Will Hackenberg be a product of Penn State's offense, or the other way around?

The word

system

comes up often in discussions of quarterbacks these days, especially college quarterbacks, and it usually comes up in a certain way, nestled within a certain phrasing. Boiled down, the question goes like this:

Is he a product of the system?

That's football, more and more. A particular coach runs a particular offense, with a particular style, and that system might require a particular set of skills from the quarterback, or it might enhance those skills the quarterback already has, or it might minimize the quarterback's weaknesses and flaws. It might do all of those things at once, and there are so many coaches running so many systems nowadays - including the spread, the read-option, and the zone-read - that it's getting more difficult to determine how well a quarterback might function outside a particular coach's particular system.

The question came up a lot, for example, when Oregon's Marcus Mariota entered this year's NFL draft. People presumed Mariota would be a perfect fit for Chip Kelly and the Eagles because Mariota had excelled in Kelly's souped-up system at Oregon, but they were less sure about Mariota's future in the pros if he ended up with another team. He wouldn't have Kelly. He wouldn't have Kelly's system. What then?

Christian Hackenberg is an old-style quarterback who takes that new-age question and turns it upside down. He is about to begin his junior season at Penn State, and he is a curious case. He is cut from the classic quarterback mold: 6-foot-4 and 220 pounds, he would prefer to drop back five steps, stand in the pocket as if he were 10 feet tall and bulletproof, and sling the ball like an arrow down the field. Namath, Marino - those are Hackenberg's antecedents. He could very well be the No. 1 pick in next year's draft, if all goes well this season.

That scenario sounds wonderful for the Nittany Lions, and it's certainly plausible. It's also no sure thing, in large part because Hackenberg, from a statistical standpoint, regressed from his freshman season, when he was playing under Bill O'Brien, to his sophomore season, his first under James Franklin. He completed a lower percentage of his passes, averaged fewer yards per attempt, and threw fewer touchdowns and more interceptions. Yet Hackenberg is so talented, so highly regarded among his coaches and teammates and NFL scouts, that the prevailing wisdom is that his regression was a result of Franklin's system - that Hackenberg was built for O'Brien's vertical passing attack and that Franklin's quick-throw, timing-based pass offense is an ill fit for him.

"Ultimately it's about what you do this year," Penn State offensive coordinator John Donovan told reporters earlier this month. "What he's going to do this year will determine how good he'll be."

That's easy enough for Donovan to say, and it was encouraging that Hackenberg had his best game last year in Penn State's final one of the season: He threw for 371 yards and four touchdowns in the Nittany Lions' 31-30 victory over Boston College in the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium.

But Donovan's ultimatum cuts both ways. From injuries to inexperience, Penn State had some built-in excuses for struggling last season. If Hackenberg and the offense don't take a significant step forward, however, there will be more evidence to suggest that the quarterback isn't the problem, that the real problem is the coaches who couldn't adjust to accommodate the talented centerpiece they inherited.

"They're going to have to evolve together," Mickey Sullivan, who coached Hackenberg at Fork Union Military Academy in Virginia, said in a phone interview before the 2014 season. "Coach O'Brien and Christian evolved [in 2013]. They learned and developed trust and belief in each other. Coach Franklin is a very good football coach; Coach Donovan is a well-known guy and a good football coach. It'll take a bit of time. It's going to be easier for this staff because they've had him all summer and the spring, and O'Brien got him on June 3, maybe, and had to cram it all into a box.

"He'll grow as they figure out, 'Wow, he can make that throw.' "

The thing is, most everyone already knows what throws Hackenberg can make. What nobody really knows yet is whether the Nittany Lions will be better off if Hackenberg becomes a product of their system or if their system becomes a product of him. Penn State's season, and maybe his pro career, depend on the answer.