Q&A: 2022 Brother Martin DB/ATH Corey Lambert Jr.

Hurricane Ida delayed the start of high school football for many of Louisiana’s top prospects in the state’s most heavily populated areas. But each week, under varying sets of circumstances, another set of programs has finally kicked off their fall campaigns. And, for Brother Martin, one of the top "select school" contenders in Louisiana’s highest classification and division, the return has been a dramatic whirlwind. The Crusaders returned the bulk of the roster that went undefeated through the 2020 regular season before falling in the Division I semifinals to eventual champion Catholic (Baton Rouge). Coach Mark Bonis and company have since started the season with thrilling victories over — or survivals of — East Ascension, 8-7, and New Orleans Catholic League rival Jesuit, 20-14, in triple overtime. Sandwiched between those two on-field rollercoasters, senior standout [player_tooltip player_id="136634" first="Corey" last="Lambert"] Jr. announced a commitment to Nevada over offers from Illinois, Purdue, Duke, the service academies, multiple Ivy League members and several others. The physical and opportunistic safety spoke about his team, his skillset and his recent announcement. <iframe title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NDYlFqc2n9E" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe> <strong>It’s been, obviously, a weird few weeks gearing up for this season, but an exciting past few days at least. How’s everything been going?</strong> Summer-wise, I had track most of my time, but after track I would do my football work still, so it was straight work, work every day, conditioning, a lot of conditioning, lifting, technique and everything like that. It’s basically all of that. Doing visits, I went to a couple camps and did some visits and stuff like that. But other than that, I was either at home or in the weight room or on the football field getting work in all summer. <strong>When things opened on June 1, it was the first time for a lot of you guys to get out there and enjoy the recruiting process the way we had typically seen. COVID had shut it down for about 15 months. What was that process like for you to actually finally get out there, take some visits and get to some camps and things. How exciting was that? And how helpful was that to make a decision eventually?</strong> It was more gratifying — I feel like I could say that for a lot of people — being able to experience the fruits of your labor. You’ve done all this work in high school, you’ve competed for your team, done really good at your sport, and now you’re able to experience what everybody before you got to experience. Maybe not the other two classes, but everybody before you got to experience. I think it’s more of a gratifying experience for everybody getting to experience the fruits of their labor. <strong>What were some of the places you had a chance to visit during that open portion of the summer?</strong> I was able to go to Mississippi State. I went to LSU. It’s close to home. Most of the other visits I’m probably gonna do during the season and during this school year to be able to get a game experience and everything like that. <strong>When you talk to those coaching staffs, what were some of the things they told you had really caught their eye and made them know that they wanted you to be a part of their programs at the next level if they could get you?</strong> It was a lot to do with my athleticism and instincts. You could see my game IQ on the film. You could see IQ, reads. Coming down in run support was a big check mark. Being able to cover the pass game. A lot of people wanted to see how I played man. But the run game I would say was probably the biggest check mark for a lot of people seeing me come down and fit like a linebacker. <strong>A lot of times there’s a question mark for physicality. Like, how much do guys like that contact? Particularly DBs, do they like to tackle? And that doesn’t really seem like it’s ever been an issue for you. How much do you enjoy that part of the game, coming downhill and mixing it up?</strong> It’s football. It’s 11-on-11, padded football. I don’t have a problem with that. I feel like it just adds to my game, makes me more versatile to come down in run support. But, I mean, I can still play back and cover and everything like that. I just feel like I’m not a DB that’s gonna sit back all day. I can come down and help my team in any way I can. <iframe title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZQzALtwXHEk" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>