Colorado Buffalo’s Freshman Cornerback and former 5-Star recruit, Cormani McClain entered the Transfer Portal on April 16, 2024. McClain was the 2023 CB1 and 14th overall recruit according to 24/7 Sports. For those who don’t remember, McClain’s recruitment was a bit funky. On October 27, 2022 McClain committed to Miami. McClain was supposed to sign his letter of intent on Early Signing Day which was December 20, 2022.
On signing day it was like 10-11 AM and people had no idea what was going on because no one had heard from him, he wasn’t answering his phone. The crew doing the 24/7 Sports Early Signing Day Coverage were cracking jokes that like he slept in and stuff like that. The first thing he said that day was that he was pushing off his commitment which at the time was Miami. It was later reported, that morning when he wasn’t answering his phone, it was because Deion had called him.
On January 13, 2023 McClain took an Official Visit to Colorado. On January 19, McClain announced his decommitment from The U and his commitment to Deion and the Buffs. On National Signing Day he signed his letter of intent with Colorado.
McClain, a 6’2”, 165 lb corner has great length and a great frame for a CB, but is very light. From a weight perspective he compares identically to Emmanuel Forbes. Despite his ideal size, McClain did not play at all in the Buff’s first three games. Deion stated in an interview that McClain needs to “study, prepare, be on time to meetings, show up to the darn meetings, understand what we’re doing as a scheme” before gaining more play time.
That is far from a shining review for the highly-touted freshman. When McClain entered the Portal Deion is quoted saying “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.” He is also quoted saying “He has a tremendous amount of talent, but he has to want it.”
Every story is a two way street, so it would be hard for us to make assumptions about this young player without hearing what McClain’s side of the story is. However, based on Deion’s comments it sounds like McClain needs time to develop his maturity. Again, saying that he has to want it along with the other comments, Deion is not painting him in the greatest light.
McClain finished his freshman year with 13 total tackles and 2 pass deflections.
Again, it’s really hard to speculate without having both sides, but this ultimately could go one of two ways.
1) McClain heads home to Florida, competes his ass off, and wins a starting job on a defense that struggled mightily in conference play in 2023. McClain establishes himself as the corner he was made out to be coming out of HS, and proves Deion wrong.
2) McClain is the next big time recruit who bounces around program to program trying to find a home and struggles to live up to the hype coming out of HS proving Deion right.
McClain is a player we will keep a close eye on and report back more on this situation following his sophomore season in Gainesville.