by Kahwit Tela | Jul 15, 2021 | Arts and Entertainment, News Slider
Country star and former Lipscomb student Thomas Rhett will be among a star-studded bill of young country hitmakers for “Together: Feeding Nashville,” a benefit concert targeting food insecurity that will be staged August 3 at FirstBank Amphitheater in Franklin. The benefit concert, presented by Bussin’ With The Boys — the podcast featuring Titans offensive tackle Taylor Lewan and linebacker Will Compton — will be a one-night event to raise funds for the nonprofit that focuses on food availability for those in need. The show will feature performances from modern country artists, including superstars Rhett, Maren Morris and Florida Georgia Line. Rhett, who studied communications at Lipscomb before putting his studies away to focus on his music career, landed his first No. 1 single with 2013’s “It Goes Like This.” Since then, Rhett has released five studio albums, headlined four tours, and was nominated for several music awards from the Billboard Music Awards to the Grammy Awards. Other hits have included “Look What God Gave Her,” “Marry Me,” “Crash and Burn” and “Die a Happy Man.” Morris has had such hits as 2016’s Grammy-winning “My Church” (best country solo performance), “I Could Use a Love Song” and “The Bones.” She also is a member of country/americana supergroup The Highwomen along with Brandi Carlile, Amanda Shires and Natalie Hemby. FGL recorded the best-selling digital country single of all time, according to SoundScan, with 11-times platinum breakout “Cruise.” Tyler Hubbard and Bryan Kelley — the members of Florida Georgia Line — have been on a hot streak since their 2012 debut. Their collaboration “Meant to Be” with Bebe Rexha spent 50 weeks on Billboard’s...
by Anastasia Davis | Jan 20, 2020 | News Slider, Sports
A Lipscomb teacher and student have made it to the NFL. Tom Bancroft, artist-in-residence in animation and former Disney animator, has been working on a new project this football season. The illustrated “Titan Man” has been seen going up against a new rival each week leading up to Sunday’s heartbreaking 35-24 loss in the AFC Championship battle with the Kansas City Chiefs. With the help of Hayley Mullins a senior animation major from Erlanger, Kentucky, Bancroft has completed 17 illustrations for the season. Mullins is one of 70 in Lipscomb University’s animation program. Mullins said she has gained invaluable experience with her mentor. “I never thought I’d be able to work with an NFL team,” Mullins said. “I learned a lot working on this project. I wanted to depict the other mascots fairly when coloring, and while it is a form of ‘trash talk,’ I wanted to be as accurate as I could.” Each week during the season, Bancroft began the process of creating “Titan Man” and his next showdown. He began the process by creating two to five rough sketches and worked throughout the week while receiving feedback from the Titans about the finalized design before handing it over to Mullins for coloring. The process took most of the week, finished in time for the Saturday deadline. As with any project, there were some challenges. One restriction was that none of the animal mascots were to be “hurt” in the illustrations. This request came from Tennessee Titans controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk, an avid animal rights activist. “It was a good eye-opener for us to hit that right...
by Tyler Harvey | Jan 15, 2020 | News Slider, Sports
The Tennessee Titans are one win away from advancing to the Super Bowl. The Titans defeated the Baltimore Ravens in Baltimore Saturday night 28-12. Turnovers, unsuccessful fourth-down conversions, and Derrick Henry proved to be too much for the No. 1 seed Ravens to overcome. The Ravens led the NFL this season in scoring by averaging 33.2 PPG, but the Titans defense stopped Baltimore from even scoring a touchdown until the fourth quarter. On the Raven’s first offensive drive Baltimore drove down the field 44-yards before quarterback Lamar Jackson threw an interception that was tipped into the hands of Titans safety Kevin Byard. Once the Titans had the momentum from the turnover, they marched down the field and scored a touchdown thanks to a one-handed catch by tight-end, Jonnu Smith. On the Ravens second drive, Baltimore lost even more momentum when they were unsuccessful in converting a fourth-and-one after Jackson was tackled before he could even gain a yard, giving the ball back to the Titans. The Titans answered immediately when QB Ryan Tannehill threw a 45-yard touchdown pass on the very first play of the drive. The Ravens first two offensive drives proved to be how most of the rest of the game would go for Baltimore’s offense. Baltimore ended the night committing three total turnovers and unable to convert any fourth-down conversions going 0-4. Titans running back Derrick Henry dominated the second half; On the Titans very first drive of the second half, Henry ran for 66-yards on one play before he ended the drive by lining up at the QB position and throwing a 3-yard touchdown pass. It...
by Tyler Harvey | Jan 11, 2020 | News Slider, Sports
The Titans 2019-2020 campaign has been a successful one up to this point, but this has not been without unexpected changes with its starters on the field. Lipscomb Students and Titans fans Juan Oliva and Caleb Williams gave their opinion on the team’s performance thus far, the changes made by the team and the Titans chances of winning. The biggest change the Titans made happened in week six of the season when the Titans went on the road to play the Denver Broncos. Titans coach Mike Vrabel decided to pull starting quarterback Marcus Mariota from the game to start the second half after losing 6-0 up to that point. QB Ryan Tannehill replaced Mariota, and while he didn’t lead the Titans to a come from behind win against the Broncos; Tannehill played well enough that the Titans coaches decided to name him the new starting quarterback for the next game. “I really did think they would play Mariota the whole season because the organization had banked on him so much. Up to that point the organization had seen him as their franchise quarterback,” Oliva said. “While I did think benching him (Mariota) and mixing things up was a good idea, I did think it kind of blew our chance at a postseason,” Williams said. The Titans had 2-4 record at the time of the switch and had lost their last two games. However, the Titans quarterback change sparked a turning point in the season, the team went on to win a wildcard spot for the NFL playoffs this year. Since naming Tannehill, the starter, the Titans have won eight of...
by Tyler Harvey | Sep 16, 2019 | News Slider, Sports
The Tennessee Titans celebrated their home opener against the Indianapolis Colts with a pregame tailgate, and a jersey retirement ceremony for former players Steve McNair and Eddie George, at Nissan Stadium this Sunday The Titans had several pregame activities outside the stadium before the game including games for kids, free face painting, music, and a zipline. During the on-field pregame ceremony, one of the pyrotechnic machines caught on fire. Workers at Nissan Stadium had to grab a fire extinguisher to calm the blaze. The Titans held a ceremony at halftime to retire the jersey numbers of former players Eddie George and Steve McNair. McNair and George were teammates on the Titans for several years, including when they led the Titans to an appearance in Super Bowl XXXIV. During the ceremony, Eddie George spoke along with McNair’s brother. Steve McNair was murdered in 2009, so several of his family members were there to honor him. While the ceremony was going on an artist painted the two most-iconic Titans. The Titans also gave away free flags to fans to celebrate the jersey number retirement of McNair and George. Unfortunately for Titans fans, their team came up two points short of beating the Colts. Tennessee lost to Indianapolis, 19-17 in their home...
