Head Coach Korey Lindsey is excited about the 2023 football season. On Friday, July 21st, Gridiron Football held our Inaugural Gridiron Football Media Day event, and the first attendee was Liberty Magnet High School.
Coach Lindsey has had a passion for football ever since he was a player at Scotlandville High School back in the early 2000s. This coming season will be his third year at Liberty and the second as the head coach for the Patriots. I had the opportunity to sit down with Coach Lindsey and gain some interesting perspective about him and his team for this coming season.
Coach Lindsey has done some pretty impressive things in his past football career. After his time as a player at Scotlandville was over, he went on to play college football. He played collegiately at Southern Illinois University and was drafted 207th overall in the 2011 NFL Draft by the Cincinnati Bengals. He played for the likes of the Bengals, Cardinals, Colts, Cowboys, and a few other teams before making his way into coaching. He first began coaching as a student graduate assistant in 2017-18 at his alma mater of Southern Illinois University while getting his degree. After that, he went to Southwest Minnesota State as a secondary coach and then went to Pittsburgh State in 2019 as a cornerback coach. After that, he went to Wayne State during the 2020 COVID year as a secondary coach as well, and then eventually came back to Baton Rouge after his college coaching career was over and began his high school football coaching journey at Liberty.
Growing up in Louisiana, Lindsey knows the talent level of the state of Louisiana, especially in his own district with big programs like Catholic High, Scotlandville, Zachary, Central, and Woodlawn. He describes playing in the district in a very interesting way.
“Well, the state of Louisiana football is always at a high demand. It’s top notch competition, and then our district is basically the SEC West man. So there is some really good football and you have to be sound, you have to be disciplined, and you have to be physical. And you have to have some athletes. And that’s just what the district requires. Our state requires it, but for sure our district being the best in the state and the demand for competition is just so high in this area.”
With this only being his third season on the Liberty staff, Coach Lindsey feels at home being a part of his school and his community. Besides this quote, he spoke very highly of the Liberty community and what they are doing to help build a successful football program.
“Well, I think it’s one of the flagship schools out of all the East Baton Rouge Parish Public Schools. It’s a mixture of having great academics, with the arising of athletics right now. We’re threshing that together to build a thing to something that can be great. And it’s sports you need, the mental side of it mixed with athletic side, and I think the school over there with the high demand academics, and the high urgency for football is kind of building a good foundation to have success here for public schools, especially in East Baton Rouge Parish.”
Despite being still young in the coaching profession, he has learned and picked up a lot from other coaches that continue to help him grow as a leader today.
“Oh, my advice from veteran coaches would be to stay the course. My advice to coaches right now is try not to compare yourself to other programs. I know we’re just getting off the ground. This is our fifth year varsity. Second year going into 5A, so we know we still build it. I love the trajectory we are on, so I try not to compare us to other schools or other programs. I just like to stay focused on what we’re doing and what we can do to improve on ourselves for this season and years to come.”
When it comes to the years to come and the future of the Liberty program, he previously said he doesn’t want to compare his program to anyone else’s.
“The future’s bright man, it’s really bright. Attendance is crazy. We have 100+ kids out right now in the summer for workouts, averaging 97-98 every day. So I think the future’s very bright for us if we can keep this up for the coming years.”
In his interview with Jace LeJeune above, he mentioned some of the players for this coming 2023 season that he is exciting to see take that next step, even though the Patriots will have to replace both their starting quarterback Khylan Gross and star running back Kaleb Jackson, who will be playing running back at LSU this fall.
“Our 2023 team is inexperienced a little bit, but those guys coming in are really good players who are eager to make their on mark on the program and get their own notoriety as well. Offensively, we have a senior coming back Keydren Holliday who anchors our offensive line, and he will play a little more center this year with a little bit of guard and tackle. He’s been a three year starter. We have a sophomore quarterback who is excited to step up and get his opportunity in Owen Ellis. We have an impressive senior wide receiver in Heisman Griffin, who is eager to be the man this year. Also, DJ Welch, who was a backup last season, gets his chance to be the workhorse. Defensively, we have a lot of guys who gained some good experience last year and are eager to step into bigger roles for us this season.”
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