July 17, 2015
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Junior quarterback Christian Hackenberg (Palmyra, Va.) claimed a spot on his third watch list of the season when he was among the candidates for the Walter Camp Player of the Year award. Hackenberg was previously named to the Maxwell Award watch list for the College Football MVP and Davey O'Brien Award for the nation's top quarterback.
The Walter Camp Player of the Year award is presented annually by the Walter Camp Football Foundation and is the fourth-oldest individual college football award. The award is named in honor of Walter Camp, "The Father of American Football," who played and coached football at Yale and served on the football rules committee for most of his life.
Penn State has two Walter Camp winners in running back John Cappelletti, who won the award in 1973, and tailback Larry Johnson, who claimed the honor in 2002.
Entering the season poised to become the top passer in Penn State history, Hackenberg capped his sophomore season by breaking or tying nine PSU single game bowl records. He has stated all 25 career games under center and enters the season ranked No. 3 in career passing yards (5,932), attempts (876) and completions (501), and is No. 4 in career total offense (5,770). He is one of just eight Nittany Lions to amass over 5,000 passing yards and is the only Penn State signal caller to break the 400-yard mark in a game, throwing for a school-record 454 yards in a victory over UCF at the Croke Park Classic in Dublin. Ireland. In 2014, Hackenberg led the Big Ten with 20.7 completions per game, ranking 23rd nationally, and finished second in the conference and 39th nationally with 2,977 passing yards.
The watch list will be narrowed to 10 semi-finalists in mid-November. The 2015 Walter Camp Player of the Year recipient, which is voted on by the 128 NCAA Bowl Subdivision head coaches and sports information directors, will be announced live on ESPN SportsCenter on Thursday, December 10. The winner will then receive his trophy at the Foundation's annual national awards banquet on January 16, 2016 at the Yale University Commons in New Haven.
The Nittany Lions now have seven players on 11 different preseason watch lists: Kyle Carter (Mackey Award - Nation's Top Tight End), Christian Hackenberg (Maxwell Award - College Football MVP, Davey O'Brien -- Nation's Top Quarterback), DaeSean Hamilton (Maxwell Award - College Football MVP, Biletnikoff Award -- Nation's Top Wide Receiver), Jordan Lucas (Nagurski Trophy - Defensive Player of the Year), Akeel Lynch (Doak Walker Awards -- Nation's Top Running Back), Angelo Mangiro (Rimmington Trophy -- Nation's Top Center) and Anthony Zettel (Bednarik Award -- National Defensive Player of the Year, Nagurski Trophy - Defensive Player of the Year, Outland Trophy - Nation's Top Interior Lineman, Lombardi Award -- Nation's Top Lineman or Linebacker).
The Nittany Lions open the 2015 campaign on the road against Temple at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia on Saturday, September 5 at 3:30 p.m.
Season, partial season and single game tickets for the 2015 campaign are on sale, with more than 4,000 new season tickets having been sold. To purchase tickets or for information on joining the Nittany Lion Club and purchasing new 2015 season tickets, as well as club seating in Beaver Stadium, fans can visit PSUnrivaled.com, call 1-800-NITTANY or visit the Bryce Jordan Center ticket office weekdays from 10 a.m-6 p.m.