Luke Bryan’s Crash My Party has been named the ACM Album of the Decade.
Luke was presented with the award during his performance at the 11th annual Opry Goes Pink showcase in Nashville on Oct. 22. The recipients of the award include Luke, the album’s producer, Jeff Stevens, and Capitol Records Nashville.
“Crash My Party was such a life changing album for us,” said Luke from the Opry stage. “We didn’t know it at the time, we were just loving making music for you guys. It blew my mind the love and support we had from the fans. It’s so fun getting to do this. Thank you to my producer Jeff and my record label and management for sharing this experience with me tonight!”
The ACM Album of the Decade Award recognizes an album that has impacted country music over the decade. The factors considered include success at radio of singles released from album, album concept, commercial media, sales and streaming, artistic merit and ACM Award recognition.
Luke’s four-time Platinum selling album, Crash My Party, produced by Jeff Stevens, was released in 2013 and featured six consecutive No. 1 singles: “Crash My Party,” “That’s My Kind of Night,” “Drink A Beer,” “Play It Again,” “Roller Coaster” and “I See You.”
The Academy of Country Music recently announced the addition of seven new ACM Decade Awards: Song of the Decade, Album of the Decade, Artist-Songwriter of the Decade, Breakout Artist of the Decade, Single of the Decade, Songwriter of the Decade and Music Event of the Decade.
Previously announce recipients of the ACM Decade Awards include:
ACM Song of the Decade: Miranda Lambert and songwriters Tom Douglas and Allen Shamblin – “The House That Built Me”
ACM Songwriter of the Decade: Rhett Akins
ACM Artist-Songwriter of the Decade: Chris Stapleton
ACM Breakout Artist of the Decade: Florida Georgia Line
ACM Single of the Decade: Florida Georgia Line – “Cruise”
ACM Musical Event of the Decade: Florida Georgia Line & Bebe Rexha – “Meant to Be”
Tennessee offensive lineman Trey Smith spoke to the media in a group session on Tuesday to review the Alabama game and look ahead to Saturday’s home game vs. South Carolina.
Vols OL Trey Smith / Credit: 99.1 The Sports Animal
Tennessee running back Tim Jordan spoke to the media in a group session on Tuesday to review the Alabama game and look ahead to Saturday’s home game vs. South Carolina.
Vols RB Tim Jordan / Credit: 99.1 The Sports Animal
Tennessee true freshman safety Jaylen McCollough spoke to the media in a group session on Tuesday to review the Alabama game and look ahead to Saturday’s home game vs. South Carolina.
Vols S Jaylen McCollough / Credit: 99.1 The Sports Animal
Tennessee true freshman offensive lineman Wanya Morris spoke to the media in a group session on Tuesday to review the Alabama game and look ahead to Saturday’s home game vs. South Carolina.
Vols OL Wanya Morris / Credit: 99.1 The Sports Animal
Tuesday was a good night for the University of Tennessee.
In the span of an hour late in the night, the Whitehaven High School trio of Bryson Eason, Martavius French and Tamarion McDonald announced their commitments to the Vols. All three boast a four-star rating, per Rivals, and will figure into the defensive plans for UT next season.
Eason and French are inside linebackers and should provide depth to a position that is currently depleted on the Tennessee roster.
Eason, who stands in at 6-foot-2 and 230 pounds, is the 11th rated prospect at his position and seventh in the state of Tennessee. French, 6-foot-3 and 235 pounds, is just ahead as the 10th inside linebacker in the country and sixth-rated prospect in the state.
The former led the charge by committing to UT first.
All three players were in house for Tennessee’s loss to Georgia on October 5 and visited Arkansas last weekend.
The latter was the final part of the trifecta who picked up an offer from Tennessee in late September. While on a visit to Whitehaven High School, Tennessee’s coaches watched McDonald play and offered him after the game.
McDonald, 6-foot-2 and 215 pounds, is listed as an outside linebacker per Rivals – but plays all over the field for his high school team. In a recent interview on Vol Radio Network’s ‘The Nation,’ Whitehaven coach Rodney Saulsberry said, ‘he can literally do anything.’
The athlete has seen time at each linebacker spot, safety, quarterback, wide receiver, tight end and is even the team’s punter.
McDonald told The Sports Animal’s Eric Cain in a recent interview that Tennessee is toiling with the idea of potentially using him as a bigger nickelback.
