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PENN STATE UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCENovember 26, 2013Christian HackenbergMike HullQ. I was curious if you could review the play‑‑ I don't think we got you after the game, you were getting treatment, right? MIKE HULL: Uh‑huh. Q. Review the play at the goal line, and also, do you feel sort of rounding into form? Do you feel a lot of your injuries are behind you right now? MIKE HULL: Yeah, the play on the goal line just kind of dropped back into pass coverage, saw the guy start to scramble and go towards the end zone. He had a pretty good head of steam going, so I knew I had to put a good hit on him to stop his momentum and just kind of gave him a shoulder. Thankfully he went down. As far as feeling better, I feel like it's taken me a few games to kind of get into mid‑season form, but as of the last few games, I've kind of felt like I've progressed like I thought I would, and I've been feeling a lot better and more confident out there. Q. These cold‑weather games like Saturday against Nebraska and this one coming up, do you wear sleeves under your jersey? MIKE HULL: No, I don't usually wear sleeves. Just kind of short, short sleeves. We practice outside a lot, so we're kind of used to the cold. Q. Do you always practice in short sleeves then too? MIKE HULL: No, I usually just practice in a long sleeve shirt. Don't want to get sick or anything before the game. Q. But for the game it's different, I guess? MIKE HULL: Yeah, it's kind of like a toughness thing that we have going. Carson, myself, Nayeem, we don't really want to show any weakness. So we kind of go bare skinned. Q. Do you ever get cold though? MIKE HULL: Actually your adrenaline's going so much and you're just thinking about the game that it doesn't really faze you at all. Q. You guys have faced some really good running backs this year in the conference and you have another big challenge today with the two running backs that they have. Can you talk about those guys? MIKE HULL: Yeah, Gordon and also White are really good running backs. We've watched a lot of film on them yesterday since we don't have class. They're shifty, but they can also run you over if they have to, especially Gordon, he's a bigger guy. It's going to be a challenge this week. We're going to have to play responsible defense and shut down the run game. Q. Did you envision yourself doing what Fitz does for games when he's out there in shorts and stuff? MIKE HULL: I don't know if I could do it if I wasn't playing. He's kind of standing there the whole game. I don't know how he does it with the short sleeves and shorts. Q. Brandon Bell being, could you talk about the way he's developed and come in and made some big plays for you guys? MIKE HULL: Yeah, I think he's one of the most improved players on the team especially defensively. Since he's gotten here he's just made a lot of strides and he's made a lot of big plays for us in the past couple weeks, and we needed it. So everyone's pretty pleased with the way he's coming along. Q. It's funny you said mid‑season form. It seems like the last ten quarters since the halftime of Minnesota the defense is in mid‑season form. Has anything happened since then for you guys to step it up in your play? MIKE HULL: Yeah, I think we're just getting more comfortable with each other out there. We had a lot of guys that were first time starters and younger guys. We also put it upon ourselves to play with more pride and get better and focus over single snap. So I think it's really carried over to Saturdays. Q. Anything happen at halftime of that game? MIKE HULL: Minnesota? Q. Yeah. MIKE HULL: Just passionate speech by Coach Butler got us going. Just said lay it all out on the line. Play with a sense of urgency and pride for the rest of the season. I think we've taken that speech to heart and done that. Q. I know it's hard to think that he's passionate. But what did he say? Do you remember at all? MIKE HULL: Not too much. Just he was pretty animated, that's really all. Q. Wisconsin has a really large offensive line, is there anything as far as their size that you can take advantage of or is it one of those things where it's just going to be a very tough match‑up? MIKE HULL: Wisconsin's a good team, big line, like you said. I don't think it really helps them or hurts them in any way. Just another Big Ten opponent. We've got to attack it the same way. The linebackers and defensive linemen, we just have to go back to the fundamentals and make sure we're getting off blocks and approaching it the same way we always do. Q. With no school this week when you're not practicing football or watching film, what are you guys up to? Do you get bored during a week like this? Is it a long week? MIKE HULL: Not too much. It's actually nice. You're just with your teammates the whole week just kind of hanging out, playing video games whenever you're not at practice. Last night we went to a team movie, get a little team bonding going. So it's fun. It's more laid back and relaxing whenever you don't have to worry about class and being all over campus. Q. (No microphone)? MIKE HULL: We saw "Thor". Yeah, pretty good. Most of the guys saw "Hunger Games" already, so we kind of passed on that one. Q. We asked you about this before a couple weeks ago, and I'm curious if your perspective has changed on it. But if this team goes 6‑6 this