Christian Hackenberg cannot be benched. Whether he should be or not is a legitimate question and has started to be asked more and more the past two weeks.

But he can’t be. Not now.

Why? Because there’s no backup quarterback, which itself is a big problem that was brought on by a peculiar – and the benefit of hindsight tells us a poor – decision made many weeks ago by James Franklin.

The coach decided to redshirt not one, but both of his freshmen quarterbacks, Trace McSorley and Michael O’Connor.

We’re 11 games into the season now, and it would be a travesty to either of those two kids to take off the redshirt and blow a whole year of eligibility on two games.

The only other viable option behind Hackenberg is fourth-stringer D.J. Crook, a walk-on who’s just not the answer.

So even if Hackenberg continues to struggle, as he did in Saturday’s 16-14 loss at Illinois, there’s really no way he can be pulled.

Which gets me back to why.

It makes no sense for Franklin to have redshirted both potential backups.

Doing so basically meant that Hackenberg has no competition for the job, no one to push him, no one to come in for a series or two here and there to let him hit the reset button when he’s struggling.

Hackenberg stays on the field, period, no matter what he does.

That is not a healthy situation for any team or any athlete.

But that’s the predicament Franklin put this team in by redshirting both McSorley and O’Connor.

The coach obviously figured, as we all did at the beginning of the season, that Hack would be fine. It turns out we were all wrong as he has the eighth-lowest passer efficiency rating in all of Division I (he’s 99th out of 106 quarterbacks who qualify).

There are many, many reasons for that, and not all Hackenberg’s fault.

The offensive coaching and playcalling have been awful this season.

But Hackenberg has made more than his share of mistakes, too, and the crowd that wants to forgive him his faults and put all the blame on the coaching and offensive line are being far too forgiving.

Yes, Hackenberg had a great freshman year. Yes, he stayed committed to the program through the sanctions and is legendary for doing so.

But those things have zero bearing on analyzing his performance this season. He’s had a very poor year by any standard, regardless of where the blame lies, and he has looked nothing like a future NFL star this season.

On many other teams and under many other coaches, there would have been justifiable occasions to sit him down for a series or two when he’s struggled and let another quarterback come in for a change of pace.

I’m not saying create a quarterback controversy. Not saying he gets benched for any length of time and the other guy takes over as the starter.

I’m saying for a series or two in game so he can settle down after one of his many mistakes, gather himself and come back in with a fresh mindset.

Could having to sit down hurt Hackenberg’s confidence and create a bigger problem? Maybe, but how much lower can his confidence really be after all the troubles he’s experienced?

Regardless, sitting him isn’t an option now, again because there’s no backup capable of filling in at a decent level.

Why would Franklin not have gotten McSorley, a dual-threat guy who would seem to fit the system, some experience here and there earlier this season against Akron or UMass to give the team a viable option in case things went south for Hackenberg?

Franklin was not prepared for this scenario, plain and simple. Even though he knew many months ago that he had a bad offensive line and a quarterback whose strong suit is playing from the pocket.

To not have another guy ready just in case is baffling.

To redshirt two quarterbacks in the same class in the same year is even more baffling. How could that possibly have been considered a good idea?

Hackenberg is going to be back next year, so both McSorley and O’Connor are going to be sitting again. If Hack returns for his senior year, which he may have to unless he has a tremendous bounce-back season in 2015, then both others will be sitting for a third year.

Meanwhile, Penn State is going to continue to bring in quarterback recruits, so there’s just going to be a logjam of guys at the spot (until some transfer, which will be inevitable).

The math doesn’t add up to justify keeping two guys out this year.

But because Franklin made that call long ago, it led to a situation like Saturday’s game when Hackenberg got his right leg dinged up but had to stay in the game despite being in obvious pain.

Could that have been why he only threw five passes in the second half? Could that have been a reason he wasn’t able to run for the first down on third-and-5 with the game on the line and forcing the Lions to punt?

Look, Christian Hackenberg didn’t lose the game. The entire team did with meltdowns in all three phases.

But Hackenberg, a supposed star, threw for a career-low 93 yards on 8-of-16 passing with one score against one of the nation’s worst defenses. Illinois’ backup quarterback, Reilly O’Toole, threw for 157 yards and a TD in a little more than a half against an excellent PSU defense, plus led a game-winning drive in the final two minutes.

Why didn’t the coaches let Hackenberg throw more? Who knows. Maybe it’s because they just don’t trust the kid.

As good as he was last year, that was last year, under different coaches. This new coaching staff has watched him make costly mistakes time after time this season, so why should they be overly trusting?

On the flip side, why should Hackenberg trust these coaches? He didn’t come to Penn State to be coached by John Donovan and Ricky Rahne in a simplified college offense. He came to be coached by Bill O’Brien in a potent NFL-caliber offense.

There’s plenty of blame to go around here. Nothing has worked out the way Franklin or Hackenberg had hoped or expected, and the poor results are easy to see week in and week out.

Can Hackenberg be fixed? Absolutely. He’s a very talented young man.

Can these coaches fix him? Playing in this system that values a dual-threat quarterback? That remains to be seen.

Look for Hackenberg to struggle again this week against Michigan State, then he will get time to heal and reset before the bowl game.

If he plays well there, which he should after the time off, it could be just what he needs to end on a positive note and carry some sliver of confidence into next year.