GAINESVILLE — Tikisha White will arrive Saturday to the Swamp wearing her son’s No. 25 jersey and her emotions on her sleeve.
Florida cornerback Cormani McClain’s first start on the Gators’ home field will be a special moment for a mother and her son after his long, trying, at times toxic, journey back to the place he always belonged.
“I feel like I’m in the right place now,” McClain told the Orlando Sentinel this week.
White is overjoyed her son back home after his well-documented detour to play for Deion Sanders at Colorado. To see him in the starting lineup for the first time in the Swamp when Texas comes to town will be indescribable.
“I don’t even know the word past excitement,” White told the Orlando Sentinel on Thursday. “Is there another word past excitement? Because that’s how I’m feeling.”
McClain’s play has stood out for a defense carrying the struggling Gators, losers of three straight because of an anemic attack and desperate for a win against the No. 9 Longhorns (3-1).
White has been more impressed by her son’s growth in ways only those close to him would appreciate. This includes his decision to shear the dreadlocks he’s worn since he was 10.
“He sent me a video I guess the same day he cut it,” White said. “And I’m looking at the video, I’m like, ‘Who the heck is this?’ And I look closely, I’m like, ‘That’s my baby!’ It was beautiful to see that he’s trying to change as a young grown man.
“That’s the first step to him being the best version of himself.”
The most profound changes have come within a 21-year-old who has steadily become the person his mother and UF coach Billy Napier hoped he would.
Football has always been the easy part for McClain, whose 6-foot-4 wingspan, agility and ball skills are the ideal to succeed in one of the most athletically demanding roles in sports.
Those athletic gifts allowed him to become a high school star in Lakeland. McClain was a Deion-like ball hawk, recording 19 interceptions during his sophomore and junior seasons at Lake Gibson and helping Lakeland High to a state title as a senior.
“He made a lot of plays on the football,” On3 national recruiting analyst Steve Wiltfong told the Sentinel. “He was an instinctive player who was fast, quick, could change direction, had length and could turn the other team over.”
Schools coast to coast came calling, but McClain’s heart appeared set on the Gators.
“I had a whole Florida theme room in my mom’s house,” he recalled this week.
Yet, the nation’s No. 1 cornerback prospect in 2023 was swept into the flow of the recruiting process.
Miami, flush with cash in the early days of NIL, secured McClain’s commitment in October 2022. When Early Signing Day arrived two months later, Sanders, arguably the best cover corner in NFL history, intercepted McClain with a convincing 5 a.m. phone call from Colorado that led him to hold off on a decision.
A trip to Boulder three days convinced McClain to join the upstart Buffaloes and their flamboyant coach, whose personal experience in Fort Myers resonated with McClain.
“As a young player growing up and all these things, a single mom, he related to me,” McClain recalled. “I thought I would go out there and get the best knowledge as a player and a man.”
Instead, he did not jibe with the coaching style and culture, while his immaturity frustrated Sanders enough he publicly decried it.
“We didn’t see eye to eye. and I was a young player thinking I knew everything,” he said. “It didn’t work out.”
When McClain decided to transfer, Sanders wished him well while questioning his character.
“I pray to God that he goes to a program that challenges him as well as holds him accountable,’ Sander told the DNVR podcast. “He has a tremendous amount of talent, but he has to want it.”
White recalls the ensuing backlash aimed at her son following the criticism from a sports icon.
“After seeing the slander of his name, and I can’t say anything — you can’t get online,” she recalled. “Being silent and just looking at everything, it broke me down.”
White also knew her only son — the middle child of three — needed to grow up.
“This is his first time going to college,” she said. “He got a little lost. But thank God, he snapped out of it.”
To do so required a leap of faith and considerable self-belief.
Close to a dozen schools soon reached out. But only UF made sense, even though Napier wasn’t about to roll out the red carpet, offer a scholarship or guarantee McClain he’d even play.
“I really wanted to show everyone I could do it, no matter the circumstance,” McClain said.
A can’t-miss prospect was now a preferred walk-on. A 5-star prospect soon became a regular at 6 a.m. disciplinary workouts because he couldn’t keep up with the Gators’ vigorous schedule.
A regimen of 400-yard up-downs every 5 yards, followed by a 200-yard weighted sled push made McClain vomit a time or two. By season’s end he led the team in 6 a.m. appearances, but a pick-six last October against Kentucky also flashed his potential.
This season, McClain has been more consistent both on and off the field. He has avoided early-morning punishment and been rewarded with starts at LSU and Miami.
During a 20-10 loss Sept. 13 at Tiger Stadium, McClain chased down a ball-carrier to prevent a late touchdown in a game already decided.
“That’s just who I am,” he said. “I’m gonna play to the last snap every time.”
A week later at Miami, McClain intercepted a pass against the team to which he was at one time committed.
“I would just say I’m a great competitor,” he said.
Napier aims to tap into McClain’s drive to push him to another level.
“His ceiling is way up there, so we got our chin above the water here,” Napier said Wednesday. “So, hopefully we can continue to make progress. There’s the important part.”
Now on scholarship up to 188 pounds from 165 when he arrived, the 6-foot-1 ½ McClain is ready.
“I still have a lot of work to do,” he said.
White realizes her son is just getting started. But when McClain takes the field Saturday at a sold-out Swamp, it also will feel like her son finally has arrived.
“I’m not saying that he’s not gonna make any more mistakes,” she said. “But he’s learning, he’s growing, he’s taking accountability, he’s progressing more. So I love that for him.”
Edgar Thompson can be reached at egthompson@orlandosentinel.com