Christian Hackenberg Throwing Penn State Coach James Franklin Under The Bus Is My Favorite Story Of All Time

Yahoo-  Christian Hackenberg apparently blundered during interviews with NFL teams in advance of next month's draft by telling the truth.

As a freshman at Penn State, the quarterback completed 58.9 percent of his passes, throwing for 20 touchdowns against just 10 interceptions. Some pegged him as an eventual No. 1 overall selection.

After that season however, Bill O'Brien left to go coach the NFL's Houston Texans. James Franklin took over with an offense that has traditionally skewed more to the spread than O'Brien's pro-style.

Hackenberg's numbers dropped to 12 TDs and 15 picks as a sophomore, only to rebound to 16 TDs, six interceptions as a junior. He isn't viewed as a great prospect anymore and is unlikely to be taken in the first round, let alone at the top of it.

Now he's dealing with interview issues. According to Robert Klemko of MMQB, at least two front-office executives said "when asked to explain his declining sophomore and junior numbers … Hackenberg has shifted blame to Coach James Franklin."

"Despite the fact that it's probably true," one source told MMQB, "you don't want to hear a kid say that."



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​You know what the best part about this story is? The fact that I don't even have to pick a side. Was Christian Hackenberg wrong for blaming his Head Coach for his troubles in college? Probably. Was he technically right about James Franklin putting him in a position to fail? Probably. Who fucking cares either way? Christian Hackenberg is an overrated, out of shape quarterback that never lived up to the insane amount of hype that surrounded him, and James Franklin is an incompetent Head Coach that did nothing to fix an utterly disgraceful offensive line that contributed mightily to Hackenberg's woes. As far as I am concerned the only takeaway here is that they both suck at their jobs, and they had an undeniably negative impact on each other's careers. Considering those careers took place at Penn State, I couldn't be happier to say they are both at fault. James Franklin for fielding a line that couldn't block a two man rush for more than a half second...
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​...and Christian Hackenberg for having an inability to use his illustrious skill set to get the ball out quick and overcome bad coaching. I don't necessarily think that a player should be using his coach as a scapegoat, but most coaches aren't as deserving of being scapegoated as James Franklin. I'm just glad his decision to do so is costing him valuable draft positioning, because I have never seen the potential that made people think that Hackenberg was worthy of being a first round pick. It's like the skies opened up and God smiled down upon me. He blessed me with a story that makes Penn State look bad no matter what stance you take on the matter. If only Joe Paterno's morally bankrupt ass was still around to see the players and the coaches of his beloved university inadvertently dragging each other reputations through the dirt. Just a bunch of Nittany Lions jeopardizing each other's futures like their good buddy Jerry Sandusky once taught them.