NORMAN, Okla. — Last weekend, the Sooners scored a little bit of a shocker switch addition in former Stanford offensive sort out Walter Rouse. The 6-foot-6, 318-pounder introduced his dedication to Oklahoma Saturday afternoon, switching from Nebraska.
Now, 247Sports/CBSSports.com’s Carl Reed caught up with him completely to get his ideas on simply what went into the choice to flip.
“Going into the transfer portal was not an idea that I had been thinking about a lot, especially to begin the year, and even at the end of the season,” Rouse stated. “At the end of the year, I wanted to—I was planning on declaring for the draft, and that was that. Nothing was gonna stop me from doing that. But unfortunately, in the third game of the season, I got hurt. I tore my labrum on my right shoulder. And, you know, there was still [a chance]. I could still enter the draft. And I was talking with some agents, and what I heard from different scouts, that I was on a good trajectory. As long as I played well, then I could still do the pre-draft process and I wouldn’t have to get surgery and I could do that with whatever team I was with.
“But after the 12 months, because the 12 months went on and issues did not go my approach and I received injured once more on the identical shoulder, the medical doctors advised me, ‘Okay, you need to get surgery right away.’ And I did not assume it was sensible to go into the pre-draft course of with a surgical procedure the place I’d be recovering 4 to six months, so the All-Star Game, Combine, a Pro Day, none of that. And I did not assume it was sensible. I did not have a adequate 12 months, at the very least for myself, to go into the draft. And folks stated I used to be a day three man or undrafted, and I really feel like at my finest I’m higher than a day three and undrafted man. So, I made the choice at first to come again to Stanford.”
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“Then, in phrases of going to portal, I’ve talked with my household, and I wished to [do what’s best],” Rouse continued. “We determined it is best to discover all of the choices I had out there, too. Going into the portal was a type of choices. And once I went into the portal, I had no intention. At first I had no intention of, ‘Okay, I’m gonna leave Stanford. I’m gonna go elsewhere.’ But I simply wished to discover my choices. I visited some colleges, talked with coaches. And because the weeks went on and whatnot, I noticed that the previous couple years, I felt like at Stanford I hadn’t performed my finest and I wished to go someplace the place I may actually develop and grow to be an elite offensive sort out that I do know I will be, actually push myself going on each on and off the sphere in the burden room, on the sphere and in video games. And that is once I decided to go to these three colleges after which select my college the place I’m at now, Oklahoma.
“And I really feel like that I’m at a place now where I can truly be pushed, I can go into this next season at the best I’ve ever been and then go on to the NFL Draft as a good prospect. And right now this is a one-year business decision. I’m coming from Stanford. I know people might say, ‘What happened to your degree? What’s going on there?’ I still plan on going back to Stanford to finish my degree, and I won’t graduate from Oklahoma. But I’m going here, though, for football, to get to the next level and to be the best player that can be.”
That’s really the bottom line in the decision. It had everything to do with what Rouse thought was best for him in the arena.
“So, going into my three visits I took was Iowa, Nebraska and Oklahoma,” Rouse said. “I had a great time in Oklahoma and in Iowa. And then going into Nebraska, the expectations that I had for Nebraska weren’t that much. I expected a lot of cornfields, rural areas and whatnot. And then when I got there, just right off the bat, I was like, ‘Oh, this Lincoln, Nebraska, you have downtown hotels, place to eat, bars, clubs.’ And first of all, that took me off by surprise. And then the whole visit was great. There wasn’t really anything I could say that I didn’t like about it, and especially coming off of that trip. I think because of the low, some of the low expectations that I had for it, and how surprised I was, I really think that really propelled it higher than it should have been. And one of the things that I think I should have done much better at—and this is my fault—was that I should have taken more time to really consider my options and my decision, because this is a big decision for me. And I think at the time, I was like, ‘Nebraska is the place I need to be. I have a great relationship with the coaches. The players there are great, good facilities.’ But the more I thought about it, especially after I had committed to Nebraska, that next day I was really just [unsure]. I was conflicted.
“You know, I wasn’t really talking to anybody. I was really just thinking with myself like, ‘Did I truly make the right decision for myself?’ And I think I came down off of the high that I was at when I was at Nebraska with that being the last trip. And the more I thought about it, the more I thought that Oklahoma was the place that I needed to be. And it wasn’t anything Nebraska did wrong. They didn’t rub me the wrong way or anything like that. It truly was just on my end, and I really felt that I wouldn’t have been as happy as I would be at Oklahoma or anywhere else. And so then I made the decision to go to switch to Oklahoma.
“Now, I could have stuck it out with Nebraska because I do believe I’m a great player and I can be an even better one and I’ll be successful wherever I go. But I don’t truly feel I would have been happy. And if I tried to make myself or tried to force it to make it work, it would have been a lot worse. And so I knew I would get a lot of backlash for that, and I accepted those consequences, and then I made the decision on Saturday to just go to Oklahoma.”
Rouse, as talked about the opposite day, is a four-year faculty starter who has already performed 2,552 snaps in his faculty profession courting again to 2019. He graded out with a 67.3 per Pro Football Focus this previous season.
He was a finalist in 2022 for the William V. Campbell Trophy, awarded to the American faculty soccer participant with one of the best mixture of teachers, neighborhood service and on-field efficiency. It is thought to be the ‘Academic Heisman’ in the collegiate soccer area. Rouse turned Stanford’s fifteenth all-time finalist for the respect.
As that will all point out, Rouse can also be fairly achieved off the sphere. When he does ultimately return to Stanford, he’ll end his biomechanics engineering diploma.
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