Johnson was the 20th head football coach for the Illinois State Redbirds in Normal, Illinois and he held that position for nine seasons, from 2000 until November 22, 2008. Johnson resigned from the program after the Redbirds final game of the 2008 season, a game they lost against Southern Illinois University in overtime, 17–10.[2] His overall coaching record at ISU was 48–54. This ranks him third at ISU in terms of total wins and eighth at ISU in terms of winning percentage.[3]
Prior to coaching at Illinois State, Johnson was the head coach at Murray State University. He was offensive line coach for Colorado in 2009 and 2010, then moved to Tulsa for the 2011 season to join the coaching staff of Bill Blankenship, who had been his college teammate at Tulsa.[1]
On April 1, 2015, Johnson was named the head coach of the Missouri Southern Lions.[4] Johnson resigned from Missouri Southern after three games into the 2018 season to be the full time caretaker for his wife who was suffering with and later passed away from Early Onset Alzheimer's.[5]