Villanova Univeristy Athletics

Dustin Johnson returns for his fourth year as a member of the Wildcats coaching staff in 2025. Johnson arrived at Villanova in 2022 after serving as the head coach at William Paterson for the previous four seasons. He works with the Villanova cornerbacks in his role on Mark Ferrante’s staff.  

In his time as a collegiate head coach, Johnson maintained a philosophy of preparing student-athletes for successful futures by focusing on academic and athletic achievement, teamwork, community involvement, social preparedness and professional development. 

Since arriving on the Main Line, one of Johnson’s biggest success stories has been the development of cornerback Isas Waxter into an All-American and bona fide NFL prospect. Waxter wrapped up his collegiate career in 2024 and was named to All-America teams by Stats Perform, Phil Steele and the Associated Press. He was also a member of the CAA Football First Team Defense after recording 33 tackles, three forced fumbles, one fumble recovery and two passes defended in 11 games played.  

Waxter was on the watch list for the Buck Buchanan Award last year and finished his collegiate career with totals of 108 tackles, 16 pass breakups and three interceptions. During the 2023 season, Villanova’s starting corners were Waxter and sophomore Devin Marshall who recorded 47 tackles and a team-high 11 pass breakups.  

As the head coach at William Paterson from 2018-21, Johnson saw his student-athletes consistently earn regional and conference recognition for their efforts on the field. He guided the Pioneers to a total of 30 All-NJAC selections as head coach and William Paterson had four major conference award winners in a three-year span from 2019-21. Running back Terrique Riddick was the NJAC Offensive Rookie of the Year and the ECAC Division III Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2019 before going on to be named the NJAC Co-Offensive Player of the Year when the league announced its 2020-21 awards. 

Johnson also coached cornerback Devyn Blount who was named the NJAC Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2019 and defensive back Isaiah De La Cruz who was a 2020-21 Co-Defensive Rookie of the Year honoree. During the 2019 season both Riddick and linebacker Andrew Anthony were named to the All-ECAC second team. Tight end William Frese and linebacker Nazier Wright each garnered D3football.com All-Region 2 accolades for the 2021 campaign. Frese was a second team offensive selection and Wright earned a spot on the third team defense.   

Prior to his first collegiate head coaching stint Johnson had a successful seven-year run at Stevenson, including the last five seasons as the Mustangs defensive coordinator. He was on the coaching staff at Stevenson for each of the program’s first seven years of intercollegiate competition and helped the team win the Middle Atlantic Conference title in only its sixth season (2016). Stevenson’s inaugural intercollegiate campaign was in 2011 and Johnson was an integral part of building the program’s early success. He first joined the Mustangs coaching staff in August 2010 as a defensive backs coach and he was later the Special Teams Coordinator in 2012 before being elevated to Defensive Coordinator one year later. 

 Johnson consistently assembled defenses that ranked among the top 25 in Division III in several categories and he developed strong recruiting ties in New Jersey that he brought with him to William Paterson as head coach. Stevenson led the nation in turnover margin per game (1.91), takeaways (40) and interceptions (29) in 2015, ranked fourth in Division III in interceptions (26) in 2016 and was 12th nationally in fumble recoveries (13) in 2017. Among the top performers that Johnson mentored were defensive back Austin Tennessee, a 2016 first team AFCA and D3football.com All-American, the MAC and D3football.com East Region Defensive Player of the Year and the winner of the Rocky Myers Division III Defensive Back of the Year honor. Tennessee eventually went on to sign an NFL contract with the Minnesota Vikings. 

Johnson’s responsibilities as Defensive Coordinator at Stevenson included overseeing all facets of the defense, coordinating practice and game planning, play calling, skill instruction, student-athlete performance evaluation, film breakdown and scouting. He managed the special teams and defensive coaching staff members along with handling administrative tasks such as budgeting for apparel, uniforms, travel and meals. His recruiting efforts focused on Northern New Jersey (Bergen, Morris, Passaic and Somerset counties) as well as parts of Maryland (Baltimore and Prince George’s counties, Eastern Shore) and the state of Delaware. 

While at Stevenson, Johnson consistently saw his student-athletes excel in the classroom. The Mustangs had 15 conference academic honorees over his last three years on staff when Johnson’s responsibilities included academic support, grade monitoring, conducting weekly academic meetings and supervising study halls. He also collaborated with the Special Olympics, Kennedy Kreiger Institute and Mechanicsville Elementary School on community outreach efforts while utilizing a retention and leadership program that created strong bonds between the program’s upperclassmen and underclassmen. 

Johnson was a four-year starting quarterback and two-year captain at Salisbury from 2002-05 during his college football playing career. He was the Sea Gulls second-leading rusher with 3,215 yards, ranked sixth in school history with 2,204 passing yards and graduated 10th in program history with 174 total points. Johnson was named the 2002 Atlantic Central Football Conference Rookie of the Year after rushing for 1,204 yards, the most in the nation by a quarterback. He was a three-time All-ACFC selection during his career and twice earned academic All-ACFC accolades. 

Following his collegiate career the native of Delmar, Md. played three seasons (2007-09) in the Arena Football League as a quarterback, wide receiver and defensive back for the Amarillo Dusters and Bossier-Shreveport Battlewings. His coaching career began at Demar High School in 2001 when he worked with the quarterbacks and defensive backs. Johnson was a facility coordinator at Salisbury in 2002 and went on to be the Sea Gulls running backs coach and assistant strength & conditioning coach from 2005-07. He coached Salisbury’s defensive backs from 2008-10 before going on to Stevenson. 

Johnson earned his Bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies from Salisbury in 2006 and a Master’s degree in Athletic Administration from Concordia in 2018.