David Sills V executed the extraordinarily rare maneuver of leaving a Football Bowl Subdivision school for a junior college and then returning to the same FBS school he previously chose to depart.

But isn’t Sills the one to do such an unconventional thing?

Sills, of course, committed to USC as a 13-year-old seventh grader. He was called a prodigy and considered among the best prospects ever. His dad founded a high school, and that school gave WVU Wendell Smallwood and Daikiel Shorts.

Sills enrolled at West Virginia. He wanted to be a quarterback and was slated to redshirt. He then debuted out of nowhere as a receiver on the road against Baylor and caught a touchdown pass. In his final game, another touchdown reception won the Cactus Bowl. He was pretty good! Sills went through the spring and tried again to play quarterback, but it wasn’t going to happen, so he left to play quarterback at a California junior college.

After all the headlines mentioning “bust” and stories mentioning “cautionary tale” came and went, Sills played a 10-game season and then actually re-enrolled at WVU. We thought he’d be an outside receiver. In the latest depth chart, he’s a slot receiver.

In short … mission accomplished.

“Going through all my decisions growing up, I don’t really believe in making bad decisions,” Sills said. “I think you make a decision and you learn from it and make the best out of it. I don’t regret anything I’ve done growing up. I think leaving here and coming back honestly put me in the best position possible.”

That position, for now and for the rest of his time on campus, is at receiver. The 6-foot-3, 200-pound Sills knows that. He did not know that before, when he truly believed he could play quarterback, that he could leave the Football Bowl Subdivision to prove he was right and then return to take back the future he once believed belonged to him.

That did not happen. Sills, who we must remember played a three-game schedule as a high school sophomore after opponents bailed and then played three games before breaking his ankle as a senior, completed 127 of 238 passes (53.4 percent) for 1,636 yards, 15 touchdowns and seven interceptions, and he ran for 258 yards and five touchdowns at El Camino College last year. He didn’t catch any passes, but he kicked one successful extra point and one 51-yard punt.

Ball State was the only FBS program that was interested in Sills as a quarterback, and Sills was ultimately open to returning to the FBS as a receiver. To him, his plan worked.

“All the quarterback thoughts are out of my mind,” he said. “I don’t really have to regret anything. If I would have stayed here, maybe I would have regretted not giving it my all at quarterback. But I’ve really given it everything I have. Coming back and just focusing on being a receiver has been really good for me.”