It may be hard to remember or even believe, but Christian Hackenberg once had a strong run as a quarterback at Penn State.
Hackenberg got his start with the Nittany Lions as a freshman in 2013, which would end up being Bill O’Brien’s final year as the head coach there. He would take his talents to the NFL and coach the Houston Texans the following season.
Recently, Hackenberg revealed how he received the news of O’Brien’s departure. He admitted he was in the middle of a New Year’s Eve party and was in the process of doing a keg stand when his phone began to buzz.
“I was doing a keg stand, actually,” Hackenberg said on the Saturday Down South Podcast hosted by Connor O’Gara. “I was doing a keg stand, and my phone starts buzzing. I thought it was my buddy calling me from the house next door, and I start kicking my legs like, ‘Let me down.’ I pick it up, didn’t even look at the caller ID and I’m like, ‘What’s up? What’s up?’ And it’s ‘Hack.’ I go, ‘Oh. Coach, what’s goin’ on, man?’ And (O’Brien) goes, ‘I’m going to Houston.’”
“Then I walk in the house, it’s all over ESPN and it was super awkward the rest of the night,” Hackenberg said. “I was just like, ‘I’m over this.’”
Hackenberg would stay at Penn State to play for James Franklin for two years, before departing for the NFL Draft in 2016.
