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Cormani McClain finally becomes a Gator

There’s no doubt that the past year has taken some shine off of former 5-star cornerback Cormani McClain.

After being about as sure of a sure thing as any Florida recruit in recent memory (I had an article uploaded that I had to edit heavily right after his announcement) to ending up at Colorado, his recruitment certainly hasn’t been without drama. And after a relatively non-descript tenure with the Buffalos, it’s fair to ask whether Florida fans should be as excited about McClain as they would have been 15 months ago.

In this writer’s opinion, the answer is a resounding yes.

That isn’t just because of McClain’s ability. Some of it has to do with who Florida has in the defensive backfield currently and, perhaps more importantly, their class distribution.

Below is a table that shows Florida’s depth chart at corner and safety. The first thing you’ll notice is that seniors (D.J. Douglas, Asa Turner, Trikweze Bridges, R.J. Moten and Jason Marshall, Jr.) dominate the snap counts from last year. The lone Junior – Devin Moore – was the highest rated player out of anybody on the roster last year. If he stays healthy and plays at that level, he’ll be going pro after the season.

Assuming Jordan Castell maintains his starting safety spot, that means Florida’s secondary will be losing a starting safety (Turner or Douglas) and both starting cornerbacks (Marshall and Moore) after this season. Given that Florida’s true sophomores got a combined 184 snaps last year, there’s no way to be convinced that any of them are the answer.

What that means is that picking up McClain isn’t really about 2024. Barring significant injury – or him wrestling the job from established players by outplaying them in camp (yay!) – is about filling the depth chart with players who will be ready to compete in 2025 and win in 2026. That’s important from a timeline perspective given D.J. Lagway waiting in the wings to take over as well.

Let’s take a quick look at history as a guide. Here’s a list of top-100 corners from the 2021 recruiting class and their performances in their freshman, sophomore and junior seasons.

This is a fairly mixed bag. Kool-Aid McKinstry improved each year and just got drafted in the second round. Jason Marshall has basically been the same player for three straight years. Nyland Green has been a backup at Georgia, but last season performed well in limited time. Jordan Hancock took over as a starter at Ohio State last season and played at an above average level. Ceyair Wright played a limited role at USC at an average level and has entered the transfer portal.

Obviously, it would be great if McClain took the McKinstry path. But notice how each of these players is at or above an average level of play by their junior season. As I said earlier, the pick-up of McClain is about 2025 and 2026, and even if he performs the worst of any of these players on the list in his junior season, he’d give Florida average play at corner.

But more than that, this idea that one year at Colorado sets McClain’s fate as a bust is ridiculous. Here is the list of corners ranked in the top-100 of the 247Sports Composite last season and how they performed.

There are a few things you can say about this chart. First, regardless of high recruiting rankings, these corners did not get a lot of playing time. Florida’s Ja’Keem Jackson had the fourth highest snaps and he was exclusively a backup. McClain had the second-most snaps.

The second thing is outside of Texas’ Malik Muhammad, I’m not sure we can say definitively one way or the other whether these guys are going to be good. If you’re going to say McClain is a bust then you’re going to have to say the same about Florida corner Ja’Keem Jackson, who played fewer snaps and had a very similar PFF rating to McClain. Of course, that isn’t true at all as we saw flashes from Jackson. I suspect the same can be said about McClain.

Takeaway

I write a lot about recruiting because it so clearly translates into on-field performance. But one thing people often miss is that I’m very careful to state that you evaluate a recruiting class as a whole, not just based on one player. This is because sometimes (though significantly less often than lower ranked players), even elite prospects don’t perform.

That means recruiting is about stacking as much elite-level talent as you can at each position and then finding the wins amongst the numbers. Adding McClain to the mix gives Florida one more chance at a win at a position that will clearly be a need next year and in 2026.

And Florida has pretty good numbers at defensive back at this point.

• 2023 class – players ranked 13th, 55th, 113th, 207th, 220th, and 405th
• 2024 class – players ranked 163rd, 318th, 545th and 776th

Maybe McClain is the win. Maybe he isn’t. But Florida’s defense has been terrible for four years now and a lot of that is due to play at the cornerback position. Considering the cost is just a roster spot, a chance to compete and perhaps some NIL dollars, Florida really has no downside here.

But given the potential return on a player who was ranked 13th in the country just a year ago, the upside is significant.