EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J.
The most surprising thing about Christian Hackenberg's foray into big-time college football isn't that he started the game.
It isn't that he didn't wilt, even on a stifling day in the big football stadium in the shadow of the nation's biggest city.
It isn't that his best moments overshadowed his worst, or that he helped Penn State to a grueling 23-17 win over Syracuse on the first Saturday of his much-anticipated collegiate career.
It isn't that so many were so impressed with his potential, so excited for it to be tapped into over the next four years.
It's that in the end, Hackenberg was allowed to talk about it all.
"I think that, as a team, we did well executing," the Nittany Lions' true freshman signal-caller said. "There's a lot of things we need to improve on, and we're going to do that."
For those who don't know the drill, true freshmen are rarely ever allowed to talk to the press after games. Derrick Williams, the terrific receiver who came to Penn State as the top recruit in the nation in 2005, is one of the few who were given the right. And he only got it after a month's worth of games. There were great true freshmen, before and after, who were told to keep quiet until they were sophomores.
This probably doesn't matter much to fans, of course. But it should.
Because if anything tells you what coach Bill O'Brien and his staff think of Hackenberg, it's this. Coaches generally like to protect 18-year-olds - from the overwhelming media, from the exuberant fans, even from themselves - as long as they feel they can. But there's something different about this one. Something that makes O'Brien think he doesn't need to.
"He's a very poised kid," O'Brien raved after the game. "He has got a fantastic demeanor. He's got great parents. He's got a tremendous future.
"But we're not ready to waltz him into the College Football Hall of Fame, and certainly not the NFL Hall of Fame. He's got a long way to go."
Mistakes.
Those were a big part of Hackenberg's day, which if you look at the box score, was still pretty outstanding for a guy who graduated high school just two months ago.
He completed 22 of his 31 passes, for 278 yards and a pair of touchdowns, including a 54-yard bomb to former Wyoming Valley West star Eugene Lewis that showed the arm strength that made Hackenberg arguably the top pro-style quarterback prospect in the nation coming out of high school.
But he completed two more passes to the waiting Orange defense.
One came when Syracuse safety Jeremi Wilkes jumped a route and ripped off a 21-yard return up the sideline. That's a rookie mistake.
The second came in the fourth quarter, on a third-and-11 inside Penn State territory with a shade more than seven minutes to play in a game the Nittany Lions had a chance to put away.
But Hackenberg side-armed the pass into the gut of defensive end Robert Welsh, who rambled all the way to the Penn State 1. Syracuse running back Jerome Smith pounded the ball over the goal line on the next play, and a 13-point lead was down to a tenuous 23-17.
That's the type of mistake you can read into, where you can see both inexperience and confidence.
"It was great to know they had that confidence. It's great to know the staff is behind you, and to also have the team know you are trying to make a play," Hackenberg said.
But O'Brien, while sure of his quarterback's capacity to handle the ups and downs, is also realistic about the present.
If, a year ago, Matt McGloin offered the same results in a game as Hackenberg did Saturday, it wouldn't be viewed as a positive performance.
Even on that touchdown pass to Lewis, O'Brien pointed out that Hackenberg didn't run the perfect route. He didn't pick up the rush off the end, like running back Zach Zwinak. He didn't draw the coverage on the opposite side, like Allen Robinson did. He didn't do anything but recognize the route and throw a rocket right into Lewis' hands.
"He just threw it. That's why he's on scholarship," O'Brien deadpanned.
Which, in coach-speak, means his quarterback did the easy part. All he wants him to do is consistently execute the easy part.
But he knows that, as the season progresses, he's going to need to ask more of Hackenberg. He's going to need to demand more. Penn State won't get better if he doesn't.
"We're Penn State. We can't just dip our toe in the water," O'Brien said.
"We have a lot of work to do on offense. But I think everyone can see there's talent there." The media horde that so often is kept away from others like him surrounded Hackenberg at the podium in the tiny media room in the bowels of MetLife Stadium. He looked confident and calm, or at least tried.
Outside the room, his teammates lined up in a hallway. Lewis, when asked how impressed he was with how much Hackenberg has picked up, so quickly, offered only a short "I think he did well." Other players were similarly reluctant to discuss his performance, and senior defender Stephen Obeng-Agyapong said, honestly, that he was told not to address any question about Hackenberg.
"It's a big change," Hackenberg said. "But the coaching staff has helped me get through this. The team has helped me get through this. I'm really trying to immerse myself in the team and what the coaches are teaching every day."
From now on, he'll do his own talking. On the field and off of it.
Penn State fans will anxiously await where that takes him, not to mention a program that can use the hope he brings.
(Collins covers Penn State football for The Times-Tribune. Contact him at dcollins@timesshamrock.com, read his blog at http://blogs.thetimes-tribune.com/pennstate/, or follow him on Twitter @psubst)