Patience pays off for Seahawks running back Justin Forsett

RENTON — Patience.

It's an occupational requirement for a running back. The discipline to wait for a hole to open is just as important as the speed to burst through it, and the Seahawks' Justin Forsett has learned how to bide his time.

Patience has been the one constant in his progression from a high-school football recruit spurned by Notre Dame at the last minute, to an NFL back coming off the first 100-yard rushing performance of his professional career.

"It's kind of been the story of my life, just being patient and waiting," Forsett said.

He waited three years to become a full-time starter in college at California, and sat through 232 picks in the 2008 draft before the Seahawks chose him in the seventh round.

And when Julius Jones went down with a bruised lung in the first quarter at Arizona last Sunday, Forsett ran through the window of opportunity that opened in front of him, picking up 123 yards.

"He was very decisive with his cuts," coach Jim Mora said. "He was getting to the hole quick, and then he made some people miss."

And just like that, a running game that has really been more of a punch-drunk stumble this season began to pick up speed behind Forsett. He is a 5-foot-8 sparkplug who began this season as Seattle's third-down back but Sunday will start in place of injured Jones in Minnesota.

"He's short, but he's not really little," Mora said of Forsett. "He's powerful."

At the scouting combine in 2008, Forsett bench-pressed 225 pounds for 26 repetitions, more than all but three running backs measured before the draft. But people who've known him since he went to high school in Arlington, Texas, say it's the size of his heart that's most impressive.

"Justin stood all to himself, just the hardest working young man," said Mike Barber, his coach at Grace Prep.

Barber would know something about that. He was chosen in the second round of the 1976 draft and played 10 seasons in the NFL. Barber and his wife, DeAnne, have a full-time prison ministry.

"He sat at my house at the age of 16 and told me he was going to play pro football," Barber said. "He did everything I asked him to do, and the rest is history."

All it took was a little bit of patience, and a whole lot of faith after a Notre Dame scholarship evaporated about a week before signing day in 2004.

"I'll be honest, it was a crying moment for me," Forsett said. "I broke down."

He was a record-setting back after moving to Texas for his final two years of high school. He rushed for more than 2,300 yards each of his two seasons at Grace Prep and scored 63 touchdowns. Then all of a sudden, the landscape of his college future shifted beneath his feet.

"They said they didn't need me anymore," Forsett said of Notre Dame, coached then by Tyrone Willingham.

"I didn't know what was going on," he said. "Because I was always the guy to put in the extra time and work and do everything the right way."

He found solace in the Bible, specifically a verse that urged him to lay down his own understanding and leave it to God.

"That's what I'm going to do," he said. "I knew if I put in the work, everything is going to work out, and it did."

He committed to Cal later that year, then spent four seasons working his way up the depth chart before becoming the starting running back after Marshawn Lynch entered the draft in 2007.

Like any good running back, Forsett has shown he knows how to wait for the opportunity to open up in front of him. What remains to be seen is how far he'll be able to carry this chance he has waited for.

Danny O'Neil: 206-464-2364 or doneil@seattletimes.com