year, is that a disappointment? MIKE HULL: It is what it is at this point. It's been an up‑and‑down year, but I think really over the last few games we can see improvement with our team, and that's really the main thing we're improving in the right direction and we're setting up for the future and for next year. Q. How much do you feel you've kind of stepped up as a leader this year and looking ahead to next year, I know you still have one game, but will you be even more kind of involved in that sort of role moving forward? MIKE HULL: Yeah, I felt like I've become more of a leader especially in the last few games. Kind of taken it upon myself, me and Glenn. Earlier in the season playing the first few games it was hard to assume a leadership role whenever you're not out there competing with the guys. But after getting back out there, I feel like I've gradually worked more into a leadership role, and I think next year it will be even bigger and it will become more natural to me. Q. Can you analyze the versatility that C.J. Olaniyan brings to the defensive line and the front seven in general with what he's able to do? MIKE HULL: Oh, yeah. He's really long, lanky guy. He does great against the run and also in the pass as you've seen he's always making big plays, sacks and strip sacks and that really helps especially with turnovers, just kind of putting pressure on the quarterback. So it's great to have C.J. out there. He's one of our best players and we need him. Q. Last week the defense got, I believe, it was 6 three‑and‑outs and one four‑and‑out. How important is it for you to be able to do that on defense and just shut down an offense in three plays and get off the field? MIKE HULL: Yeah, it's huge. Get the offensive ball back so they can stay in rhythm. It also gives us a break so we can just keep regrouping and refocusing after every series and talk about what we saw. Whenever you get three‑and‑outs and force teams into short drives, it definitely helps the entire operation. Q. You kind of alluded to this a little bit, but it seems like the way the defense has gone the whole team has been up and down. But with the defense it seems it's kind of gone with the health of the linebacking corps. Can you elaborate on that a little bit? When you guys start off the year healthy. MIKE HULL: Yeah, definitely. Linebackers are relied upon really heavily in this defense. I was out earlier in the year, and then Kline kind of helped us out and then he got hurt. Now we've found Brandon Bell as our new rock over there on the weak side. It's just one of those things. Injuries happen in football, but we've done a good job finding the next man to step up every single time, and he's kind of steadied the ship the last couple games. Q. Christian, I noticed Saturday you were wearing long sleeves under your jersey. In the cold‑weather games, how come you like to wear the long sleeves? CHRISTIAN HACKENBERG: I just wear them. I think it helps to just keep my arm warm instead of getting cold. It's just something I do in the cold weather. Q. Do you, during all the practices when it's cold outside, do you wear the long sleeves as well? CHRISTIAN HACKENBERG: Yep. Q. Does anyone give you‑‑ a lot of the guys have said we've got to not wear them because we want to look really powerful out there. Do they give you any trouble for wearing long sleeves or do they know as a quarterback? CHRISTIAN HACKENBERG: Yeah, Howle jokes with me about it a lot, but it's just something I do. They really don't pay much attention to it. Q. Christian, this season you've thrown a lot of passes. Can you kind of talk a little bit about how you've tried to manage your pitch count so to speak? Has that been a focus from the coaching staff to make sure you're not throwing too much this late in the season? CHRISTIAN HACKENBERG: Yeah, definitely. Yeah, at practice I'm just taking the reps that I really need to take. I think that that goes back to the off‑season a lot of throws then as well. So I think with the new guys coming in, it's going to help out. But right now it's just focusing on the reps I need to take and warming up. Q. Have you noticed that C.J. Olaniyan has picked up his game? At any point in the season have you noticed he's turned it on more in practice? CHRISTIAN HACKENBERG: Yeah, I think the whole defense has. I know C.J. has come up and made a lot of great plays for us. I think that the defense feeds off that, and each week someone else seems to step up and make a play for us on that side of the ball. Q. What are some of the difficulties you're preparing for this week to go against this Wisconsin defense, and specifically when you're preparing to go against a 3‑4 versus a 4‑3, what are some of the things you have to learn to look for? CHRISTIAN HACKENBERG: Yeah, the 3‑4 versus the 4‑3, it's just variations in my Mike points and run‑game‑type stuff. But I think they're a really good team. They're athletic. I would think they don't make many mistakes. They play really well together. So we have to focus offensively on not making mistakes and just keeping and stringing drives together one play at a time. Q. Over the last couple weeks, it seems like you've been finding Breneman a lot more. He's becoming a large part of the offense. Going forward, do you feel that you're looking forward to next year and beyond? Do you kind of get excited to get that connection and kind of hooking up? CHRISTIAN