Towering offensive tackle Walter Rouse excited for future at Stanford
Walter Rouse is already a well-traveled young man who is comfortable making multiple cross-country trips on his own. He played an all-star game in Mexico City in December, attended Big Visit Jan. 12-13 and is eager to get to work on The Farm.
Rouse has a megawatt smile and you can tell he's wearing one when he talks with Cardinal Sports Reports about how close the 2019 recruits are to each other. Every scholarship recruit who signed Dec. 19 was at Stanford for Big Visit, and so was walk-on signee Ryan Sanborn.
"No one wanted to leave," Rouse laughed. "We can’t wait until June when we all get back together. That’s going to be my new family for the next four or five years. I’m happy and excited about that. We all instantly became friends."
Rouse visited Stanford three times previously, but no other experience compares to the BIg Visit in terms of what's packed into 48 hours. He was in love with all of it, starting with the first breakfast: "I love food. I love to eat. That was one of the highlights. The food was amazing. I had about three plates of food my first time there."
Rouse is interested in studying medicine but in general science and putting things together fascinate him. He enjoyed a tour of the Volkswagen Automotive Innovation Lab. His impressive academic interests -- he attended medical programs at Penn and SMU during summers in high school -- fits in well with the stereotype of an offensive linemen.
Linemen have to work together as a unit and take in a lot of information to make calls to make sure that the play has a chance to succeed. Rouse is one of six offensive linemen who will arrive this summer. Walk-on Wakely Lush also is committed but wasn't on campus for Big Visit.
Stanford's coaches held position group meetings with the visitors and offensive line coach Kevin Carberry had an attentive audience.
"Coach Carberry talked about how they had more than their fair share of injuries on the line and about all their changeups," Rouse recalled. "Now you have the people leaving, so this was a really big class for the O-line. You don’t normally take five offensive linemen in one class. We’re basically a whole starting five. I think out all the groups ... we bonded the most because we have to be the smartest people on the field and I say we’re in the trenches doing the work. They’re all good guys and I can’t wait to work with them, and compete against them during practices, and win games with them.
"One of the things that makes Coach Carberry a great coach is that he’s not always talking about football. When he came to visit me, or talks on the phone, he’s more like a friend. He can talk to me about anything."
Carberry is excited to work with Rouse for the same reason schools from throughout the country offered the Maryland native. He is pushing 6-7, and is about 300 pounds, and he has exciting, raw athletic potential that shows when he moves better than most his size.
He participated in the Pro Football Hall of Fame World Bowl in Mexico City, which might be his last game as a prep player.
"I surprised myself. I did a lot better than I thought I would do. I recorded it and watched the game again. There always will be room for improvement. I’m really glad I was able to participate in the game because I could see what I did wrong. It also was good to play another game of football. I was really sad playing my last high school game. I really wanted to get back onto the field."
Rouse is working on consistency with his pass sets -- such as making sure he takes the right steps to combat defenders correctly based on how close they are -- and to keep his hands inside on run blocking.
Before he works on technique with Carberry, he'll experience strength and conditioning coach Shannon Turley's training program. Turley spoke with the recruits during Big Visit and Rouse enjoyed it while understanding how he feels about Turley may soon change.
"He’s a funny guy. I know that’s not what I’m going to being saying in June," he laughed.