwhelming results, particularly on the offensive side. The Lions are second to last in the Big Ten in scoring offense and Hackenberg has been sacked 20 times through six games - throwing seven interceptions to just five touchdowns along the way.

Hackenberg spoke openly about the difficulty of building relationships with a new staff on a conference call Wednesday, with the sophomore's team coming off a bye week after two straight losses.

"It was tough because you bought in," Hackenberg said of O'Brien's staff. "I was committed for so long to one guy and a system, and I played there and had some success. I was happy to see the direction that it was going. And then when that changed. . . . It's tough at 18 years old to deal with that."

The quarterback threw for 2,955 yards in his Big Ten freshman-of-the-year campaign, tossing 20 touchdowns to 10 interceptions.

In addition to O'Brien's departure, Hackenberg lost the bulk of his offensive line to graduation and receiver Allen Robinson to the NFL after Penn State's 7-5 season.

The growing pains of the second-youngest team in the country revealed themselves in the Lions' losses to Northwestern and Michigan. Hackenberg was sacked 10 times in the two games, throwing a costly interception in each.

Hackenberg said he doesn't make comparisons to last season, calling this year a "totally different situation."

"You have to play within yourself and do everything that this coaching staff is asking you to do this year," Hackenberg said. "It's a new year, new team, new set of goals and new set of expectations."

The sophomore was named one of the team captains this season, which he called an "incredible honor." And as the team heads into its highly anticipated matchup with Ohio State, Franklin said Hackenberg has proved his leadership abilities through the way he has handled adversity.

"We talk about perseverance. We talk about staying positive and being optimistic, and he's done that," Franklin said. "We had a captains meeting last week, and he had some really good things to say and some really good input."