NFL draft prospect Walter Rouse was first an aspiring surgeon at Penn’s summer program

Oklahoma left tackle Walter Rouse has been in the lab preparing for his future careers, both in football and in medicine.

Long before he put on pads for the Sooners on Saturdays as a fifth-year transfer in 2023, he slipped on surgical gloves at a four-week summer medical program at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine before his junior year in high school. The NFL draft prospect from Silver Spring, Md., lived on Penn’s campus and spent his days dissecting cow hearts and pigs, furthering his interest in becoming a pediatric cardiothoracic surgeon.

“I’ve always wanted to just help people,” Rouse told The Inquirer at the NFL Scouting Combine in February. “Even before I got into sports.”

That desire to help others was sparked in part by the death of his aunt who had Down syndrome and a related medical condition affecting her heart in 2017. Rouse completed the program at Penn shortly before Stanford offered him an athletic scholarship, going on to earn 39 starts in 40 games over the course of four years while completing a degree in biomedical engineering. But he put his goal of going to medical school and becoming a surgeon on hold when he transferred to Oklahoma for his final season of eligibility after suffering a shoulder injury in his senior year.

Now, after protecting quarterback Dillon Gabriel’s blindside for a season and allowing just one quarterback hit and four hurries (no sacks) on 421 pass-blocking snaps according to Pro Football Focus, the 6-foot-6, 313-pound Rouse is ready to pursue his other dream: playing in the NFL.

“I’m truly thankful for everything that Oklahoma, Coach [Bill] Bedenbaugh, Coach [Brent] Venables have done for me,” said Rouse, a likely Day 3 pick. “I really think they have elevated my game. I’m at a point right now where I’m better than I was last year if I was going to come out.”

At a young age, football failed to capture Rouse’s interest. He gravitated toward basketball instead, following in the footsteps of his late grandfather Walter “Vic” Rouse, who scored the winning basket in overtime of the 1963 NCAA championship game for Loyola University of Chicago against Cincinnati.

A pair of misconceptions initially soured Rouse on football. He recalled his mother, Hillary Lucas, taking him to a Pop Warner tryout, where he competed among an older age group due to his bigger frame for his age. On a sweltering day, Rouse — who considered himself a germophobe at the time — refused to drink any water because he thought that he had to put his mouth directly on the communal Gatorade bottles.

He also thought the shoulder pads he would be required to wear had to be pinned into the skin in order to stay put.

“I know it sounds crazy,” Rouse laughed. “And so that’s my earliest memory of football. And at that time, my mom was like, ‘OK, you know what? We’re going to stick with basketball. We’ll come back to football later.’”

When Rouse revisited football in high school, he immediately earned a spot on the team as the starting left tackle at Sidwell Friends in Washington as a freshman. One state football championship and two DCSAA all-state offensive line nods later, all while also participating in basketball and track, Rouse was a four-star recruit coming out of high school.

Not only did Rouse carve out a prominent role on the football field at Stanford, becoming the second freshman to start at left tackle dating back to 2000, but also he continued to develop his passion for medicine. He “fell in love” with 3D printing, prompting a new goal of eventually obtaining a master’s degree in mechanical engineering.

“I want to do research with that,” Rouse said. “Maybe one day help create synthetic organs so we don’t have to worry about organ transplants because we’ll 3D print you a liver or something.”

After he transferred to Oklahoma for his fifth year, Rouse’s skills and smarts — both on the football field and in the classroom — were apparent to his teammates. Center Andrew Raym recalled looking over at Rouse’s notes in team meetings and being struck by their orderly nature.

But his perception of Rouse’s intelligence wasn’t rooted in his note-taking alone. Rouse understood schemes and other lessons with apparent ease, which complemented his athleticism and translated into his performance on the field. He took over the starting left tackle spot previously occupied by Anton Harrison, now with the Jacksonville Jaguars, holding down the blindside opposite top right tackle prospect Tyler Guyton.

“He’s a big guy,” Raym said of Rouse. “He’s super athletic and strong. He’s smart. He doesn’t get out of position all too often. So he’s got pretty much every characteristic you can look for in a football player.”

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While Rouse played almost exclusively at left tackle throughout his college career, he said that teams have inquired throughout the predraft process about his ability to play right tackle or even move inside to guard. At the East-West Shrine Bowl, where Rouse said he met with the Eagles, he took some reps at right tackle.

Rouse has also had the opportunity to learn from NFL tackles, including Lane Johnson, who played at Oklahoma from 2009-12. Not only has Johnson worked out the Oklahoma offensive line during a couple of summer training sessions, but he also has hosted Rouse and a few of his teammates for a workout in his training facility in Oklahoma.

That face time gave Rouse a chance to ask Johnson for pointers on a range of topics, from joint mobility and flexibility to pass sets against defenders. With all of the knowledge he has accumulated both on and off the field, Rouse is ready for the next phase of his career, beginning with the NFL draft.

“I want to play in the league for 10-plus years,” Rouse said. “But I definitely do want to become a doctor one day. That’s also been a dream of mine. And willing to help people in any way possible.”