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Mel Kiper: Hackenberg will be the #1 pick in next year's draft.


Melissa Kiper was my waitress this morning at the local Shoney's. Mel was speculating on what would happen if Christian Hackenberg entered next year's NFL draft after playing only two years at Penn State. She figured that he would be the first player taken. She mentioned Tommy Maddox and how he played only two years at UCLA and then went on to an NFL career. Then I told her that players can't make themselves eligible for the draft until they have been out of high school for three years under current rules. She moxie-shrugged and dropped the Moons Over My Hammy on the table without any further dialogue. The look that she gave while walking off made me wonder if she would spit in the Bloomin' Onion that I ordered for dessert.

But it got me to wondering who will be the starting qb for PSU in 2016. Will Hack stick around for his fourth year? Will Wimbush factor in two years from now? Is Trace McSorley a legitimate option in future years, ahead of O'Connor? It seems to me that McSorley is, this season, a personal protector of O'Connor's eligibility. Much in the way that Marty McSorely protected Wayne Gretzky, Trace may simply be holding the #2.5 spot down this year to save O'Connor the lost year of eligibility.

Is Michael O'Connor even going to stick around at PSU?

I don't have any info about Michael O'Connor that anyone else doesn't know, even though I live roughly ten miles from where he played his final season in high school at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. He was recruited pre-Franklin by an NFL quarterback-making guru. Then O'Connor had to re-affirm his commitment, kind of late, to the new sexy recruiter. It's possible that Franklin sold him but it isn't a good fit for either of them, long-term. At the time keeping the top prospect was most important for Franklin. For O'Connor, it was so close to January enrollment that he may not have liked the other options that he had on such short notice.

I have no inside information on O'Connor, and this is after I spent the better part of last year lurking in the bushes surrounding the IMG Academy campus. I hoped that I could catch O'Connor a little tipsy and willing to go on the record talking trash about his coach Chris Weinke. There's nothing creepy about lurking in the bushes. I learned this technique, called 'avant gardening', at the TMZ Academy, a place where Patriot-News reporters learn their craft.

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via 1.bp.blogspot.com

What's nice is that we have Hack locked in for at least two more years, maybe three. And the qb pipeline with O'Connor, Wimbush, and McSorely is definitely loaded after Hack does move on to the NFL. After this season the qb situation will become a little more clear. A qb with O'Connor and Hack's talent can play just about anywhere, but it seems that McSorely and Wimbush fit the mold that Franklin has used at qb in the past. Maybe he used that type of qb because he didn't have a guy like Hack or O'Connor. Maybe having a couple of years with a guy like Hack will alter Franklin's idea of what he wants in a qb.

Who do you think will be our qb to start the 2016 season?

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Things to do in Dublin when you're dead.

Welcome to Ireland, would you like to spread awareness of potato blight? What you do is dump a bucket full of frozen potatoes and water over your head, then you name someone who will have to go without eating for the next week. We do this to commemorate all of the people who starved to death when Ireland ran out of potatoes a couple hundred years ago. Help us spread potato blight awareness, put the 'fast' in Belfast, and take the potato famine bucket full of iced potatoes challenge!

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