College: Wilmington, 1982 (BS)

OSU Coaching History:

2012-15: Tight ends / Fullbacks

2014 Media Guide: Tim Hinton is currently mentoring a handful of outstanding tight ends, including senior Jeff Heuerman and junior Nick Vannett, a tandem coach Urban Meyer has called among the best in the country.

2012 Media Guide: Tim Hinton, who has coached in or recruited the state of Ohio for 30 years, is in his first season as the Ohio State tight ends and fullbacks coach. Hinton was the running backs coach at
Notre Dame the past two seasons.

Hinton will be in his 17th collegiate coaching season this year and his 31st year of coaching overall. His coaching resume includes 11 highly successful seasons as the head coach at Harding High School in Marion, Ohio. He led Harding to five state playoff berths and five conference titles and he was the 1995 Ohio Division I co-Coach of the Year.

“Tim is an awesome coach,” Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer said. “He and I worked together on the Ohio State staff in 1986, but what I am most impressed with is his time spent as a high school coach in Ohio. He had some outstanding teams at Harding and his extensive experiences coaching in the state were crucial in my desire to want him on our staff.”

Hinton’s 30 seasons of coaching experience includes 16 seasons in the collegiate ranks with positions at Ohio State, Wilmington, Ohio, Cincinnati and Notre Dame, and 14 years as a head coach at three Ohio high schools: Zane Trace (1987-88); Van Wert (1989) and Harding (1993-2003).

“I have always felt it would be an honor to have an opportunity to coach for and to represent Ohio State,” Hinton said. “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to be able to work with great people and great coaches at such a wonderful place.”

This past season at Notre Dame running back Cierre Wood rushed for 1,102 yards and nine touchdowns. In 2010, a quartet of Notre Dame rushers combined for 1,517 yards and a 4.8 yards per carry average and, impressively, fumbled only twice all season and both occurred in the same game.

Excellent ball protection was also evident among Hinton’s running backs at the University of Cincinnati, where he coached six years between 2004-09, including three seasons under former Ohio State assistant and current Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio. Neither of his two leading rushers during the 2009 UC season lost a fumble in 195 carries.

Hinton spent his first three seasons as running backs coach for Dantonio’s Bearcats teams. After coaching linebackers for the first year of the Kelly administration, he moved back to running backs for the 2008 and 2009 seasons.

Dantonio pulled Hinton from the high school ranks back into the college ranks after Hinton’s 11-year run at Harding High School, where in addition to directing his teams to five state playoff appearances, he developed 13 players who would go on to major college programs. He was extremely active in the Ohio High School Football Coaches Association, serving as an officer for six years, including vice-president of the organization in 2003.

Three seasons at Ohio University, coaching the wide receivers in 1990 and the defensive line in 1991-92, preceded Hinton’s position at Harding and followed his first two head coaching positions at Zane Trace and Van Wert high schools, respectively.

While attending Wilmington College (from which he graduated in 1982 with a degree in industrial education), Hinton was an assistant coach at Amanda-Clearcreek High School for three seasons (1978-80) and then parlayed that experience into a student-assistant position at Wilmington that started in 1981 and concluded in 1984. Wilmington won two conference titles during that time and made two appearances in the NAIA playoffs.

Hinton then enrolled at Ohio State to coach in a graduate assistant capacity for two seasons (1985-86) under Earle Bruce and to work on his master’s degree (educational policy and leadership, 1987). The Buckeyes went to two bowl games and earned a share of the 1986 Big Ten championship.

Hinton and his wife, Bev, have two daughters: Dawn and Drew.