BEAUMONT — Former New Mexico State quarterback Andrew Allen officially joined the Lamar football team Thursday, the first day of preseason drills for the Cardinals.

Allen, of Texas City, completed 115 of 214 passes for 1,529 yards and 16 touchdowns with eight interceptions in seven games for the Aggies, who compete in the Sun Belt Conference. Allen, 6-feet-1 and 205 pounds, made five starts.

“We’ve known for some time that we were going to get him, but there was a class that he had to finish up before his eligibility [could come into effect],” Lamar coach Ray Woodard said Thursday.

Allen started in three games and played in 10 as a freshman. Before that, he went 25-10 as a start at Texas City High, including a 12-1 mark in 2013, and threw for more than 4,300 yards and 45 touchdowns in his career.

Allen’s addition is big for quarterback pool that temporarily shrunk due to the ineligibility of Brett Cox. The sophomore, who had seen limited action last season in 2015 and was sharing second-string duties with Blake McKenzie, has been ruled ineligible for the fall semester for academic reasons, Woodard confirmed.

Cox isn’t the only loss the Cardinals have

suffered heading into preseason camp, which opened Thursday evening.

Woodard confirmed defensive end Larance Hale has been kicked off the team for not meeting team-issued guidelines. Hale was initially dismissed March 29 but was given a chance to work his way back onto the team.

“He just didn’t comply and do what I needed for him to do to be a part of the football team,” Woodard said.

Hale was named first-team All-Southland and started 10 games last year, finishing second in the conference with 21.5 tackles for losses. He had 86 total tackles, 7.5 of them for sacks.

Senior wide receiver Michael Handy will miss the first five games of the season. The first two games are because Handy violated an NCAA rule by not passing a minimum number of hours for a fourth-year player, and the other three games are for violating team policy.

Handy will miss the Sept. 3 opener against Coastal Carolina at home, the Sept. 10 game at the University of Houston, the Sept. 17 Southland Conference opener against Sam Houston State in Beaumont, an Oct. 1 home date with Southeastern Louisiana and Oct. 8 contest at Abilene Christian.

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I.C. Murrell: 721-2435. Twitter: @ICMurrellPANews