All Sooners

Why Oklahoma-Texas Meant More Than Cal Rivalry For Stanford Transfer

Offensive tackle Walter Rouse blocked two Longhorns on the Sooners' game-winning touchdown drive.

Tim Willert

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NORMAN — Walter Rouse knows a thing or two about playing in a rivalry game. 

In January, the Sooners' starting left tackle transferred from Stanford, where he spent parts of four seasons playing Pac-12 rival California.

“I’ve been a part of rivalry games before," he said Monday after practice. "You know, with Stanford and Cal. At the time, I was like, 'Yeah! Stanford-Cal. That’s the mecca.'

"But before (we) even get to the stadium (Saturday), I was like, 'Wow, this game might be huge.' Because I’ve seen it on TV and whatnot, and OK, it’s cool, but it’s different seeing it on TV and actually being there in person."

The Cotton Bowl made a big impression on Rouse, a 6-foot-6, 323-pound redshirt senior from Silver Springs, MD.

"That’s when I started to realize, I didn’t like Texas before I got to Oklahoma, so that was a good starter," he said, "but I really developed this animosity towards Texas that I didn’t think I even had towards Cal. Because I didn’t like Cal. 

"Excuse me for using this word, but I hate Texas, but I say sorry because even though I hate Texas I still respect them as a team and I’m sure they might say the same thing about us. But going into that game and seeing a sea of red and the sea of orange coming together, there really is no other atmosphere like it."

Rouse was blocking for quarterback Dillon Gabriel on the Sooners' 75-yard touchdown drive to win the game, 34-30, and played a key role on the scoring play that Gabriel threw to wide receiver Nic Anderson in the corner of the end zone with 15 seconds remaining.

Rouse ended up blocking two Texas defenders, which bought Gabriel a couple of extra seconds for the play to develop.

"He’s a smart guy," head coach Brent Venables said. "Something didn’t feel right and he’s a guy with a lot of girth and a smart guy. Talented guy, but he’s smart."

"And so, I’m setting, and it’s been loud all game," he said. "Our communication definitely needs to get better, especially on my part. I was trying to get an out-call, and I don’t think I was loud enough, and I might’ve been a little too late. That 'backer was a little creeped down, so (left guard) Cayden (Green) was definitely keeping eyes on him in case he came, but I set, and I didn’t really feel like I had Cayden with me, and so I saw 91, ‘OK, let me block him.’ 

"Then I saw the pressure, either the safety or corner, coming off the edge, and I was like, ‘OK, let me just stick out a hand; let me see if I can get him, too.’ As an O-lineman, your job is to protect the quarterback at all costs, no matter what. It’s basically the basis of our job, and so I just stuck out two hands there, and I was just trying to protect with all I could. What they preach here, what they’ve been preaching here since I got here is the ‘uncommon effort,’ and that whole drive was uncommon effort. I was just trying to do my absolute best to protect as much as I could. That’s really all it was; there wasn’t any secret to it."

Green, a 6-foot-5, 316 freshman from Lee's Summit, MO, came in for starting left guard Troy Everett in the first half and played a career-high 57 plays. 

On the final drive, Green was flanked by Rouse to his left and senior center Andrew Raym to his right. He credited both players with helping him settle down when he entered his first Red River Rivalry game.

"(Walter) helped me a lot because he knows what he's doing and I'm right next to him and Andrew knows what everybody's doing so he really just helped me," Green said. "He got me to settle down after that first drive.

"Going into that last drive we knew we were going to score. We knew we needed to score. We knew we couldn't lose that game. So we just figured out a way to dig deep and really pull it out."

Rouse credited the coaching staff, particularly offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh, with getting him and his teammates ready to play, "because for that whole game, I was the calmest going into the 2-minute period."

"I was like, 'Let’s go get this win,’ but I wasn’t overly hyped. I was focused," he said. "I was ready to go, and credit that to doing the 2-minute drill we do every Wednesday. 

"And sometimes, we are tired going into that drill but we do it anyways, and even if you might not want to do it, we still do it, because we know one day it’s going to happen — and on the biggest of stages it happened at the Red River Rivalry. I just got to first give credit to the coaching staff for really just keeping that up with us and making sure that we did it and stayed on our toes."

At first, Rouse said he didn't even know OU had scored on the play.

"I was kind of out of it. I was doing my job, I thought DG threw it out of bounds," he said. "Even with the crowd going crazy, I was standing there and I was like, 'Did we score?' It didn’t even hit me until I got to the sideline, and I was like, ‘We scored! We’re going to win this game! We’re going to win the game!’ 

"And then I was talking to one of the coaches, and he was like, ‘You blocked two dudes!’ I was like, ‘I blocked two dudes!’ So, it  (was) just, you know, getting hyped on the sideline was one of the best moments. Like I said before, going into that drive I was the calmest I was. I just did my job as an O-lineman, as I’m sure anyone else on the starting five or anyone else in the O-line room would do as well. Just doing our job.”

Winning OU-Texas meant Rouse got to wear the Golden Hat for the first time.

"I don’t know if you saw me, but I might’ve been a little bit excessive. ... I was really taking in the moment," he said. "I tried the hat on and everything. I was all over the place. But yeah, I definitely tried on the hat. But getting that hat, I was like, 'We really won the Red River Rivalry'. And for me, I’m unbeaten. And I will continue to be unbeaten in the Red River Rivalry, so I’m going to take that all the way home.”

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Tim Willert
TIM WILLERT

AllSooners staff writer Tim Willert has covered news and sports for 29 years as a reporter and editor for daily and online publications, including The Oklahoman and The Norman Transcript. 

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