Arizona football recruiting: 3-star defensive end Josh Allen will not join the Wildcats due to academic issues

Allen was one of the UA's top recruits in the 2016 recruiting class

There was a bit of concern surrounding Arizona Wildcats' 3-star defensive end commit Josh Allen this summer when word got around that he had not been on campus yet.

And on Wednesday night, we learned that the 6-foot-4, 260-pound defensive end did not academically qualify and will not be joining the Wildcats after all.

BREAKING: JC DE Josh Allen, one of Arizona's top recruits, did not meet academic requirements to enroll at UA. Will not be part of program.

— Michael Lev (@MichaelJLev) July 28, 2016

The Josh Allen saga officially started in May of 2015, when the Wildcats first offered him. At a huge recruiting event, Allen committed to Rich Rodriguez, ending his recruitment. This was a huge get for Arizona, landing the third-ranked junior college defensive end in the nation — a 4-star prospect at the time.

Allen decided to sit out his sophomore year at Long Beach City College, which dropped him in the rankings a bit, but it would have given him three years to play three seasons at Arizona. He was also prepared to enroll in December, joining the Wildcats in the spring of 2016.

But in October 2015, his recruitment supposedly started to blow up. Alabama, Miami, Oregon, USC, were all knocking on his door.

In November, Allen decommitted from U of A. But it turns out that those offers were just made up, as he sent tweets out saying he had been offered when he had never actually spoken to some members of those coaching staffs.

Living through these offers, he pushed back his enrollment to his future school and wanted to make a decision approaching National Signing Day, where he ended up re-committing to Arizona.

Then, as the incoming 2016 class started reporting to campus, there was no sight of Allen. He had told members of the team that he was going to be there soon, but as each week passed, more panic ensued and now we know the end result.

I'll be honest, I didn't have high expectations for Allen coming into the season. He would have been able to contribute immediately, especially on an anemic defensive line, but I was worried about his shape and condition, especially playing at Arizona and trying to learn a new defense.

This is unfortunate news, as this is now the second JuCo defensive lineman that Arizona will be losing in the span of five days, as Anthony Fotu was removed from the roster.

JuCo prospects seem promising, as you land a prospect that has adjusted to a college lifestyle and has played against better competition, but when it comes to transfer credits and academics, Rich Rodriguez has said before that it's one of the biggest problems.

The good news in this situation is that it now frees up one more scholarship, allowing the staff to welcome another mid-year enrollee for the 2017 class, which has almost been maxed out as we approach June.

Of course, the bad news is the defensive line is looking extremely rough. Now you really have to see what guys like Calvin Allen, Justin Belknap, Darrell Cloy Jr., Finton Connolly and Marcus Griffin can do with just one week before fall camp starts.

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