Ivy League linebacker on his former costars at St. Joseph’s Prep: ‘Absolute legends’

Liam Johnson followed a football path put down by his brothers, which landed him at St. Joseph’s Prep and now Princeton, where he was last season’s Ivy League co-defensive player of the year.

Johnson had shown up for his first Prep practice as a safety. He was quickly moved to linebacker on the freshman team, despite weighing maybe 150 pounds. He must have hit hard enough?

“Or was slow enough,” Johnson said this week over the phone.

His brother had been captain as a senior when Johnson first got to the Prep. Liam moved up to varsity as a sophomore and got on the field four games in after the starter got hurt.

“Probably the scariest thing of all time,” Johnson said. “I think the first play, I literally stood still. I didn’t move.”

The next season, another ballplayer with a family pedigree transferred over from La Salle College High. Johnson prided himself as a hardworking, head-down kind of guy. He knew the name of the kid coming in — and all about the kid’s father, since Liam used to come home and watch “all the NFL documentaries” when he was in eighth grade.

“I was like, ‘Oh, we got a transfer receiver coming in; this Hollywood receiver coming in,’” Johnson said. “‘This kid is going to be soft.’”

The kid was Marvin Harrison Jr.

Obviously, Johnson said, he quickly found out what separated Harrison from others, not his name or the fact that Harrison’s father was a Hall of Fame receiver.

“He took incremental steps every year,” Johnson said of Marvin Jr.

Incremental big steps.

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“I never saw anyone take such steps,” Johnson said.

Harrison apparently is still taking small steps that seem like big leaps at Ohio State. If USC quarterback Caleb Williams stumbles in the Heisman race, Harrison is a prime candidate to pick up that trophy. Bigger picture, Harrison is a candidate to go top five in the next NFL draft. His impact on college football is already profound. His concussion during the third quarter of last season’s national semifinal game against Georgia may have decided the national title, since the Buckeyes were up by 11 points when Harrison went out.

None of it surprises a linebacker preparing for an Ivy League season. It wasn’t just Harrison turning heads at the Prep, of course. Jeremiah Trotter Jr. is a preseason first-team all-American this season at Clemson. Kyle McCord was just named Ohio State’s starting quarterback when the Buckeyes open Saturday against Indiana.

At the Prep, Harrison, McCord, and Trotter were in the same class, a year behind Johnson. His car pool home to Moorestown every day after practice was with McCord and Trotter. The football talk continued to the last drop-off.

“They never took a practice off,” Johnson said of that trio. “They were all absolute savages.”

Jeremiah Trotter Sr. joined the staff as a linebackers coach, so Johnson heard about linebacking play from the perspective of an NFL great, and also heard how Trotter didn’t offer any special treatment for his own two sons.

“You better be next to Liam all day,” Johnson remembers the older Trotter yelling at his son. “Running gasses at the end of practice.”

The whole experience, Johnson said, prepared him for college ball. Princeton, he said, runs pretty much the same defense.

“It wasn’t just see-ball, get-ball,” Johnson said. “We were constantly fashioning the game. The coaches were incredible. We were doing hot checks, unheard of in high school.”

The game scenarios they ran through in practice, Johnson said, were invaluable. That live competition shaped him.

“Every day, you’re stressed in practice,” Johnson said. “Kyle is absolutely picking you apart.”

Move a step too far to the left hash, just a little drift, he said, and McCord would nail you underneath. Down at the goal line, have fun dealing with the ball going to Harrison. “At a certain point, you’re just tossing your hands up,” Johnson said of anyone dealing with Harrison.

Of course, opponents had bigger issues. State semifinal game, Pittsburgh Central Catholic.

“We were down seven,” Johnson said. “The defense played a terrible game.”

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Minute to go, last chance. McCord was hurt, Malik Cooper moving over from receiver to get things done, which he did, fourth down, 12 yards from the end zone, 15 seconds left.

The pass, Johnson said, was intended for another receiver. Somehow, Harrison got there.

“Most incredible play I ever saw,” Johnson said. “Marvin just toe-taps it. Ran back and toe-tapped.”

Johnson has had his own moments. He didn’t get on the field right away at Princeton. Special teams are so often the first door.

“I watched about four hours of punt-block film on Harvard,” said Johnson, now listed at 6 feet and 225 pounds, thinking back to the 2021 season, how he and a teammate, now a fellow starter, saw something. “We were the two inside guys. … We said, ‘These guys are so close to the punter.’”

Too close. Johnson blocked the punt. Princeton scored on the play.

“We didn’t score any offensive points, but we won the game,” Johnson said.

His own future, he figures, is in the financial services industry. He knows where Princeton connections can get you, and thinks about owning his own business someday.

As for players such as Harrison and Trotter, Johnson sees the future, too.

“They’re the most reserved dudes ever,” Johnson said. “And so humble.”

The opposite of Hollywood, he’s saying, now that he knows.

“I think they’re going to be absolute [NFL] legends because of it,” Johnson said.

Hey, Penn-Princeton is just as big as Ohio State-Michigan, right?

“Ha ha, yeah, definitely not,” Johnson said. “Over here, I will say, the traditions are long. I don’t know about the hype.”