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FAYETTEVILLE -- When Arkansas took the field for its first preseason practice Thursday, it was without a trio of scholarship players.

In addition to linebacker Alexy Jean-Baptiste and safety Montaric Brown, who were expected to be left off the 105-man fall camp roster, linebacker Josh Paul was also left out.

Head coach Bret Bielema said Paul is "fully qualified," but has come up shy of the team's academic expectations.

"He can join us at some point," Bielema said. "We just need him to focus on academics and just doing things a little bit better. Again, no issues.

"Nothing involved with anything other than the expectations in our program to do them a little bit better. But I think he'll lock in and be good in that regard."

Paul was a three-star signee from New Orleans (La.) De La Salle in the Razorbacks' 2017 class.

Bielema previously announced that Jean-Baptiste and Brown wouldn't be on the roster at the start of fall camp, but he also updated their status after the first practice.

Although he is getting close to full strength, Jean-Baptiste - a redshirt freshman from Florida - is still recovering from surgery on his broken foot back on April 10.

"Right about when we go back to school, he might be able to get back on the field in some limited form," Bielema said. "Again, his is nothing conduct or social. It's just health-wise there."

Brown, another 2017 signee, is not on the 105-man roster yet, but Bielema is hopeful he could be a late addition.

The four-star safety from Ashdown (Ark.) is still finishing up some some academic requirements and could join the team as early as Aug. 10 or as late as the start of the fall semester on Aug. 21.

"I literally have daily dialogue with him," Bielema said. "He's taking a class that I believe, I want to say it finishes up next Friday.

"All of the qualifying test scores and everything are in, so it's literally waiting for this class to get done. It'll be about how fast it turns around."

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