Deion Sanders Ben Lonergan / USA TODAY NETWORK

Deion Sanders made a massive recruiting splash over the winter when he flipped Cormani McClain from Miami to Colorado, but the star cornerback’s collegiate career is off to a rough start. Sanders is more than happy to tell us why.

McClain did not play in Colorado’s first two games of the season. When asked why recently, Sanders said McClain is the one who will decide when McClain starts earning playing time. A reporter asked Sanders on Tuesday to elaborate on that, and Coach Prime basically lambasted the freshman.

“Study. Prepare. Be on time for meetings. Show up to the darn meetings. Understand what we’re doing as a scheme. Want to play this game. Desire to play this game. Desire to be the best in this game at practice, in the film room, and on your own free time,” Sanders said. “You do know that I check film time for each player … and that’s not about just Cormani, that’s about a multitude (of players). So if I don’t see that, you would be a fool to put somebody out there and they’re unprepared.”

That was a pretty strong response, especially the part where Sanders said players have to show up to meetings.

McClain, a 5-star cornerback, was the top recruit at his position in the class of 2023. He shocked a lot of people when he committed to Miami last October, but he did not end up signing with the Hurricanes. McClain said he wanted to play under Sanders because Deion is a Hall of Fame cornerback.

Apparently McClain has shown Sanders very little thus far. The freshman finally got some playing time against Oregon on Saturday, but Sanders made it clear the score was the only reason for that.

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