National

5-star defensive back committed to Miami doesn't show at school's signing ceremony

Five-star defensive back Cormani McClain’s decision to not sign with Miami on Wednesday appeared to catch many people by surprise. And that includes people at his school.

The Florida native goes to Lakeland High School and was set to sign with the Hurricanes during a signing ceremony at his school. Lakeland even had a cake made for the occasion. And McClain didn’t go to the ceremony after his mom said earlier in the day that he wouldn’t be signing on the first day of the early signing period.

McClain is ranked as the top recruit in the state of Florida and the No. 3 recruit in the country. He was widely expected to commit to Florida before he announced that he would be committing to Miami in October. And now that commitment to Miami is in limbo as well.

According to Rivals’ Marcus Benjamin, McClain is still expected to sign with Miami and his no-show at the signing ceremony could be attributed to the creation of a video that the family wanted to go along with his decision.

“I think it was one of the biggest surprises nationally that he committed to Miami,” Benjamin said. “Certainly for us down in South Florida, I think we caught wind of it very late in the game. Usually we kind of know this ahead of time where a kid is going to go. It’s definitely been an interesting situation and I just want to point out that he did win the state championship last weekend here in South Florida and he declined to answer any questions regarding recruiting. He would be happy to answer any questions regarding the game, but he made it clear that he did not want to answer any questions regarding recruiting.”

As of now, Miami’s class ranks No. 6 in Rivals’ team rankings with McClain as part of the class. He’s one of three 5-star recruits who have verbally committed to the Hurricanes. The two others — Francis Mauigoa and Samson Okunlola, are offensive linemen and also Florida natives.