So far so good for Korey Robertson’s decision to leave Southern Miss a year early for the NFL Draft.
The former Greenwood High School wide receiver has been invited to take part in this year’s NFL combine on Feb. 27-March 5 in Indianapolis.
Robertson decided to declare for the NFL Draft following a breakout junior season. The 6-foot-2, 210-pound receiver caught 76 passes for 1,106 yards and 12 touchdowns.
Over his first two seasons, the Greenwood native caught 51 passes for 637 yards and six touchdowns.
When asked about what led up to the breakout season, Robertson said. “Just the little things, man. The little things count in everything you do, but I just worked on things like catching 200 passes a day, working on different routes that I was going to run in the offense. Just watching film, doing everything. It’s the little things that help you get better as a player.”
It also helped that Robertson was reunited with his high school quarterback, Kwadra Griggs, who redshirted in 2016 for academic reasons. He said it was exciting news when Griggs inked with the Golden Eagles out of Itawamba Community College.
“We’d played from peewee football on up to high school. Then we skipped two years of college, and he came to the same college. That was a big deal. It was a big deal not just for me and him, but for (Greenwood), and everyone who watched us (growing up),” Robertson said.
“The whole receiver group worked with both quarterbacks (Griggs and sophomore Keon Howard). Every day, we were out there building a relationship, but the chemistry between me and Kwadra was kind of already there, but we had to build our way back up. So it kind of helped us a little bit, but I actually threw with both of them.”
If all pans out well at the combine, this will be the third good decision he has made as it relates to USM. The first was picking the Golden Eagles in the first place.
While at GHS, he was recruited by Louisiana Tech, Louisiana-Monroe and Memphis. Mississippi State wanted him, too, but as a safety. He wanted to play receiver, and he chose Southern Miss because it felt like home.
“My family loved the program,” he said. “And Sherrod Gideon, an all-time player there at Southern Miss, was actually my peewee league coach, so he was a long-time family friend. I stayed close with him through all of that, so he helped me out in making the decision as well.”
It proved to be the right decision, but there was a time when Robertson first arrived in Hattiesburg that he wasn’t so sure about that.
So Robertson marched into then-head coach Todd Monken’s office, his mind already made up. And Robertson had a plan: go back to Greenwood and become a firefighter alongside his uncle, Jason Wallace.
“That was just the first thing that came to my mind — ‘I’m just gonna go work with my uncle and be a firefighter,’” Robertson said.
Monken, now in his second year as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach with the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers, talked him out of it.
Another good decision made by Robertson, who instead of putting out fires soon began burning defenses. Now he is on the verge of becoming the first player out of GHS to be drafted since 1996, when Carlos Emmons was taken in the seventh round out of Arkansas State by the Pittsburgh Steelers.
nContact Bill Burrus at 581-7237 or bburrus@gwcommonwealth.com.
