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Oklahoma Lands Commitment from Stanford Offensive Lineman

Walter Rouse was a four-year starter for the Cardinal and addresses immediate needs for the Sooners at offensive tackle.

John E. Hoover

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Oklahoma landed a major component to its 2023 season on Saturday.

Offensive tackle Walter Rouse, a four-year starter at Stanford, announced via Twitter that he was committed to OU.

Rouse had been verbally committed to transferring to Nebraska on Wednesday and even had a bio as a member of the team on the Huskers’ official online roster.

But he changed his mind Friday, and the OU staff pulled off an unlikely flip.

“I never knew how the power of one’s faith and gut intuition could so forcefully persuade one’s decision,” Rouse wrote. “That happened to me this week. And on Friday, January 13th I informed the head coach of University of Oklahoma that I would be decommitting from University of Nebraska and play my last year of eligibility as part of the 129th football team for the University of Oklahoma.”

OU pulled off the flip just in time, too: the NCAA Transfer Portal closes on Tuesday ahead of the May 1-15 transfer period.

The 6-foot-6, 318-pound Rouse, who earned honorable mention All-Pac 12 accolades in 2021, played in 10 games in 2022 and graded out at 66.5 overall offensively, according to Pro Football Focus. His run-blocking grade was strong at 70.2.

Per PFF, he has played 1,383 offensive snaps the past two seasons and 2,551 in his career.

He played in 40 games overall as a Cardinal, earning Freshman All-America honors in 2019. The biomechanical engineering major was also a finalist this season for the William V. Campbell Trophy, given to college football’s top scholar athlete as the “Academic Heisman.”

Rouse’s addition solves one of the Sooners’ greatest concerns for 2023, as both left tackle Anton Harrison and right tackle Wanya Morris left early for the NFL Draft.

True freshman Jacob Sexton started at left tackle in the Cheez-It Bowl but was injured and replaced by third-year sophomore Aaryn Parks on the third play of the game. TCU transfer Tyler Guyton, a sophomore, started at right tackle. 

Read Rouse’s Stanford Bio

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John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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