HARRISONBURG — Between the time Khalid Abdullah verbally accepted the offer in November 2012 and signed his letter of intent the following February, Ulrick Edmonds waited anxiously.

“We were just hoping someone else didn’t come along at the end late and offer a scholarship to him and take him away from us,” Edmonds said.

Edmonds, the outside linebackers coach at Charlotte, worked for Mickey Mathews at James Madison from 2004 through 2013. In his time on the coaching staff at JMU, he was the running backs coach and recruiting coordinator.

He was the lead recruiter on Abdullah — now a 1,000-yard rusher, FCS Walter Payton Award candidate and NFL prospect. JMU will honor Abdullah and the rest of its senior class Saturday before the regular-season finale against Elon at 1:30 p.m. at Bridgeforth Stadium.

But four years ago, Abdullah was only an overlooked, yet talented, high school player at Heritage High in Newport News.

Abdullah earned Peninsula District Player of the Year honors as a senior, but didn’t garner any other scholarship offers besides the one from Edmonds at JMU.

“I had a great senior season, but I was a late bloomer,” Abdullah said. “I hadn’t really done much in my early years, so once I popped, I guess just most coaches didn’t want a one-hit wonder.”

FBS programs like Wake Forest, Maryland and Virginia Tech stopped by to visit him at Heritage, he said, but none of those schools would pull the trigger on an offer.

First-year JMU tight ends coach and run-game coordinator Bryan Stinespring was on Frank Beamer’s staff at Virginia Tech for more than two decades. For Beamer, Stinespring often recruited the Newport News-Norfolk-Virginia Beach area of the state.

“I’ve said for a long time that recruiting is not an exact science,” Stinespring said. “But, I think Khalid is one of those guys for whatever reason didn’t get the attention that he deserved.”

Abdullah said a different Virginia Tech assistant, not Stinespring, came to see him in high school.

“It’s not an exact science,” Stinespring said again. “But, it goes both way, too. When I was recruiting at Virginia Tech, there was a senior quarterback who played very little defense because he had an injury his junior year, and during his senior year they didn’t want to play him much on defense, so he didn’t really have offers. Then, we were able to go watch him practice and we took him late in the recruiting process.

“His name was [current Seattle Seahawks safety] Kam Chancellor.”

There are two moments, one on the field and one off the field, that Edmonds said helped him decide to take a chance on the under-recruited Abdullah.

“One time I went to his high school and I couldn’t see him or bump into him or anything like that, but his coach was like, ‘Hey, come down here,’” Edmonds said. “I went to this music class and Khalid was the lead singer and he could really sing. The class was preparing right before Christmas to go sing at the White House for President Obama.

“Then, one of the games that kind of put us over the top was when they played Norview.”

Abdullah ran for 239 yards and five touchdowns in the game.

“Whatever amount of plays they had, he had over 85 percent of the carries in the game and the first carry was as exciting and explosive to watch as the last carry,” Edmonds said.

Edmonds said once he was able to speak with Abdullah and get to know his family during the contact period, “it was a no-brainer” for JMU to offer.

All Abdullah has tried to do since is take advantage of the opportunity JMU granted him.

He’s had more rushing attempts and yards from one year to the next during his career.

He set the school record for rushing touchdowns during the team’s 47-43 win at Richmond on Nov. 5, and found the end zone twice in the Dukes’ CAA championship-clinching win at Villanova last week.

“I’ve always had a chip on my shoulder, especially when you feel like you’ve been overlooked for so long,” Abdullah said. “You know you always want to go out there and prove yourself to all the people and all the doubters, and I still try to do that because at the end of the day, even though recognition has been given out to me now, I still feel like I’m not where I want to be.”

The 5-foot-10, 220-pounder is up to 1,175 rushing yards and 16 rushing touchdowns through 10 games this season. He is in the top 10 nationally for rushing yards, rushing touchdowns, yards per game (117.5) and scoring (10.6 points per game).

JMU coach Mike Houston said he’s seen the chip Abdullah has on his shoulder each day since he arrived in Harrisonburg in January.

“The ones that have the ability that work like he does, those are the All-Americans,” Houston said. “Those are the ones that you talk to your teams about 15 years later.

“Consistently, every day he’s been everything that you could possibly ask for from a player — attitude, work ethic, leadership, doing the right thing off the field, great in the classroom, just a great citizen and he always talks to me with respect.”

Edmonds, who also recruited other key players on this year’s conference-title team such as running back Cardon Johnson, safety Raven Greene and defensive tackle Simeyon Robinson, said he isn’t surprised by Abdullah’s success and growing notoriety.

“When he got here his freshman year and carried the football a few times in scrimmages, we all — Coach Matthews and the rest of the staff — we all turned around, looked at each other and was like ‘wow,’” Edmonds said.

“Now, the fruits of his labor are starting to show. When you get a kid with that physique and mental makeup, you realize that if he keeps working and plugging along that he’ll have an opportunity to play in the NFL. That doesn’t happen everyday though, because a lot have the potential, but a lot of the guys don’t fulfill that potential. He’s doing that plus a little more. I can’t say that I knew it, but I can say that he had all the things for a person that could get an opportunity to play in the NFL had.”