BATON ROUGE — Tim Walton, a member of the coaching staff at Syracuse in 2002, has joined the LSU football staff as defensive backs coach, Nick Saban announced on Monday.
Walton, a native of Grenada, Miss., coached at Syracuse for one year as defensive backs coach after spending two seasons coaching defensive backs at Memphis. Walton started his coaching career as a defensive graduate assistant at Bowling Green in 1995. He was promoted to running backs coach in 1996 and then moved to coach the defensive backs in 1999.
“Tim has proven to be an outstanding defensive backs coach and we’re excited to have him join our staff,” Saban said. “We thought as a staff that it was important to hire a coach for the defensive side of the football and Tim gives us someone that has had a great deal of success both coaching and playing in the defensive backfield.”
As a player, Walton was a two-year starter and four-year letterwinner at Ohio State, serving as co-captain for the Big Ten co-Champions Buckeyes in 1993.
Walton is a 1994 graduate from Ohio State.
In other staff moves, Saban announced that Lance Thompson has been named assistant head coach where he will serve as LSU’s tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator.
Derek Dooley has been assigned to coach LSU’s running backs as well as serve as special teams coordinator. Last year, Thompson coached the defensive line for the Tigers, while Dooley has served as LSU’s recruiting coordinator and tight ends coach for three years.
“The flexibility of Lance and Derek make this move possible,” Saban said. “Lance coached tight ends and served as a recruiting coordinator before at Georgia Tech so he’s been in this position before. Derek is an outstanding young coach who has been instrumental in organizing our recruiting efforts for the last three years. His organizational skills as well as his knowledge for the game make his move to coaching running backs and special teams a good fit for us.”