No regrets for Rouse
You just never know how you’re going to act in that position until you’re the one that’s actually going through it.
Offensive tackle Walter Rouse used to wonder what recruits and players were thinking when they would commit to one school on a day and then flip their commitment shortly after.
It never made sense to him.
“I’d never do that,” said Rouse when asked by SoonerScoop.com last week. “That’s not the type of player I am.”
Whoops. Of course, that’s absolutely what happened with Rouse, and it all paid off for OU. And no second-guessing all the way around.
After a stellar career at Stanford, Rouse entered the transfer portal. He was down to Iowa, OU and Nebraska.
Breaking it down more after the visits, and it was really down to the Huskers and Sooners. This is where Rouse wishes he had done things just a little bit differently.
Rouse picked Nebraska, initially.
“I do regret me committing to Nebraska because I wish I took more time to consider my decision,” Rouse said. “That’s a learning lesson.”
Rouse picked the Huskers on a Wednesday night, and by Saturday afternoon he was moving in permanently in Norman and a part of the Sooners program.
“I have no regrets,” he said. “I’m happy to be at Oklahoma.”
Rouse remembers after making the Husker decision just locking himself in his room and wrestling with himself about his decision.
Something didn’t sit right. Rouse and OU offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh knew each other from when Bedenbaugh recruited Rouse coming out of high school.
Rouse giving it a second thought led to a massive victory for the Sooners and a huge hit at a position of need.
The Sooners needed an experienced offensive tackle to enter the fray. OU saw its two starting tackles, Anton Harrison and Wanya Morris, leave early for the NFL Draft. Both, for what it’s worth, have been invited to the NFL Draft Combine, so you feel like they made a pretty good move.
A good move for them, but it put the Sooners in a bind. There weren’t many guys who checked as many boxes as Rouse, which is why Bedenbaugh and staff simply were not about to let Rouse go away so easily.
“He's a massive athlete on the offensive line,” head coach Brent Venables said. “He's had an outstanding career, very successful career at Stanford. I love, in a day and age where it could've been easy for him, 'I'm going to get this postseason surgery and go to the NFL,' he had a great deal of humility and looked at the man in the mirror and said, 'I'm not where I know I'm capable of being as a player, mentally and physically. I need to improve. I need to get better. I need to be in a different type of environment that'll strain me in a different type of way.’
“He's got a big personality, really sharp, incredibly intelligent, really neat young man and meets a tremendous need for us on the offensive line there at tackle.”
Rouse checks that box off for the Sooners for the season, but the door is open during the spring. Rouse tore his labrum early last season with the Cardinal and didn’t decide to get surgery until December.
He said it would be nice for him to be out there in the spring, but he’s counting on his experience to help him get through it and miss a beat. Rouse said he’s on his way to a full recovery and will be ready, absolutely, for the season.
When you go back and forth like Rouse did with the Huskers and the Sooners, it’s natural to always wonder about what might have been.
Now more than a month in Norman, though, it’s not an issue for Rouse. He knows he’s a Sooner. He knows he’s home.
“And I can truly say with all my heart, I don’t regret this one bit,” Rouse said. “Oklahoma was the school for me. And while I know it’s not in good taste — even me when I’d see other players flip, I’d say I’d never do that. That’s not the type of player I am. I know the people in Nebraska definitely disagree, and I wish it did not go down that way. But because of what I felt I had to do what was right for me and my family.”