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Report: Former Oklahoma RB Back in the Transfer Portal

Tawee Walker was a starter for the Sooners when the 2023 season opened, but decided to transfer at the end of the year and then had a breakout campaign with Wisconsin.

John E. Hoover

Wisconsin Badgers running back Tawee Walker
Wisconsin Badgers running back Tawee Walker / Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images
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A former Oklahoma running back is back on the market.

Tawee Walker, a senior at Wisconsin who played two seasons for the Sooners, has reportedly re-entered the NCAA Transfer Portal. That's according to a tweet Tuesday from On3.

Walker transferred to OU from Palomar College in San Marcos, CA, prior to the 2022 season. 

After carrying the football just 18 times in his first season in Norman, Walker racked up 496 and seven touchdowns on the ground in 2023, averaging 5.2 yards per carry as a junior, before leaving to play for the Badgers.

This season in Madison, Walker rushed 190 times for 864 yards (4.5 yards per carry) with 10 touchdowns. He averaged 78.5 yards per game on the ground and also added 11 receptions.

Walker finished the season with just 14 carries each in losses to Nebraska and Minnesota as the Badgers lost their last five games, stumbled to a 5-7 record (3-6 in Big Ten Conference games).

Hailing from Las Vegas, Walker joined OU as a walk-on out of junior college and was never placed on scholarship by Brent Venables. The 5-foot-9, 215-pound Walker was the Sooners' most productive back early in the 2023 season but was passed on the depth chart by Gavin Sawchuk.

Walker sat out for the Sooners’ 2023 home game against UCF due to what Venables described as an “in-house suspension.”

The former juco standout surpassed 100 yards twice in 2023, with 117 yards on 21 carries against SMU in Week 2 and tallying a career-high 146 rushing yards and a touchdown in OU’s loss at Kansas.

Walker also scored two touchdowns in the Red River Rivalry to help the Sooners take down the Texas Longhorns.

Despite his walk-on status with the Sooners, Walker was DeMarco Murray's second-leading rusher in 2023.

In his 2024 breakout season with the Badgers, Walker had an impressive midseason stretch in which he rushed for 94 yards and three touchdowns on 19 carries against Purdue, 198 yards and three TDs on 24 carries at Rutgers, 126 yards on 23 carries at Northwestern and 59 yards and a touchdown against Penn State. He also rushed for 97 yards on 20 carries against Oregon.

Walker said when he was listed atop the Week 1 depth chart at OU in 2023, it surprised him a little because for a long time, he “thought (Murray) didn’t like me.

“He was just on me,” Walker said. “That’s how he coaches. I just was not used to that. I’m used to being like, just the coach being my best friend, being real cool. Like at my junior college, they never — I was just, could do anything I wanted at my junior college. Here, it’s just the opposite. You have to earn it.

“I was just hard-headed my first year. Just wasn’t ready. Just wasn’t humble. I didn’t take it in. He’s a great coach, I just had to adapt to it and listen to what he said. Because he was never steering me wrong, I just was hard-headed and wasn’t humble enough to understand that last year." 

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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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