HARRISONBURG — The expected and unexpected happened all at the same time.

“When I looked at the scoreboard, it felt like a dream,” James Madison running back Solomon Vanhorse said.

His 9-yard scoring run was the Dukes’ lone touchdown Saturday in their loss at West Virginia and was the first score of his career. It's what Vanhorse and those who know him well hope marks the start of his relentless labor coming to fruition.

Sixty-one thousand crazed gold-and-blue clad fans were silenced as the redshirt freshman who walked on at Madison dashed over the goal line to give JMU a 7-0 lead.

“Our running backs coach put it in our little coach’s group chat,” said Adam Clack, the coach at Milton High School in Georgia where Vanhorse was a Friday night star not too long ago, “and I didn’t get to it right away. I thought it was, ‘Oh, Solomon got a carry,’ and I pop it on, I see him coming into the house and I was like, ‘Oh, man.’”

This is the story of Vanhorse — listed at 5-foot-7, but probably not even that tall — trying to show everyone why he isn’t afraid to bet on himself.

“That’s the goal,” Vanhorse said. “And to basically give motivation to anybody else who believes they can play at this level at my size or whatever. I believe I can do that.”

***

Despite rushing for more than 1,200 yards and accounting for 14 total touchdowns as a senior playing 7A football — the largest classification in Georgia — not many Division I schools were interested in the running back.

Though his prep football highlight tape looked more like a track star sprinting away from the pack and using the goal line as the finish line, the offer he sought never came.

“Nothing surprises me anymore,” Clack said. “I get how difficult the recruiting world is, but yeah, he’s one of those kids that I’d probably say, and there’s maybe four or five in my career now, that you just couldn’t beat the bushes any harder for. You couldn’t stand on the table anymore and yell any louder.

“It wasn’t something against Solomon. And the one thing I try to tell the parents is, ‘It’s him and two other guys, and we’re talking about the best of the best.’ But for whatever reason — an inch here or a step there or five pounds — had to go in the other direction. So yeah, it was tough. It was tough on him, but he handled it so well, though, and so did his family collectively.”

The situation was never one that would result in Vanhorse not having an opportunity to play college football. Recruiters knew who he was, so it was a matter of how much they liked him or what they could do to convince the head coach of their program to offer him a scholarship.

Former JMU running backs coach De’Rail Sims offered Vanhorse a preferred walk-on spot with the Dukes. FBS Georgia State and Liberty did the same, and so did Chattanooga, until the Mocs got desperate.

“They first were offering him a preferred walk-on like James Madison was,” said Sean Vanhorse, Solomon’s father. “And then in the late hour, when Solomon had already decided he was going to go to JMU, they came back and offered him 33 percent.

“Now as a dad and as a family, I’m like, ‘Hey man, it ain’t a full scholarship, but it’s 33 percent, and 33 percent is better than zero percent.’ But he was firm in his commitment to James Madison and I think once he visited James Madison, saw the campus and saw the atmosphere, I think he was fully invested, saw himself there and decided that was the place for him.

“And the coaches at Chattanooga understood and appreciated it because in this era, Solomon was sticking to his word. Especially when it came down to no money or 33 percent.”

The older Vanhorse said he never pressured his son to take the partial scholarship at Chattanooga and Solomon said he appreciated that.

“I just liked the energy, the campus,” Solomon said. “And I just felt like family when I visited here, too. [JMU wide receiver] Josh Sims and my friend [former JMU linebacker] Cade Leonard were here. He’s not here any more, but it was a good experience when I took the visit here. I felt like I was at home.”

Sean Vanhorse played seven seasons in the NFL with the Detroit Lions, San Diego Chargers and Minnesota Vikings, but his football career started in similar fashion. He was a walk-on cornerback at Howard University.

“So all [Solomon’s] senior year, that’s what we were saying, ‘Bet on yourself. Bet on yourself.’” Sean said. “Because no two players’ paths are the same. Some people get scholarships. Some people walk-on. Some people stick and some people don’t, but you’ve got to decide what you want and if you really want it, then go for it.”

