Five-star recruit Terry Beckner Jr. may not qualify for Mizzou

Published May. 14, 2015 10:02 p.m. ET

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The commitment of East St. Louis defensive tackle Terry Beckner Jr. was considered a coup for the Missouri Tigers during this year's National Signing Day. Mizzou had to beat out offers from Florida State, Ohio State, LSU and USC among others to land the huge lineman.

Unfortunately, the Tigers may have to continue to wait to get the six-foot-four 294-pound lineman on the field due to his academics.

Head coach Gary Pinkel recently spoke about Beckner's status to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

“I don’t discuss eligibility with everybody, but every school in the country has probably five or six (incoming) players who have work to do,” Pinkel said. “He’s one of those guys who has work to do. Hopefully he’s going to be eligible. We’ll see what happens in the next month or so.”

Beckner was rated as high as the number two overall player in the class of 2015 by some recruiting services. Any delay in his enrollment would be felt on the Tigers' defensive line rotation after losing both Shane Ray and Markus Golden to the 2015 NFL Draft.

“We want all our players to come in and compete to play,” Pinkel added, “but with his size, strength and competitiveness he can come and certainly compete to play right away. We’ll see how that unfolds.”

(h/t St. Louis Post-Dispatch)