Tim Walton had always thought about the possibility of returning to his alma mater as a coach, but he didn’t know whether it would actually happen.
Over the past 13 years, Walton coached for four NFL teams, most recently as the Jacksonville Jaguars’ cornerbacks coach from 2019-21. He hadn’t coached in college football since 2008, when he was the defensive coordinator at Memphis. So even a year or two ago, Walton wouldn’t have guessed that he’d be coaching at Ohio State now.
But Walton was immediately intrigued when he received a call from Ryan Day asking if he would be interested in becoming Ohio State’s new secondary/cornerbacks coach.
“It hit at the right time to get a chance to come back here,” said Walton, who played cornerback for the Buckeyes from 1990-93. “Being in the NFL or college football, you don't know what path you'll end up taking. So those things work out at the right time. Sometimes you can want to come but the timing is not right or is not an opportunity that the job is open at that point. So it kind of just worked out this way. So it ended up being a great opportunity to get back home.”
Walton said he had a conversation with Ohio State at one point in the past about returning to coach for the Buckeyes, but it didn’t work out at that time. This time around, though, Walton emerged as the top choice to replace former defensive coordinator Kerry Coombs as Ohio State’s cornerbacks coach, and he decided it was an opportunity he shouldn’t pass up – not only because it’s his alma mater, but also because he sees it as a chance to compete for national championships.
“It’s a winning program. You don't get any better than this,” Walton said Monday during his first media availability since returning to Ohio State. “They play elite level football. You're going to have a chance to play for it all every year. The fact that you played here so you're familiar with the territory. All those things just lined up. And like I said, you don't get any better than this.”
To choose to leave the NFL and return to college football, Walton said “it had to be a special place,” and to Walton, no place in college football is more special than Ohio State.
“That's what made it easy to do, exciting to do,” Walton said. “You know you have a chance to play against the best of the best and at the end of the year, you have a chance to play for all the marbles if you do the right thing. So when you have that opportunity, I mean, that's what it's all about. It's all about competing and it's all about playing at the highest level. So when you get a chance to do that, you play in college football to have a chance at national championships. In the NFL, you want to get Super Bowls. That's what competitors do and the fact that you get to do it at a place that you have strong ties with makes it a bonus.”
“You don't get any better than this.”– Tim Walton on Ohio State
Much like wide receivers coach Brian Hartline, Walton has the advantage of personal experience actually playing for Ohio State in the position he’s now coaching for Ohio State. He also believes his NFL coaching experience will help him develop the next Buckeye cornerbacks who will go on to play in the league.
“It does help to actually play here on his turf and practice here in this building and try to give some of that experience to them,” Walton said. “That's a good benefit to be able to have to use as a selling point to kids that want to play here that I actually played the game. And then coaching in the NFL helps that transition to them, because they all want to have that opportunity. So it's kind of a good mix.”
Ohio State’s two newest cornerbacks, Jyaire Brown and Ryan Turner, both made it clear during their introductions to the media on Wednesday that they are impressed by their new coach’s background, particularly that All-Pro cornerback Jalen Ramsey described Walton as “one of the best DB coaches if not the best DB coach I’ve ever had.”
“I try not to prejudge and I'm just gonna go off how he coaches me and how he coaches his players, but that's definitely a thing to keep in my mind knowing that he coached NFL corners, and that's where I'm trying to get at the end of the day,” Brown said.
That said, a lot has changed since Walton was last a college football coach. Social media hadn’t yet become the integral part of recruiting that it is now – Twitter was in its infancy, and Instagram hadn’t even been created yet – while college athletes were nowhere near being allowed to profit from their name, image and likeness.
One thing that hasn’t changed, however, is the importance of coaches having strong relationships with their players, and Walton says that’s the biggest thing he’s learned along his journey from playing at Ohio State to coaching in the NFL and now returning to coach for the Buckeyes.
“If you have the relationship, then that means you can go teach them. If they allow you to teach them, they'll get better. And if they feel that you can help them, they'll be willing to listen. But that all starts with the relationship,” Walton said. “Because at times, you gotta coach guys hard. And if you have the relationship with them, and then you coach them hard and they feel you can make them better – that doesn't change whether it's in college or the NFL – if they feel you can make them better and the relationship is right, they are willing to listen. And if they're willing to listen, they're willing to grow and get better. And that's the dream of a coach and that's how you want it to play out for you.”
Tim Walton and Jalen Ramsey had a close relationship with each other during their time together with the Jacksonville Jaguars. (Photo: Reinhold Matay – USA TODAY Sports)
Knowing the cornerbacks he’ll be coaching at Ohio State have the talent to be NFL players themselves, Walton doesn’t expect to coach them in a significantly different way than he’s coached cornerbacks in the league. Walton’s NFL experience is one reason why Day was interested in hiring him to begin with, as Walton becomes the third straight Ohio State cornerbacks coach to come directly from the NFL, following Coombs and Jeff Hafley.
“We want to find the best coaches possible. A lot of the coaches that have coached in the NFL have coached some of the best players in the country,” Day said Monday. “And so when someone comes in as a recruit, they want to be recruited, they want to be coached by the best and be developed the best. I think that’s a little bit of coincidence (that Walton, Coombs and Hafley all came from the NFL), but also not. If you're trying to go find the best guy at what he does in his job, a lot of those guys have coached in the NFL, when you look at their résumés, and Tim’s one of them.”
Walton has coached at the highest level of the sport, and he’s also coached at other premier college football programs including Miami and LSU, where he won a national championship in 2003. But now he has the chance to coach at the school that’s near and dear to his heart, making his new job as exciting as any job he’s ever held in his coaching career.
“It's a lifetime journey when you're here. You’re family for life here,” Walton said. “A lot of former players still live here in the area. So it's been exciting to get a chance to come back. And it's a dream come true to come back to a place that you basically grew up as a young child, a young man at.
“Just walking the halls and stuff and just being back in here ... It's special, man. So I'm embracing it all and looking forward to it and just gonna try to make sure I go out and do my best and work hard and try to give the kids and the young players a chance to develop and help them achieve the dreams that they want to do.”