HACKENBERG: Yeah, I think Adam's gotten better each week. He's really focused on his practice habits. He's starting to make more of an impact. So I think a lot of the young guys are really looking forward to that. But right now we're focused on Wisconsin, and Adam's going to try to continue to make plays for us next week. Q. Going into your last game. Could you reflect on the year you've had and where you think you might have progressed as a quarterback? CHRISTIAN HACKENBERG: Yeah, it was tough for me, I think, just trying to understand the bigness of the stage I was stepping into. But I think each week guys like Ty Howle and the seniors were really good guys for me to talk to. They've all been through it. Each week I was just trying to get better mentally up top and just trying to stay in as good shape as I could physically to continue to make plays for the team and help the team out. That's been my goal. Just managing the games and help the team win to put us in situations where we can be successful. Q. When it's as cold as it was on Saturday and probably will be this Saturday, what adjustments do you make, if any, as a quarterback throwing the ball? CHRISTIAN HACKENBERG: I just try not to think about it. I just keep my hands warm and go out there and just throw the football. At the end of the day, you've got to deal with the elements, it's part of the game. So the less you think about it, I think the better it helps. Q. Is it tougher to throw it when it's frozen solid or soaking wet? CHRISTIAN HACKENBERG: Soaking wet. Q. How is the coaching you received under Mickey down in Virginia compared to the coaching you received under Coach O'Brien and Coach Fisher up here? CHRISTIAN HACKENBERG: Yeah, I think it's two totally different types of coaching. Coach Sullivan was doing it for a while, but he was more of an old‑school type coach. So he helped develop me, I think, as a person. Up here, these guys do a great job of that as well. But I think that the football aspect and the intricacies of the quarterback position are more focused on. But I think that's been an adjustment and it's really helped with my overall knowledge of the game. Q. (No microphone). CHRISTIAN HACKENBERG: My dad? Q. Yeah. CHRISTIAN HACKENBERG: Yeah, he and I talk. He played at UVA, so he was under Gary Tranquill. So he has a lot of knowledge from him. My dad and I talk, but he tried to sit back and enjoy it. He's coached me long enough. He coached me throughout high school, he helped me out, so he's trying to sit back and enjoy it now. Q. Has this season gone by quickly for you given everything you've had to absorb and everything that's been thrown at you, or does it seem like it's taken a long time? CHRISTIAN HACKENBERG: Yeah, I think it's a little bit of both. I think everything's flown by. I feel like I just ran out of the tunnel against Syracuse. But then again, the physical toll, it's a little bit of a grind. I think we're all feeling it. But this week we need to focus on getting healthy, and we're really excited about this last opportunity here against Wisconsin. Q. There's been a lot of tough games. What is the biggest thing you've learned through the adversity you've faced? CHRISTIAN HACKENBERG: I think that you really just need to understand you're going to make mistakes and just continue to not make them or try to continue to not make those mistakes once you learn from them. Really, for me, this year my focus has been to be a game manager, so just understanding the run game more importantly, and then understand that when your number is called to make a play, you have to execute on all cylinders from the offensive line to me to the receivers running the right routes. Q. What lessons have you learned from some of the bumps in the road this year, like particularly the road games that you think you can benefit from and the team can benefit from this week? CHRISTIAN HACKENBERG: Yeah, we've had some trouble on the road. I think this week's going to help just being focused on football. We haven't had a bye week here in a while, so we've been stringing a couple games back‑to‑back to back‑to‑back. So I think this week we're just going to be more focused. I think that's a big focus for us is being focused and healthy. Going into the game and just lay it all on the line. Q. Also, how much have you learned and how much have you had to change your touch or has that come into play as far as short passes? Could you talk about that part of the game? CHRISTIAN HACKENBERG: Yeah, I think being able to manipulate the football is a big thing at the quarterback position, so sometimes you don't have to necessarily rip the comeback or the little swing pass. Just put a little touch on it. That's something I've been focusing on. I think getting to learn the receivers and how they run their routes is also key because that could be a big timing mechanism as well. Q. I think the common line of thought would be having a dynamic receiver like Allen would make everything easier for you. But what have you learned about playing quarterback from a receiver like that, if that makes sense? CHRISTIAN HACKENBERG: It makes life a lot easier, I think, in some situations. Allen's a great player. He's made a lot of plays and saved me on a couple of plays. So I think having him around helps our whole receiving corps. A guy like him, he's had success now for two years in the Big Ten, and I think the younger guys are really starting to learn from him. For me, I just try to learn how he runs his routes, what he does to make himself different, and then that also helps me in turn with how I'm going to adjust my drop, how I'm going to adjust the touch on the ball and all those type of things. I think my relationship with him has really helped the whole health of the quarterback and wide receivers. Q. Christian, you think about quarterbacks and wide receivers, the relationship that they build, and you brought up Ty Howle twice already.  