Diamond Vols Podcast: Kent State series recap

GoVols247: A Tennessee Volunteers athletics podcast

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4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 24 February 2026

⏱️ 98 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

After GoVols247's Ben McKee and former Tennessee baseball pitcher Will Heflin take a moment to remember Wes Rucker, the two dive into what went wrong for the Vols in their series loss over the weekend to Kent State.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome in to the Diamond Falls podcast on Govall's 247.com. I'm Ben McKee, and I am joined by Will Heflin on this Monday, February 23rd edition of the podcast.
0:12.0	They podcast that Will and I have not been looking forward to for many reasons. It's not going to be fun to talk about Tennessee baseball's weekend inside of
0:22.5	Lindsay Nelson Stadium. But obviously, baseball is the furthest thing from what's most important
0:29.9	and what's on the forefront of our minds this weekend. And I just can't believe that we're even having to talk about this,
0:39.0	and that's that.
0:40.2	Our good friend West Rucker has passed away, as you all know by now.
0:46.4	Will and I were supposed to record a podcast Thursday night
0:49.2	to preview the Kent State series and just to our typical preview podcast and unfortunately
0:57.6	found out right after dinner that Wes had tragically passed away in a car accident
1:05.3	on Thursday afternoon and we've just kind of been shaken up, quite frankly, since then, and did not,
1:14.2	A, would not have been right to record a podcast, but more importantly, it's just our, our hearts
1:19.1	and mine were not in it.
1:21.4	I don't want to speak for Will, but I know that I was rattled on Thursday.
1:26.2	I believe Will was as well. I'm still a bit rattled
1:29.5	starting to come out of the fog. That doesn't seem real that this took place was, man, he was
1:37.1	he was the definition of a unique person and the definition of one of a kind. And that's what made
1:43.0	him such a great person and so lovable in so many ways and I just still cannot wrap my head around his his tragic passing and going to miss him dearly and our heart breaks for for Wes heartbreaks for Lauren, his wife, who is expecting, and they have a daughter that's due here in the next couple of months.
2:08.5	And then, of course, you all are familiar with Hank's story as well.
2:14.1	Wes's four-year-old son.
2:16.0	And Wes had a huge family, a big family that he loved dearly
2:19.1	beyond Lauren, Hank, and baby girl that's on the way. Gus was obviously a big talking
2:25.5	point for West as well. You all know how much he loved Gus right there with Hank. So just a
	...

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