Christian Hackenberg Starts at QB for Penn State Against Syracuse

January 4, 2013; St. Petersburg, FL, USA; Team Highlight quarterback Christian Hackenberg (1) drops out of the pocket during the second half at the Under Armour All-America high school Game at Tropicana Field. Team Highlight defeated the Team Nitro 16-3. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Reports began to surface late Friday afternoon that the Penn State QB battle had reached some sort of a conclusion. ESPN reported that true freshman Christian Hackenberg would indeed be given the starting nod over JUCO transfer Tyler Ferguson. Now while some of these “reports” do end up being true, we need to remember what coach we’re dealing with here.

Bill O’Brien–just like his mentor Bill Belichick–is not exactly the biggest fan of the media folk. So with the news leaking yesterday, I’m sure I’m not the only one that thought the Lions’ head coach would pull a fast one on everyone and use Ferguson to start the game.

This, however, was one instance where O’Brien stuck to his guns.

Hackenberg, the former top dual-threat QB recruit in the nation, took the field for the Lions on offense in the first quarter of the game against Syracuse. This occurrence doesn’t come as a surprise to some, however that lengthy position battle did.

And again, as always, it should be noted that while Hackenberg did start the game, O’Brien has stated numerously that the second QB–Ferguson in this case–will see playing time.

Hackenberg went 3-3 on his first drive–a drive that ended up with Hackenberg punting (yes you read that correctly).

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Jack is a Staff Writer for Saturday Blitz. Follow Jack on Twitter @JackJ14CFB