Florida football: Biggest regrets from the 2023 recruiting cycle

Florida football: Missing out on both Cormani McClain and Desmond Ricks

The University of Florida is DBU in college football. And even though they did a good job landing talented corners in this cycle, they missed out on two of their top targets: Cormani McClain and Desmond Ricks.

Losing out on Ricks was the lesser of the two evils. He re-classed from 2024 to 2023 and was a Gator lean for a long time. He played at IMG, where Gator commit Knijeah Harris was and had a few predictions in the Gators’ favor throughout his recruitment.

Despite the Gators’ best efforts, Ricks decided to go to Alabama. Landing Desmond would have been a huge boost to Florida’s class. He was the 2nd ranked corner in the class and the 25th-best overall player.

The loss that hurt more however was Cormani McClain.

We talked about how Ricks was a Gator lean for a long time. Well, McClain was a virtual lock for months. Gator fans thought they had the 5-star in the bag, and that Cormani’s commitment would help to re-establish the Lakeland to UF pipeline.

But in the 11th hour, Miami swooped in with a bigger NIL deal and earned his commitment.

Since then, McClain has flipped his pledge to Colorado to go play for Coach Prime. But losing McClain to Miami put a damper on recruiting talk for a while. It brought on questions about Florida’s NIL prowess, and its commitment to enhancing the football program.

Missing out on one of these guys would be understandable. But to miss on both, especially with the hype that CB coach Corey Raymond brought, hurt a lot.