As Tim Walton thinks about the last time, his eyes drop toward the floor, as if he’s looking inward, searching for a memory of the moment.

The last time Walton — the Syracuse football defensive backs coach — saw his kids, the season had yet to begin. The players hadn’t reported to camp. The season opener at Brigham Young was months away.

“The last time I saw my kids was back in July,” Walton said. “It was right before July 28, when we reported to camp.”

Then he finds the memory.

“Aw, they were happy to see me,” Walton said. “You know, you really miss your kids. You get used to seeing them every day.”

Since Walton was hired in February, his family — his wife, Tracy, and his three children, 10, 3 and 2 years old — has remained home in Memphis, Tenn. Walton misses his family, but tries not to let it bother him. He understands the life of a college assistant coach: frequent job changes, sometimes far from home.

Similar situations have befallen Walton’s predecessors. Walton is SU’s fifth defensive backs coach in the last five years.

“It’s just the nature of the business,” Walton said. “Some guys may have had a chance to be a coordinator here and there. It’s tough a little bit. But you have to understand that’s the way it is.”

Take Brian Stewart, Syracuse’s defensive backs coach in 2001. He left after last season because the NFL’s Houston Texans offered him a position as assistant defensive backs coach.

“Coach Stewart told us the only way he’d leave is if he got a job on the higher level,” safety Keeon Walker said. “And it happened.”

Prior to Stewart, current quarterbacks coach Steve Bush handled the defensive backs duties for a year. He slid in after SU’s two former coaches accepted positions at other schools.

The first, Teryl Austin, coached the Syracuse defensive backs from 1996 to 1998. After the 1998 season, he left to become Michigan’s defensive backs coach.

Austin is a rarity. Although, in February, published reports said he might join Indiana as a defensive coordinator, he has remained at Michigan.

“It’s like everything else,” Austin said. “When you’re working at a great situation, you just want to stay there.”

But like Walton, he’s left family behind. Austin, who hails from Pennsylvania, leaves his family during the season and reunites with them for the summer.

“It’s obviously not the ideal situation,” Austin said, “but as a family, you kind of grin and bear it.”

None of SU’s last five defensive backs coaches has moved around as much as Austin’s successor, Kevin Kelly.

Kelly served as a graduate assistant at Syracuse in 1986 and 1987 and returned for the defensive-backs job in 1999. In between, he coached at four schools in 10 years, including two stints at Dartmouth.

Kelly left Syracuse to accept the defensive coordinator post at Marshall — ironically, that’s the job he had left in 1998 to come to Syracuse — and has since become the linebackers and, currently, special teams coordinator at Navy.

“Everybody’s got different aspirations,” Kelly said. “I want to be a head football coach. Part of the reason I left for Marshall was to be a coordinator. I’d like to be an Ivy League head coach, and the Naval Academy will give me a solid foundation for that.”

Situations like Kelly’s have left Syracuse head coach Paul Pasqualoni with a dilemma. He wants to hire the best coach available, but the best coach available has the most potential for upward mobility.

“If you get a real good coach in the secondary,” Pasqualoni said, “real good coaches have a lot of opportunity. You try to hire the best coach you can.”

He hired Walton based on a standout stint as a two-year starting cornerback at Ohio State from 1992-93 and two previous jobs: Bowling Green’s running backs coach and Memphis’ defensive backs guru.

The SU players, so far, have embraced Walton. After meetings, he pulls them aside, just to discuss life. At practices, he yells and screams and hollers when they make mistakes, but claps and pats people on the butt when they make plays.

“If he tells someone to get inside,” said free safety Maurice McClain, who’s had five defensive backs coaches at Syracuse, “he’ll say: Get your ‘a’ inside! And if he doesn’t get his ‘a’ inside, he just puts someone else in.”

Right now, Walton tries not to let worries about the future cloud his focus. He said long-term stability never came up during his Syracuse interview. It hasn’t since, either.

For Walton, it’s one step at a time. First the season. Then, in the spring, he’ll turn to getting his family — who he admits some nights he just doesn’t get a chance to call — to Syracuse.

“I like it here,” Walton said. “We’ve got to win some games, but I like it here. I love working with Coach P. I like the guys on the defensive staff.

“I’m comfortable with all of the people here who make me feel at home.”

Published on November 6, 2002 at 12:00 pm