Plenty of pros under center Hackenberg among star QBs in Big Ten

CHICAGO — It’s the year of the quarterback in the Big Ten Conference and as a table full of reporters gathered around Michigan State’s Connor Cook, the questions started.

“We’re in the talk for something for a reason,” said Cook, whose Spartans are ranked No. 6 in the preseason coaches poll. “Guys like Cardale [Jones], guys like Christian Hackenberg, J.T. Barrett’s a great quarterback. Nate Sudfeld should be in the conversation, too. … It’s just crazy because when is the last time the Big Ten had something like this?”

Cook and Hackenberg already are appearing as options 1A and 1B on NFL mock drafts. Cook, a senior who started the past 26 games for Michigan State and in 2014 led the Big Ten in passing (247.2 yards per game), could continue to be linked to Penn State’s Hackenberg in the coming months and maybe even years. Hackenberg, a junior and also a projected NFL first-round pick, has yet to make a decision about his professional future.

While a Big Ten quarterback hasn’t been selected in the first

round of the draft since Kerry Collins in 1995, Big Ten coaches and players recognize Hackenberg — despite a 15-interception-to-12touchdown season a year ago — is worthy of being mentioned among this elite group.

“He hangs in the pocket really, really nicely and he’s just calm,” Cook said. “You can’t teach that. You can’t teach someone to be calm, cool, collected, but he has it.”

Cook started to say Hackenberg’s pocket presence is better than his before wisely stopping and saying he wouldn’t answer a question about who does what better. After all, whoever has the higher ceiling as an NFL quarterback will be determined by scouts and general managers when the time is right.

Even for Maryland coach Randy Edsall, whose Terrapins beat Penn State, 20-19, last season in a game where Hackenberg struggled, completing 18 of 42 passes for 177 yards with one touchdown and one interception, he still sees the quarterback’s upside.

“He’s a big, strong guy, got a great arm,” Edsall said. Hackenberg is listed at 6 feet 4, 228 pounds on the team’s latest roster, 8 pounds lighter than his weight in the spring. “[He] stands in the pocket, can make all the throws. … He’s an outstanding quarterback and he’s somebody you have to make sure you give different looks and everything else.”

William Likely, who intercepted Hackenberg in the first quarter of the Maryland game, said the quarterback’s ability to see the entire field stood out to him. Likely, who said he would put Hackenberg among the conference’s top five quarterbacks, will have a second look at Hackenberg this season when the Terrapins play Penn State in October at Baltimore’s M&T Bank Stadium.

Given Hackenberg’s success as the Big Ten’s freshman of the year followed by his sophomore season that included a coaching change from Bill O’Brien to James Franklin as well as absorbing 44 sacks behind a developing offensive line, opposing coaches are taking Hackenberg’s entire body of work into consideration.

“A change is always tough,” Indiana coach Kevin Wilson said. “You’ve got new language, new terminology, a new person talking to you. So he had to go through that, but you’ve got a very, very talented guy, a very, very competitive guy that to me, from afar when you watch him, his skill set is unbelievably high. He’s one of the better quarterbacks and players in the game.”

• NOTE — Penn State defensive tackle Anthony Zettel was one of 11 players named to the Big Ten’s preseason watch list. Zettel will join teammates Jordan Lucas and Angelo Mangiro with Franklin today for Penn State’s portion of Big Ten media days.