MORGANTOWN - This depends on how you've chosen to follow the life of David Sills V, but he is either already 20 years old or he is just 20 years old. He's either already entering his junior year of college or he is only entering his junior year of college.
That's up to you and how you process the many turns he's taken, and Sills knows it because it's his life we've viewed from afar, up close, afar and again up close.
"It's definitely a weird kind of story, as a lot of people realize," he said. "It's a weird path I've taken."
That much is certain, no matter your perspective. We've known of him since he famously committed to Lane Kiffin and Southern Cal as a 13-year-old seventh grader, but if his decision was premature, it was because his potential as a quarterback was prodigious.
We got to know him a bit better when he decommitted from USC amid a coaching change and picked West Virginia. We saw him fall in line behind Skyler Howard in 2015 and then selflessly shed a developmental redshirt to play receiver as a true freshman that year.
We watched him stand between two identities last spring, still yearning to play quarterback while learning to play receiver, and then we saw him leave and transfer to a junior college in California.
What followed was the most unconventional thing yet. In December, Sills returned to the Mountaineers, a reunion the likes of which you rarely ever see in college football.
"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."
The strangest part of Sills' life is the latest part. It's not unusual for a player to commit or sign a national letter of intent and then enroll at a junior college or a prep school before arriving at the planned destination. It is far, far less ordinary for a player to enroll at a FBS program, play a season, leave and then return.
But what's normal to Sills? Is weird actually normal?
"I wouldn't say it's normal, but it's not qualified as weird anymore," he said. "It's just the way it is."
Sills left WVU with an exceptional reputation after giving the team very good games as a receiver, including a touchdown against Baylor in his first game and the decisive touchdown against Arizona State in his last, and being up front discussing his plan with his coaches as opposed to surprising them with it.
Once Sills made it clear he was open to playing receiver in a return to the FBS, Boise State said it was interested. UCLA was open to the idea. But the recruiting calendar was about to enter a dead period, and Sills paid attention to that. He thought it was a sign. Why complicate matters? He didn't have much time to work with, but he didn't need time to refresh a relationship with the Mountaineers.
WVU is wasting no time with Sills. When the recruiting class was announced in February, coach Dana Holgosen hailed Sills as a big body that could line up outside to make plays deep down the field and in the end zone. When the team generated a depth chart at the beginning of spring practice, Sills was listed as a backup inside receiver.
"He's got a lot more savvy than you think," offensive coordinator Jake Spavital said. "He's going to make people miss out in space. He's got a great feel for finding space. When you're running routes, one of the hardest parts is how to avoid people to get open."
Sills could settle in at one position or the other, or maybe he finds a way to handle both. That's not something the Mountaineers ordinarily do, but ordinary hasn't stopped Sills before.
"I was talking to my dad a couple weeks ago and I said, 'When I was first here, I worked hard just because that's what you taught me to do. I didn't really know why. It was just what you taught me,' " Sills said. "Now, coming back, I work hard because I want to. I want to work hard because I want to be the best I can be and get my game better. I think going to junior college was great for me in that respect."
Contact Mike Casazza at 304-319-1142 or mikec@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @mikecasazza and read his blog at http://blogs.wvgazettemail.com/wvu/.