Jason Johnson will enter his seventh season as the wide receiver’s coach/recruiting coordinator at Angelo State entering the 2022 campaign.
Under Johnson’s tutelage, the Rams have had six LSC All-Conference performances at the wide receiver position since 2017, most recently in 2021 when Kellen Pachot was named First-Team Offense. Pachet led the conference in receiving yards with 907 as the Rams were the top passing offense with a total of 3,071 passing yards.
In 2018 and 2019, Keke Chism and Lawson Ayo both earned LSC honors while ranking in the top 10 in receiving yards per game in both seasons.
In 2016, Johnson helped Mark Munson to the longest play from scrimmage in ASU history with a 99-yard pass from Jake Faber against UTPB. Donovan Thompson caught 50 passes on the season while Munson average 19.3 yards per catch for the Rams.
Johnson spent the last five seasons as wide receivers coach at Texas State. He produced Texas State’s top three leaders in receptions after C. J. Best led the Bobcats with 58 receptions for 591 yards and Jafus Gaines caught 42 passes for 521 yards. In addition, Brandon Smith, who Phil Steele named an All-Sun Belt Conference Third-Team selection as a kickoff returner, caught 33 passes for 429 yards.
Johnson’s wide receivers combined to catch 144 passes for 1,563 yards and 13 touchdowns in 2014. Best was named to the Sun Belt Conference All-Newcomer team after logging 37 receptions for 355 yards and two TDs. Smith also caught 36 passes and ranked second on the team with 414 receiving yards, while Ben Ijah caught 27 passes for 289 yards and three TDs. Gaines added 22 catches for 289 yards and a team-high of four TD receptions.
Prior to Texas State, Johnson spent a season as the wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator at Kentucky State in 2010. While at Kentucky State, he produced one of the top five receivers in the Southern Intercollegiate Conference who was named a second team all-conference performer.
He went to Kentucky State after serving two seasons on the coaching staff at Sul Ross State. He was the quarterbacks coach in 2009 when he produced an honorable mention all-conference performer after coaching the wide receivers in 2008 while serving as a graduate assistant coach.
Johnson began his coaching career at Bacone College in Oklahoma as a wide receivers coach in 2002 and a quarterbacks coach in 2003. He helped lead the Warriors to second-place finishes in the Central States Football League both seasons before playing Arena Football from 2004-07.
He was a quarterback for the Odessa Roughnecks in 2004-05 before playing one season with the Lakeland Thunderbolts in 2006. In 2007, he played quarterback for the Laredo Lobos in the Arena 2 Football League.
Johnson also played two seasons at Western Kentucky in 2000 and 2001, where he earned honorable mention All-Ohio Valley Conference honors as a quarterback in 2000, when he led Western Kentucky in passing with 1,148 yards and six touchdowns and in total offense with 1,904 yards.
In addition, he helped lead the Hilltoppers to an 11-2 overall record, an OVC championship with a 7-0 league record and the second round of the NCAA Division I FCS playoffs. Johnson also earned OVC Newcomer of the Week on Oct. 15 that season.
He went to Western Kentucky after playing two seasons at Kemper Military Junior College in 1998 and 1999. Johnson was named a NJCAA Honorable Mention All-America in 1999 after leading the NJCAA in total offense with 3,531 yards on 437 plays.
Johnson earned an associate of arts degree at Kemper Military Institute in 1999 and a bachelor’s degree in health at Western Kentucky in 2002. He also earned a master’s degree in physical education at Sul Ross State in 2009. Johnson and his wife, Jessica, have three children, Saniya, Ellis and Savana.
