Arizona’s B.J. Denker connected on 12 of 14 throws in the win over Colorado. Photo by Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports

The Arizona Wildcats will start spring practice Saturday without two of their leading contenders to be the starting quarterback in 2013.

True freshman Anu Solomon, the centerpiece of the recruiting class, doesn’t arrive until the summer. And junior college transfer Jesse Scroggins, who is on campus, is recovering from foot surgery.

“It’s something he probably needed to get fixed earlier in his career,” coach Rich Rodriguez said Tuesday.

“We had a choice. We could maybe try to play with it, but I’d rather have everybody 100 percent in August than have a question mark.

“He’ll be very limited this spring. We’re not sure what he can do. He won’t be in any full contact, but at least he’ll be able to sit in those meetings and learn schematically what we want to do.”

That’s more than Solomon can do right now, but not being around for spring ball — which starts Saturday for the Cats — isn’t the disadvantage it used to be, Rodriguez said. So don’t dismiss Solomon’s chances of winning the job in the fall as the replacement for Matt Scott, who had a strong performance at the NFL Combine this weekend.

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The Arizona Wildcats’ recruiting class might have more steals than stars — at least that’s the hope for a class that ranks near the bottom of the Pac-12 — and quarterback Javelle Allen looks like one of the former.

Allen was rated a three-star recruit by Rivals.com and Scout.com, putting him in the thick middle of BCS-level recruits. There was little buzz about him.

Rivals.com didn’t rank him among the Top 25 dual-threat quarterbacks. Scout.com ranked Allen 81st among all high school senior quarterbacks. The 247Sports network gave Allen two stars out of five.

The question is, why?

Was Allen just not very good … or did he just bloom as a senior after most top programs had completed their quarterback recruiting? Did he simply not get evaluated much by the recruiting services?

All of the above?

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