Head Coach

Terrence "TJ" Johnson

Head coach Terrence Johnson (“TJ”) has taken Texas State to a level it has not seen in its Division I era in his first two years as the head coach.

Johnson, who has been on the Texas State coaching staff since the 2015-16 season, has led the Bobcats to back-to-back Sun Belt regular season conference championships, the program’s first ever trip to the NIT, and 39 total wins in his first two seasons as the head coach.

The two-time Sun Belt Coach of the Year and NABC District 23 Coach of the Year is the first coach in program history to lead the Bobcats to back-to-back conference championships. He is also the fastest Texas State coach to 39 career wins in more than 40 years.

In 2021-22, Johnson led the Bobcats to the NIT after winning the second Sun Belt regular season title in as many seasons. Texas State was 12-3 in conference (finished 21-8 overall) and put together two different winning streaks of eight or more games.

Johnson took over the program shortly before the 2020-21 campaign and ascended from interim head coach to head coach after guiding the program to a conference title in his first season. The program’s 2021 Sun Belt regular season championship was the first in program history and the team’s first conference championship since 1999 when it won the Southland Conference title.

The Bobcats won 18 games his first season, which were the most victories by a first-year Texas State head coach in the program’s Division I history and second-most all-time behind Dan Wall’s 20 wins in 1977-78.  He also became the third coach in Texas State history to win conference coach of the year honors, joining Jim Wooldridge (1994, Southland) and Mike Miller (1997, Southland).

In two seasons, Johnson has seen a pair of Bobcats earn four total All-Sun Belt honors. Caleb Asberry was named first team in 2021-22, a year after earning third team, and Mason Harrell picked up first and second team honors in 2020-21 and 2021-22, respectively.

As an assistant with the Bobcats, Johnson played an instrumental role in the development of guard Nijal Pearson, who left the program as the all-time leading scorer (2,122 points), the first All-American since the Bobcats transitioned to NCAA Division I, and the program’s first Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year and the first league MVP for Texas State since 1999 (Donte Mathis, Southland Conference).

Johnson arrived in San Marcos after teaching middle school and serving as an AAU coach as recent as 2015.

Johnson has worked with some standout players during his career, most notably Langston Galloway (Phoenix Suns) who played collegiately at St. Joseph’s. He went on to be selected by the New York Knicks and was named to the NBA All-Rookie Second Team for the 2014-15 season.

Johnson was regarded as one of the most notable AAU coaches in the southern region as his relationships and strong ties stretch from Texas to Florida. He founded Hollis Price Elite AAU and was the head coach from 2006 to 2010. During that time, his team won the 2008 Louisiana State Championship.

Most notably, Johnson was the head coach of Texas PRO 17-U where he coached standout players like McDonald's All-American and NBA player Jarret Allen (Texas), Galen "G" Robinson (Houston), Alex Hobbs (Boise State), Jarrey Foster (SMU), and Bobcats Pearson and Marlin Davis.

Johnson’s first collegiate coaching experience was at Samford, where he served as an assistant from 2010 to 2013.

Born in New Orleans, La., Johnson grew up in Sebastopol, La., located in St. Bernard Parish. His father was a teacher and basketball coach – the first Black head boy’s basketball coach in St. Bernard Parish.

Johnson eventually taught and was an assistant basketball coach at the same school as his father in 2003. Over the course of his career, Johnson has worked as a high school and middle school teacher in Houston and Louisiana.

After graduating from high school, Johnson attended Southern University in Baton Rouge, La., where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in microbiology. While at Southern, he intended to play basketball for legendary coach Ben Jobe, but Jobe retired before his freshman year and he ended up never playing for the team. He later went on to receive a master’s in education administration from Prairie View A&M University in 2011.