Leadership At The Highest Standard: Liam Johnson

By Craig Sachson
PrincetonTigersFootball.com

Playing Division I college football is a dream for many kids around the country. Attending Princeton University, the nation's top-ranked college, is a dream for many kids around the world.

Liam Johnson didn't dream of doing either. Instead, he expected to do both, and that level of expectation can carry a massive weight.

"I think a lot of it is self-inflicted," said Johnson, the third of three brothers to start at inside linebacker for the Princeton Tigers. "I didn't want to be the only brother that didn't live up to it. It would have been an embarrassment for me not to hit this level with the environment that I have at my house, and everything my parents have done to set me up to succeed. With the example my parents and brothers set for me, it would have been on me to mess up."

The burden of expectations that Johnson felt early in his days at St. Joseph's Prep may have slowed him down early, but it also helped him learn a lesson that would serve him well years later.

As it turned out, it served his entire team well.

• • •

Liam was in elementary school when older brother Thomas (Princeton '19) committed to the Orange and Black. His oldest sibling Paul would play football at Amherst, and the third of four Johnson sons, James, was a captain at St. Joseph's Prep and well on his own path to Old Nassau.

Liam didn't make his varsity team as a freshman, and started to doubt whether he had the goods to follow the family path. James, as he would do many times both on and off the field, was there with advice and support, and Liam started to realize that he couldn't spend every day trying to get that varsity spot, or trying to get into Princeton.

He just needed to spend them getting better.

"One thing I've learned is not focusing on the bigger picture," Johnson said. "It starts with the day-to-day. Win each day. Focusing on each day can detach you from those expectations."

Small wins became bigger ones, like captaining two state title teams and earning the President's and Maxwell Awards. That Princeton offer came, and while he wondered if people would just see him as following in his brothers' footsteps, he also realized those were pretty amazing footsteps.

"My brother has led me to so many places in my life," Liam said. "He helped get me out of the rut I was in early in high school. Why wouldn't I use that to my advantage?"

James helped Liam get everywhere he wanted to be, except for a magical fall in 2021.

• • •

Liam's freshman year was spent at home in the midst of the COVID pandemic. His first collegiate football season was 2021, and following a dominant high school performance, he had high hopes of contributing immediately at Princeton.

"I got six snaps on defense," he said. "And I didn't play well on those six snaps."

Princeton won the 2021 Ivy League championship, and the play of co-captain James Johnson was a big reason why. Like his older brother Thomas did on the 2018 undefeated team, Johnson led from the inside linebacker position, making 53 tackles for the 9-1 Tigers. He supported his younger brother, but he certainly wasn't going to give up his spot for him.

Liam would need to earn it when he was ready. Once again, he needed to win the day, and there were many of them prior to the fall of 2022 when he did not know where he would fit into the Princeton defense. Midway through his junior season, he still didn't feel completely comfortable in his role.

By the end of his junior season, he earned the Bushnell Cup as the Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year.

"It's definitely one of the most meaningful things I have ever had happen," Johnson said of the 2022 honor, which he admitted surprised him, even if he was a first-team All-Ivy selection who had 90 tackles and two defensive touchdowns. "Those goals only come with a support system like the one I had around me."

Few can appreciate the last decade of Princeton football like Liam, who lived it through his brothers. He considered John Lovett '19 a "god-like" figure, so standing with him as a Bushnell Cup winner was an incredible achievement. But he would have quickly traded it for one extra win and an Ivy League championship. He would not let a crushing finish to 2022 hold him back, though.

"The only way you'll continue to lose is if you let those losses sit with you, instead of using them as a way to drive you," he said. "Instead of sitting and sulking on the loss, you have to respond in a way that you accept it, but seeing how you could have done better. That's how you move past it."

Moving past it alone would not be enough. He needed to make sure everybody moved with him.

• • •

When you live the football life, you are around leaders all the time. Bob Surace has lived that life, been around the leaders, but he recognizes something special in Johnson.

"The on-field part of Liam is visible," Surace said. "His physicality, speed and explosiveness are easy to spot. What he does behind the scenes has separated him. We talk about edges and winning margins. In every area of his life, he does this exceptionally well."

Johnson puts serious thought in how to lead. He is passionate about it, and he wants to do it the right way, just as his parents and brothers have done for him.

"I love leadership, because you have to be so thoughtful about how you lead different people," he said. "In high school, I would try to lead from the highest standard and expect people to meet me there, but I've learned that you have to meet the person where they are and help them up to that standard."

That happens by winning the day, both as an individual and as a team. There will be losses in there, and Princeton suffered more in the first half of this season than it had in any of the past four full seasons. The defense had been among the nation's best, but Princeton entered the second half of the season with a 2-3 record and no margin for error in the Ivy title race.

But they had a chance, and that was more than enough for Johnson.

"It was all about framing the mindset," he said. "We lost to Brown, but we still have everything set in our path. It was about showing everybody where we were as leaders, and that we were going into the week in attack mode."

Since then, Princeton has defeated a nationally ranked Harvard team and held a first-place Cornell squad to three points on their own field. The Tigers are now tied with Harvard atop the Ivy standings with three games to play, and Johnson — who again ranks among the Ivy's best in tackles — is leading the way both on and off the field.

And he is expecting the best for this final stretch. That's his nature, and it has served him — and Princeton football — very well.

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