Former Colorado cornerback Cormani McClain has committed to Florida, he announced Wednesday.
The five-star recruit and No. 1 ranked corner in the Class of 2023 was the highest-rated signee in Deion Sanders’ first recruiting class and spent one season with the Buffaloes. One month after entering the NCAA transfer portal, the Lakeland, Fla., native is coming home to play for the Gators. McClain was No. 7 in The Athletic’s rankings of the best available players in the portal.
The 6-foot-2, 165-pound cornerback started four games during his true freshman season at Colorado and recorded 13 tackles and two pass breakups. McClain got off to a slow start and did not play a snap in the Buffaloes’ first three games. Sanders told reporters McClain needed to “study, prepare, be on time to meetings, show up to the darn meetings, understand what we’re doing as a scheme” before he’d earn more playing time.
“I pray to God that he goes to a program that challenges him as well as hold him accountable and develop him as a young man,” Sanders told DNVR after McClain transferred. “Unfortunately, we weren’t the program that can accomplish that. So prayerfully he understands that this is the second go-round and go get it, man. Because he has a tremendous amount of talent, but he has to want it.”
The Gators are looking to bolster a defense that ranked 11th in the SEC in scoring and last in yards per pass attempt during a 5-7 season. They return a 32-game starter at cornerback in Jason Marshall Jr. but have unproven options for their other starting spot with junior Devin Moore competing with Ja’Keem Jackson, Dijon Johnson and Alabama transfer Jameer Grimsley this spring.
Colorado has had 37 scholarship players transfer out of the program this offseason — tied for most among all Power 5 schools — following Sanders’ 4-8 debut season. The Buffs have already added four new cornerbacks via the portal in transfers Preston Hodge (Liberty), Colton Hood (Auburn), DJ McKinney (Oklahoma State) and Ivan Yates (Furman).
(Photo: Mark J. Rebilas / USA Today)
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Courtesy : https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5496224/2024/05/15/cormani-mcclain-florida-colorado-transfer/