COLUMBUS, Ohio — The 1993 season is special to many Ohio State football players and fans. The team hadn't won the Big Ten title since 1986. Many say taking the crown turned the Buckeyes back into the winning program it is today.
What You Need To Know
- It's been 30 years since the 1993 Ohio State Buckeyes won the Big Ten Championship
- Tim Walton was a senior cornerback on that team and can't believe it's been three decades
- The team was coached by John Cooper, who started recruiting out of state, a tactic that teams across the country followed
- Walton is now a cornerback and secondary coach at OSU, hoping his experience as a Buckeye will help translate to these young men
It’s been 30 years since Tim Walton was a player here at Ohio State.
“Oh, make me feel old knowing that it’s 30 years ago that we were actually out there playing," Walton said.
As a senior cornerback, Walton was known to put the pressure on defense. He can’t believe it’s been 30 years since he played here and won his only Big Ten Championship.
“It goes fast," he said. "When you think about when you put the number 30 out there, that was 30 years ago, that seems like a long time. But the memories stay with you. With a great group of guys, we’re still close to this day.”
Walton was a kid from South Georgia- and was one of the first recruiting classes that head coach John Cooper focused on a larger footprint for recruits.
“Don’t ever overlook an in-state player. If it’s close, take the in-state player," Cooper said. "But we started to expand our recruiting base and next thing you know, we get Eddie George out of Pennsylvania, get David Boston out of Texas, we get Joe Germaine out of California. And now everybody’s doing that.”
That tactic changed the landscape for college football- another way Coach Cooper left his mark on the program.
“That’s right after we went outside the state recruiting and we had very good players," Cooper said of the 1993 Big Ten Championship team. "The league was tough then, Joe Paterno, Lloyd Carr, and Bo Schembechler.”
Winning the league against talented coaches like that made it even sweeter.
“To make it rewarding at the end for a job well done was glorifying to us at that time," Walton said. "And it also re-established getting back to the winning ways at Ohio State.”
Now, Walton walks this field with a different title- cornerbacks and secondary coach, a role he’s proud of and hopeful to use his experience as a player to impact these young men.
“It’s been a great experience," he said. "I’m overwhelmed with the fact that being a former player, now I’m back here in a different role, I get a chance to impact and develop young men at a place that I once roamed the grounds of.”