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wesrucker.bsky.social
Wes Rucker
@wesrucker.bsky.social
1.8K followers 96 following 5.2K posts
Hank's dad. Lauren’s husband. Award-winning and award-losing journalist, now covering the Tennessee Volunteers for WBIR. Two-time learner of walking. Grower of legal flora.
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wesrucker.bsky.social
Wes Rucker @wesrucker.bsky.social · Nov 15
‘Sup, y’all? Welcome on in to my Bluesky page.”
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Wes Rucker @wesrucker.bsky.social · 9h
Farewell from General Neyland’s Big Ol’ Damn House of Football, where No. 12 Tennessee made it closer than necessary but did enough to beat Arkansas.

Tons of coverage already on @wbir and the site and all the smart phone and TV apps. And much more coming all day Sunday.
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Wes Rucker @wesrucker.bsky.social · 11h
A better team than the Chicago Cubs has eliminated the Chicago Cubs, fairly and squarely.

Go get better in the offseason, Cubs. Get the starting pitchers healthy, and get better.

I love you, and this wasn't a bad season. But you're not what you could be. Please go be that.
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Wes Rucker @wesrucker.bsky.social · 13h
OMG.

SEC, how in the hell do you think you'll get away with that?

That is obscene.
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Wes Rucker @wesrucker.bsky.social · 13h
Tennessee junior edge Joshua Josephs on Arkansas QB Taylen Green: He’s big, and he’s a strider. He’s more of a strider than a super quick guy. You can’t let him start striding.
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Wes Rucker @wesrucker.bsky.social · 13h
Tennessee junior edge Joshua Josephs: I said the same thing after the first game that I’m saying now. We’re winning games, but there’s a standard for defense here, and we’re not meeting it.
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Wes Rucker @wesrucker.bsky.social · 13h
Tennessee junior edge Joshua Josephs: I don’t care how many turnovers we forced, how many touchdowns we scored. We are not playing to the standard for our defense. We’re nowhere near our best. That’s too many yards, too many points.
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Wes Rucker @wesrucker.bsky.social · 13h
Tennessee QB Joey Aguilar: I’m good. That ball basically went into my stomach, and that didn’t feel good. But I’m good.
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Wes Rucker @wesrucker.bsky.social · 13h
Tennessee junior LB Arion Carter: Forcing all those turnovers is great, because this game is about production at the end of the day. But we have a lot of things we need to clean up on third down. That’s got to happen.
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Wes Rucker @wesrucker.bsky.social · 13h
Tennessee junior LB Arion Carter after 34-31 win at Arkansas: Their quarterback is a really good player, but we didn’t play our best ball today. We have a lot of things to clean up.
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Wes Rucker @wesrucker.bsky.social · 13h
Tennessee football coach Josh Heupel on freshman receiver Braylon Staley’s injury: He’s behind me dancing and celebrating in the locker room right now. I anticipate him being fine next week [at Alabama].
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Wes Rucker @wesrucker.bsky.social · 13h
Tennessee coach Josh Heupel on the wild SEC parity this season: That’s what our game is now. This league is the top of the food chain, and everybody can go patch their rosters every offseason. There are no holes now. Guy goes down, everybody’s got another guy. Just how it is.
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Wes Rucker @wesrucker.bsky.social · 13h
Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said DeSean Bishop’s injury definitely isn’t a long term concern.
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Wes Rucker @wesrucker.bsky.social · 14h
Tennessee coach Josh Heupel on some calls that quite clearly were missed in tonight’s win over Arkansas: I can’t speak to the explanation [we were given]. I’ll let our fans watch that and judge for themselves.
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Wes Rucker @wesrucker.bsky.social · 14h
Tennessee football coach Josh Heupel: One penalty to 10. That changed the way the game was played. One to 10. Guess we need to be a lot smarter.
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Wes Rucker @wesrucker.bsky.social · 14h
Tennessee coach Josh Heupel: End of the day, it’s a good way to win. Lot of unknowns heading into this one, so we knew it would be tough. Fourth quarter, we obviously need to be better there. But we found a way. Love the competitive makeup of these guys.
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Wes Rucker @wesrucker.bsky.social · 14h
A million things for Tennessee to improve after that sloppy performance, but an SEC win is an SEC win is an SEC win, and Taylen Green is a daggum dude.

Enjoy the win. Clean up the performance. Look forward.
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Wes Rucker @wesrucker.bsky.social · 14h
FINAL IN KNOXVILLE: Tennessee 34, Arkansas 31

Some postgame kerfuffling is being kerfuffled. Sort that out in a bit.
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Wes Rucker @wesrucker.bsky.social · 14h
Arkansas calls a timeout.

Not a Tennessee timeout, though. So Aguilar still sitting out one play, at least.
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Wes Rucker @wesrucker.bsky.social · 14h
Aguilar rumbles for about 30 yards and gets beyond midfield, but he's shaken up.

Maybe he fell on the ball and got winded there. Still haven't seen a replay. He's on his feet, but he's out for at least a play unless Vols call a timeout.
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Wes Rucker @wesrucker.bsky.social · 14h
Touchdown, Arkansas.

Vols dropped back on third-and-long. Which I liked. But with all those bodies, they still left a receiver open in the end zone. That should not be possible.

Tennessee 34, Arkansas 31, 2:55/4thQ
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Wes Rucker @wesrucker.bsky.social · 14h
Tipped ball falls to the ground.

A pick there would have ended it.
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Wes Rucker @wesrucker.bsky.social · 14h
Arkansas in the red zone.

This game is a million miles from the finish line.
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Wes Rucker @wesrucker.bsky.social · 14h
Arkansas gets a stop, and it'll get the ball with a little less than five minutes left.

Tennessee 34, Arkansas 24
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Wes Rucker @wesrucker.bsky.social · 14h
Looks like a shoulder injury for Braylon Staley. While blocking.

He's got 109 yards on five catches tonight.
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Wes Rucker @wesrucker.bsky.social · 14h
Tennessee freshman receiver Braylon Staley injured on a run play for Star Thomas.

Candidly, I didn't see what happened there.
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