For Justin Forsett, February 2004 arrived with no place to sign on the dotted line.
The 5-8 running back assumed he was headed to Notre Dame, but the Irish offered scholarships to two bigger running backs. Which was news to him.
It would be easy to say Forsett, now a senior at California, had the last laugh. Notre Dame is 0-4. The school where he landed is 4-0. But holding grudges isn't Forsett's nature.
"It was a tremendous blessing for me to end up where I am," he says. "At the time I couldn't see it. I didn't know where I'd be after Notre Dame turned me down, and it definitely hurt. But God works in mysterious ways, and there couldn't be a better place than here."
So how did Forsett get from nowhere to here? From castoff to Cal's most valuable player so far as the No. 6 Golden Bears head into Saturday's critical game at No. 12 Oregon?