Christian Hackenberg: QB · Penn State · #14.
Closest statistical matches, adjusted for opponent strength.
Christian Hackenberg
Operates within the system without forcing anything. Two seasons in the Penn State quarterback room to date. On tape: 315 passing yards and 3 passing TD against Maryland, Week 8, 2015.
Play style
Balanced passer who operates within the system, without one standout number carrying the profile.
Checkdown vs gunslinger · 3rd-and-long
Where the completions actually land
48.0% completion on 3rd-and-8+, but only 20.3% conversion-per-dropback — 50.0% of completions land short of the sticks.
Where completions land is fact — whether incompletions were aimed deep is intent, not recorded here, so this card counts completions only. checkdown by design
No outlet on our list has written about this player by name this season.
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| Season | Team | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Penn State | 192 | 359 | 53.5% | 2,525 | 7.0 | 16 | 6 | 123.9 | 48 |
| 2014 | Penn State | 270 | 484 | 55.8% | 2,977 | 6.2 | 12 | 15 | 109.4 | 34 |
| Career | 462 | 843 | 54.8% | 5,502 | 6.5 | 28 | 21 | 115.6 | 40 |
| Season | Team | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Penn State | 66 | −80 | −1.2 | 2 | 22 |
| 2014 | Penn State | 93 | −94 | −1.0 | 0 | 17 |
| Career | 159 | −174 | −1.1 | 2 | 22 |
Game log · Week-by-week
2015 season · 13 games
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| Wk | Opp | CMP/ATT | YDS | TD | INT | YPA | QBR | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 1 | L 10-27@ Temple | 11/25 | 103 | 0 | 1 | 4.1 | 3.1 | |
| Wk 2 | W 27-14vs Buffalo | 14/27 | 128 | 1 | 0 | 4.7 | 54.9 | |
| Wk 3 | W 28-3vs Rutgers | 10/19 | 141 | 0 | 1 | 7.4 | 32.0 | |
| Wk 4 | W 37-21vs San Diego State | 21/35 | 296 | 3 | 0 | 8.5 | 74.8 | 3 TD passes |
| Wk 5 | W 20-14vs Army | 10/19 | 156 | 1 | 0 | 8.2 | 68.9 | |
| Wk 6 | W 29-7vs Indiana | 21/39 | 262 | 2 | 0 | 6.7 | 66.3 | Clean 2-TD game |
| Wk 7 | L 10-38@ No. 1 Ohio State | 7/13 | 120 | 1 | 0 | 9.2 | 3.3 | |
| Wk 8 | W 31-30vs Maryland | 13/29 | 315 | 3 | 0 | 10.9 | 72.9 | Season-high 315 yds |
| Wk 9 | W 39-0vs Illinois | 21/29 | 266 | 2 | 0 | 9.2 | 76.3 | Clean 2-TD game |
| Wk 10 | L 21-23@ Northwestern | 21/40 | 205 | 0 | 1 | 5.1 | 21.5 | |
| Wk 12 | L 16-28vs No. 14 Michigan | 13/31 | 137 | 1 | 0 | 4.4 | 42.2 | |
| Wk 13 | L 16-55@ No. 6 Michigan State | 22/39 | 257 | 2 | 2 | 6.6 | 31.0 | |
 Bowl | L 17-24vs Georgia | 8/14 | 139 | 0 | 1 | 9.9 | 24.8 | |
| Total | 192/359 | 2525 | 16 | 6 | 7.0 | — |
Week 6 · 2015
W 29-7
vs Indiana
262 yds · 2 TD · 0 INT · QBR 66.3 · 21 rush yds (9 car) · 2 TD
Dominant 22-point win at home against Indiana.
With D. Pasquariello — 44.3 yards per punt · 7 punts · 54 long · B. Polk — 2 rec · 46 yds · 1 TD
The plays that mattered most
Pass Profile · Completions by yards gained (PBP)
Adjusted ANY/A, sack rate, and where the yards came from
Totals here are the box score's. Play-by-play lists 356 passing plays (189 completions) against the box score's 359 attempts (192 completions), and the depth buckets use play-by-play.
Adjusted ANY/A
5.9295 of 198 QBsSack rate
9.6%181 of 198 QBsSacked on 9.6% of dropbacks (181 of 198) — and still 95 of 198 in Adjusted ANY/A.
Adjusted ANY/A uses full-season box-score totals (attempts, yards, TDs, INTs); sack rate is play-by-play-derived.
Short
0–9 ydsMiddle
10–19 ydsDeep
20+ ydsOverall 53.5% completion on 359 attempts · 38 deep completions averaging 33.9 yds.
Is he a different quarterback when it matters
Each situation vs his own 2015 baseline
No situation moves him more than 22 percentile points from his baseline.
Deltas are vs. this player’s own season baseline, never a league average. League sack rate by down is shown as context because sack attribution isn’t incompletion-denominated.
2 seasons under James Franklin, all balanced offenses — 14-12 over that span.
Splits · Per-game
2015 season · 13 games
Home vs Road
| YDS/g | TD/g | YPA | INT/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home7g | 198 | 1.4 | 7.0 | 0.1 |
| Road4g | 171 | 0.8 | 6.2 | 1.0 |
First half vs Second half
| YDS/g | TD/g | YPA | INT/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-78g | 168 | 1.0 | 7.3 | 0.4 |
| Weeks 8+5g | 236 | 1.6 | 7.2 | 0.6 |
Supporting cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
James Franklin
Pass share
49.4%
403 pass / 413 run
Plays / game
62.8
13 games
Scheme: Balanced.
Player standing · 2015
359 pass attempts, 66 carries and 1 catch in 13 games, about as many passes and runs a game as a typical FBS quarterback who plays every week.
How it ended
Two seasons at Penn State, 5,502 passing yards — drafted at #51 overall by the New York Jets.
Coaching lineage · 2013–2015
2 coachesCoaching transition mid-career: Bill O'Brien → James Franklin. Worth noting in scheme + development context.
Next stop · NFL
New York JetsEntering 11th NFL season
New York JetsEntering 11th NFL season
