Texas Football: 4-Star DB Corian Gipson trending Clemson over the Horns

The biggest upcoming decision date to watch for a key target of the 2024 Texas football recruiting class is on July 22, with the highly touted four-star Lancaster (TX) defensive back Corian Gipson. Texas is battling the Clemson Tigers and Ohio State Buckeyes among the top three schools in the race to land Gipson’s commitment when he announces this weekend.

There was a lot of confidence on the Texas side earlier this week. The same could be said for Clemson.

But the momentum appears to be shifting firmly in Clemson’s favor less than 24 hours before Gipson’s announcement. Clemson has received multiple forecasts from a couple of the major recruiting services to land Gipson’s pledge.

Clemson trending for priority Texas football 4-Star DB Corian Gipson

The biggest forecast in the last 24 hours came from 247Sports director of football recruiting Steve Wiltfong. Early in the afternoon of July 21, Wiltfong entered a Crystal Ball Prediction (six out of 10 confidence) projecting Gipson’s commitment to the Tigers.

Horns247 Texas insider Hank South followed suit with a crystal ball later in the afternoon of July 21, also projecting Gipson’s commitment to Clemson with moderate confidence.

The third big forecast favoring Clemson over Texas for Gipson’s commitment came from Rivals’ Parker Thune. Between when Wiltfong and South put in their crystal balls for Gipson to Clemson on July 21, Thune flipped his FutureCast from the Longhorns to the Tigers.

There is now a 50/50 split for the Rivals FutureCasts between Texas and Clemson. And all the 247Sports Crystal Ball Predictions favor Clemson to land Gipson’s pledge over Texas.

Big swings have defined Gipson’s recruitment

While we’re not saying that this recruitment is over, there are enough signals out there 24 hours ahead of Gipson’s announcement to say that Clemson looks like the favorite over Texas.

This late swing in momentum in this recruitment has defined the process for Gipson since the start of the offseason. Eight months ago, Texas held the pole position in the race to land a commitment from Gipson.

Clemson flipped the momentum with Gipson when he took multiple visits to see head coach Dabo Swinney and the Tigers during the spring. But he didn’t commit to Clemson when he made an official visit to see the Tigers in early June, as many in the recruiting industry thought he might do.

Texas was in a good spot with Gipson coming out of his official visit to Austin in late June.

It’s all come back to center in this recruitment in the last few weeks. Clemson has pushed extremely hard for Gipson in the last three or four weeks. That’s not to say that Texas didn’t push hard for Gipson. Still, the opportunity at Clemson could appeal more to him than staying close to home and playing with some childhood friends at Texas (assuming the Tigers are the pick on July 22), such as four-star IMG Academy safety commit Jordon Johnson-Rubell.