NORMAN — When Jesse Walker introduces himself to a new person, he always feels compelled to add a footnote.
“My real name is Brian.”
Walker was born to a 14-year-old mother and his grandmother helped raise him. She read somewhere that the name “Jesse” means “a gift from God,” so she started calling him that.
“The name just stuck,” Walker said.
Walker, now a redshirt sophomore safety, is the latest Sooner to be featured in The Oklahoman’s “Walk-on Wednesday” series, which focuses each week on a non-scholarship OU football player.
He played sports at Westmoore and graduated from high school in 2008, but took four years off from school and worked.