I thought prep-star quarterback Bubba Starling was going to be Brian Kelly’s first big-name quarterback recruit. His hand-picked, face-of-the-program, on-field general to carry out his orders, and lead the Irish back to the land of the elite. His Tim Tebow.

Oh, and what a fit it would have been! A top 100 quarterback talent, together with an offensive guru coach whose teams score with the abandon of Wilt Chamberlain (and I mean off the court). A match made in heaven.

However, Bubba decided to go his own way, and signed with Nebraska instead. I’m sure it felt like the right decision to him, but he said no to playing in a Brian Kelly offense, so he could play for a defensive- minded coach (Bo Pelini), who would prefer to see a quarterback taken off the field in a stretcher rather than one throwing a touchdown pass. (In fact, Nebraska was more likely to score a touchdown when their defense was on the field last year. Defensive lineman Ndamukong Suh caught more passes than Nebraska’s wideouts did.)

Bubba made a bad choice. Really bad.

We’re talking bad along these lines:

-Like legendary San Diego anchorman Ron Burgundy substituting milk for Gatorade while traversing by foot on a hot day.

-Like BP’s decision to “keep drilling.”

-Ditto to Magic Johnson back in the day.

-Like Rod Stewart’s daughter’s decision to ride a motorcycle.

-Like going against the Dread Pirate Roberts in a “battle of wits“.

-Like IBM not realizing they should probably purchase that pesky little software that would become known as an “operating system”.

Why would you do that, Bubba?