Road to 1991 Perfection: 'They Fundamentally Changed Recruiting'

Leif Johnson runs Liberty Ridge Advisors, a Seattle investment bank that specializes in mergers and acquisitions, a company he co-founded.

Johnson knows about these sorts of things, stemming back to his days as a fullback and a special-teams captain for the 1991 University of Washington football team that won a national championship.

He watched the Huskies take stock of the football world at hand and move in radically different directions, adding new pieces and subtracting old ways of doing things. Just like he does in the business world.

"They fundamentally changed recruiting," Johnson said. "They went after far more speed than they had previously. They really made an effort to change recruiting differently, to go into areas where they didn't really spend a lot of time before, with L.A. County being one of them.

"They started to recruit a different, higher-level kind of athlete."

Coming out of what is now Kennedy Catholic High School where he was a 1,500-yard rusher, Johnson felt the impact of this change in approach. With more speed, the Huskies opened things up and moved away from the fullback position some. It still had talented players such as Darius Turner, Matt Jones and Johnson to draw from.

Johnson persevered and did what was needed, catching a two-point conversion pass against Kansas State and causing a fumble on a kickoff with a huge hit against Arizona State among his 1991 highlights.

"We started getting guys who could just roll at any position," Johnson said. "They were fast and quick. It was a little bit less on the size, knowing through weight conditioning you could create that."

With everyone in place, UW defensive coordinator Jim Lambright introduced an eight-man front and Husky offensive coordinator Keith Gilbertson installed a spread offense, and the team took off.

"Don James just had to guide it," Johnson said. "It started to catch fire."

This is another in a series of articles and videos that will replay the UW's 1991 national championship season, which is the apex of Husky football. We don't have a 2020 season, so we'll use '91 as a conversation piece.

Johnson, who played from 1989-93 and shared in three Rose Bowls, will return periodically and offer his observations throughout this throwback series. Get to know him here in this video.

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