Clemson redshirt freshman defensive back Corian Gipson has “gotten better and better and better” as he’s transitioned to playing the Tigers’ nickel position, according to head coach Dabo Swinney.

During his weekly Sunday teleconference, Swinney spoke highly of Gipson, who collected a career-high seven tackles in last Friday’s 20-19 win at No. 20 Louisville.

A week earlier, Gipson was credited with two pass breakups in the 24-10 win vs. Florida State, including a deflection late in the fourth quarter that resulted in a game-sealing Ricardo Jones interception.

“He’s still learning, but he’s developing a little bit of a knack,” Swinney said of Gipson. “Because he mostly was playing corner, and then we ended up moving him inside [to nickel], and he’s done a nice job. He’s gotten better and better and better.”

A native of Fort Worth, Texas, Gipson came to Clemson as a four-star prospect and top-100 national talent in the 2024 recruiting class, but an ACL tear early in his senior year of high school set him back.

Swinney and his staff decided pretty quickly that Gipson was not ready to play right away for Clemson. The Tigers knew they had to get him back to where he had a good foundation to build on, since he hardly played his senior year.

So after enrolling early at Clemson in January of last year, Gipson redshirted as a true freshman in 2024 while playing only 14 defensive snaps over four games, with most of his reps coming in practice.

“[Gipson was] not very confident when he got here last year, coming off the injury and all that type of stuff,” Swinney said. “And when I say confident – confident in just being able to physically do what he needs to do, and then a lot to learn on top of it, especially not even really getting to play as a senior in high school.”

But now, with Gipson’s injury in the much more distant past, Swinney says “you just see his confidence growing” as he learns and gains experience.

Gipson has appeared in nine games this season, playing 109 total defensive snaps. He made his first career start at Louisville and played a career-high 33 snaps, a week after playing 26 snaps vs. FSU. Prior to the FSU game, the most snaps he had played in a game was 15 at North Carolina back on Oct. 4.  

The 6-foot-1, 190-pounder has tallied 10 total tackles, three pass breakups and a quarterback pressure this year.

“He can run. He’s physical. He’s got a lot of grittiness to him,” Swinney said. “I love that about him, and he’s having some fun. It’s good to see his personality starting to come out.”

Swinney believes there’s plenty of potential for Gipson and the Tigers’ staff to tap into moving forward.

“He’s coming into his own. He’s a real bright spot for us right now,” Swinney said. “But he’s a guy that I think there’s a lot more that we’ll be able to get out of his game as he goes through his career.”

After the win at Louisville, Gipson and the Tigers (5-5, 4-4 ACC) are back home this Saturday to take on Furman at Memorial Stadium (4:30 p.m., The CW).