How important is that relationship with the center, and how has that grown and developed this year for you? CHRISTIAN HACKENBERG: Yeah, he and I work together a lot with the run game, so we'll have conversations at the line of scrimmage sometimes about what we want to do. That is a big part of this on offense, and making sure the offensive line and the quarterback and everyone's on the same page. Just making sure we see everything through the same set of eyes. So Ty Howle has been an important guy for me to build a relationship with, and I can't thank him enough for everything he's done for me. Q. Assuming this will be your first of many times at this dais for the next three or four years. You've had a lot of stories written about you on TV, how much do you pay attention to the publicity? CHRISTIAN HACKENBERG: I really try and not focus on it too much. It's not something that you really can't‑‑ it's someone's opinion, and you've just really got to focus on the people that are important. Your coaching staff, your teammates, and try to be the best teammate and the best player for the coaches that you can be and really just help the team become better. I think that is the key at the end of the day, especially at the quarterback position. Q. Do you get to watch any other quarterbacks around the country? Who is the college quarterback currently that you like to watch the most? CHRISTIAN HACKENBERG: I like to watch A.J. McCarron, I think that he runs a similar type of offense, and he does a lot of the same things at the line of scrimmage. He does well with managing the football game and I think that was something that I was focusing on this year. He's done that well for three years. Q. Penn State hasn't always had freshmen talking to the media. I wonder, you've been through a lot of it with us this year. What's it been like for you? How much of an educational experience has it been, and has it been difficult at all? CHRISTIAN HACKENBERG: Yeah, it's been different. Obviously, it's a change of pace here. I've had a lot of people. I think the recruiting process has changed. A lot of people are being talked to at a lot of younger ages now. I think my first year was my sophomore year and going into here. So it's been different. It's been definitely on a larger scale with ESPN and that type of stuff. So I just try and take it with a grain of salt and try to make it a positive. Q. Going into Camp Randall for the first time, you went into Ohio Stadium the first time, MetLife the first time, is there any point before the game that you take a split second to say, wow, here I am or is that only for after the games? CHRISTIAN HACKENBERG: Yeah, I really try not to focus on that. It's more just a game plan and making sure the guys are ready to play. Making sure my head's in the right place to play. Q. You've referred to managing games a few times today. A lot of times if you say somebody's a game manager, there is kind of a negative connotation with that. What do you mean by managing games? Just simply making things into manageable situations for your team or what do you mean by that? CHRISTIAN HACKENBERG: Yeah, I think especially at this offense you can do so much at the line of scrimmage. You have to understand not only the passing game, but the running game. You have to understand protections. I think with the greater understanding I have of that, it helps put the team in those type of situations where we can be successful. That's one thing I really focused on, and I've looked at is what the team needs to expect out of me is understanding those types of things and getting us into those right places. So that's sort of how I refer to it as a game manager. Q. What are some of the things that you're going to focus on in the off‑season strength‑wise or whatnot? What are your off‑season plans? CHRISTIAN HACKENBERG: Yeah, I'm going to go back and try to watch the whole season and really focus in the film room and get to understand coverages more. You can't not get in the film room enough. It's a huge part of the position and especially this offense. I'm going to be in there a lot and definitely embrace a full winter, and spring and summer again of the strength program and try to put on a couple more pounds and see where that goes. Q. The offensive line has really stepped up in the last couple games. How has that helped you develop as a young player? CHRISTIAN HACKENBERG: Yeah, they've done a fantastic job. Our running backs have done a fantastic job. I think the run game has helped our passing game. To know that you're going to have guys up there that are going to execute at the level they've been executing the past couple of games gives you a whole new confidence when you're back there. They've done a great job. They deserve a lot of credit. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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