It was a goal for Jeremy Pruitt to lockdown in-state athletes when initially taking over the program in December of 2017. It was a goal for Eason, French and McDonald to play college football together.
Tuesday night, the two goals look to be reached.
The Vols now have 17 known commitments for the Class of 2020 and have jumped up to 19th nationally and seventh in the Southeastern Conference – per Rivals.
Tennessee outside linebacker Darrell Taylor spoke to the media in a group session on Tuesday to review the Alabama game and look ahead to Saturday’s home game vs. South Carolina.
Vols OLB Darrell Taylor / Credit: 99.1 The Sports Animal
Tennessee defensive end Matthew Butler spoke to the media in a group session on Tuesday to review the Alabama game and look ahead to Saturday’s home game vs. South Carolina.
Vols DE Matthew Butler / Credit: 99.1 The Sports Animal
Tennessee tight end Austin Pope spoke to the media in a group session on Tuesday to review the Alabama game and look ahead to Saturday’s home game vs. South Carolina.
Vols TE Austin Pope / Credit: 99.1 The Sports Animal
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – After an inspiring performance on the road against No. 1 Alabama, a confident Tennessee team has turned its focus to yet another physical SEC opponent in South Carolina, who visits Neyland Stadium this Saturday afternoon.
“Before the game, we were always confident in our ability and our coaching staff,” freshman defensive back Jaylen McCollough said. “Seeing how we just played against them, it just raised our level of confidence even more. I feel like we can play with anybody in the country. We’re getting better each and every week. We’ve just got to continue to get better to keep gaining confidence.”
McCollough is yet another player in the Vols’ freshman class who has stepped up and made big plays this season. The Georgia native tied his career high with four tackles and also recorded his first-career sack in last Saturday’s contest against the Crimson Tide.
“We had a great play call called by Coach Ansley,” McCollough said when asked about his sack. “We’ve repped that call many times in practice and he told me ‘don’t be late.’ So, I timed it up off the snap. I got a good setup by Bryce Thompson. He set up the back. It left the hole wide open and I just took a shot.”
While the team’s confidence continues the grow by the game, UT knows that the road doesn’t get any easier in the final five games of the season.
“It’s just making sure I’m going to work every day,” junior offensive lineman Trey Smith said. “The mentality and approach stay the same. We’re going to try to execute our plays to the best of our ability.
“Anything the coaches ask us to do we are going to try to execute as well as we can. Moving forward, the standard of play doesn’t change, we just have to keep playing.”
Expect Another Close One
While the Gamecocks enter this weekend’s game with a 3-4 record, the Vols know they’re likely to be in another close game. South Carolina is coming off a close lose at home to Florida but beat then-No. 3 Georgia on the road the week prior.
“South Carolina is a great team defensively,” Smith said. “They are very stout up front, have a lot of great players, a lot of people who play hard. I have a lot of respect for that program and a lot of respect for those players. It’s going to be a hard-fought battle. It’s going to be a war on Saturday.”
The last seven meetings between Tennessee and South Carolina have been one-score games, with six of those seven contests being decided by three points or fewer.
Redshirt senior linebacker Darrell Taylor has been with the program for four of those previous meetings and knows firsthand how competitive this matchup is every year.
“This matchup is always close and always a nail biter, because they’re a good team, we’re a good team and good teams always fight it out until the very end,” Taylor said. “I think we’ll get their best game and they’re going to get ours, so I think it’s going to be a very competitive weekend and we’re going to have fun doing it.”
Jordan Stepping Up in Vols’ Backfield
Junior running back Tim Jordan has provided UT with a spark offensively over the past three weeks, leading the team with 200 yards rushing during that span.
Jordan ran for a season-high 94 yards in Saturday’s loss to the top-ranked Crimson Tide, including a career-long 33-yard rush in the second quarter.
The Bartow, Fla., native stressed the need for himself and the rest of Tennessee’s running backs to continue to play a physical brand of football.
“I know in our room, we press and talk about how physical we want to be,” Jordan said. “We want to be the most physical group on the team and I know we take pride in that.”
Jordan also credited his emergence over the past couple of weeks in large part to the improved play of the offensive line.
“I would say the preparation at practice and the offensive line, with them just gaining confidence and doing what they do,” Jordan said when asked about the team’s recent success in the ground game.
“Every day they come to practice – like everybody – fix mistakes, [make] corrections and develop every day in practice.”