***

To earn running back reps not only in a game, but also in practice at James Madison, is no easy task.

In his first year with the program last season, Solomon Vanhorse joined a group of backs featuring three accomplished seniors — Cardon Johnson, Marcus Marshall and Trai Sharp — as well as Central Florida transfer Jawon Hamilton and superbly-talented then-sophomore Percy Agyei-Obese. Agyei-Obese and Hamilton are now the top two names on the depth chart in their junior years and the program has added true freshman Austin Douglas to compete for carries, too.

Those three and Vanhorse all had at least five carries against the Mountaineers in the season opener.

“It meant that I could learn something from them and eventually they’d rub off on me,” Vanhorse said of vying for playing time in such a crowded position group. “And that’ll make me a better football player. That makes me compete better by just going with the old heads — Percy, Jawon and even Cardon and all them last year. That made me better as a football player.”

Vanhorse said he talks to his dad almost every day about how to handle particular situations, too, which has helped him adapt to college football. The running back, who finished with a game-high 55 rushing yards on 12 carries at West Virginia, figured out what mattered to coaches through those chats with his dad.

“What I try to do is provide insight through my experience,” Sean said about the pair’s conversations. “Like [scholarship players] may get the first opportunity before you, however, when you get that opportunity, and I don’t care if it’s one carry, 10 carries, a blocking assignment or a pass route assignment, you have to make a play and you have to know your assignment.

“That’s the first thing coaches want to know. They have to know they can trust you, so immerse yourself in that playbook and no matter what you get, one play or 10 plays, you just make the best of that play and you continue to do that. You always try to make the decision tough on the coach.”

And that’s exactly what first-year JMU coach Curt Cignetti noticed about Solomon Vanhorse.

“In the spring, he was a freshman walk-on and I really didn’t know much about him,” Cignetti admitted. “But he just stood out. And he stood out pretty much every day, to be honest with you.”

Cignetti said Vanhorse has a feel for seeing a play develop and gaining yards.

“He’s just got instinct for the game,” Cignetti said. “He’s got excellent vision. … And instincts and the ability to process moving parts quickly and do the right thing is critically important and really separates the good ones from the great ones and he’s got it.”

Vanhorse said he remembered being young when his dad started teaching him about the ins and outs of the game like blocking schemes and how to run behind linemen.

Clack said Vanhorse also helps himself with talent that matches the intangibles.

“He has that home-run type of ability,” Clack said. “I think he uses his slight build to an advantage in an inside-zone scheme because he can kind of hide behind that, because when he gets a crease and the backer can’t really track him, he’s gone.

“I remember our spring game and it was my first audition, suited-up competition and we were playing against a top-10 opponent, Brookwood. But it may have been first or second drive and he finds a little crease and kind of hides behind the guard, pops out of the shadow, the linebacker watches him go by and Solly rips one off for 70 yards.”

***

Vanhorse’s first taste of college football was positive.

Contributing to aid JMU in its bid for a win against a Big 12 program, West Virginia, is plenty of evidence.

“I felt like I belong here,” Vanhorse said. “It felt like I’ve always wanted to do this and I feel I could always do this. Now, it’s just a matter of if I can keep doing it and I probably will keep doing it.”

He doesn’t confuse his confidence with cockiness either. The confidence he has is what his father and Clack said drove Vanhorse to get to this point.

“It’s just that quiet confidence of ‘Bet on yourself,’” Clack said. “And that he’ll make this work. He’ll go outwork people and he’ll show what his skill set is.”

And for Sean, it’s nothing new and nothing he hasn’t seen from his son before.

“I knew the possibility of him getting an opportunity on Saturday was good,” Sean said. “But for it to actually start happening, I played in a lot of big games and did a lot of things, but that was probably the most anxious I’ve ever been.

“And then for him to get in there and score a touchdown and I told him, my wife and some of our friends, that I had been dreaming that Solomon was going to score on Saturday because Solomon did it with his first opportunity to play on varsity. He’s an underclassmen and is getting to a game that we were blowing the team out and they put him in and he scores a touchdown, so he’s always had that knack.”