“Women Want to Hear Women With Elaina” Featuring Carrie Underwood

“Women Want to Hear Women With Elaina” Featuring Carrie Underwood

Posted on September 3, 2018

When I launched the Women Want to Hear Women podcast with Nash Country Daily on June 15, I had no idea how far this campaign would come in less than three months.

After nine amazing episodes, I’m excited to tell you that we now have a platform on the Westwood One Podcast Network—and our first episode on the network features none other than Carrie Underwood, one of the most popular and powerful artists in country music.

Carrie has always championed women. She is one of the people who inspired me to create this podcast to share women’s stories. When Carrie agreed to be my first guest for the national launch on Westwood One, I couldn’t wait for her to share her experiences, outlook and insight. Carrie did NOT disappoint. She was incredibly open and passionate about the “Women Want to Hear Women” message. We covered a lot of ground in this interview, from the lack of opportunities for females on country radio and how to handle haters on social media to women being pitted against each other and how to be the BOSS.

I encourage you to listen to every word, because what Carrie has to say is important. Let’s keep this conversation going. Enjoy!

Podcast Participants:

  • Carrie Underwood
  • Elaina Smith, host of WWTHW

Videos:

  • Carrie talks about her Cry Pretty Tour 360 that will launch in May 2019 with Maddie & Tae and Runaway June.
  • Carrie talks about female artists not getting the same opportunities as male artists.

Elaina curates the Cry Pretty Tour 360 Playlist

Need a refresher what #WomenWantToHearWomen is all about?
Past episodes: 
Kacey Musgraves
Dolly Parton
Carly Pearce
Shawna Thompson of Thompson Square
Tegan Marie
Clare Dunn
Stephanie Quayle 
Sarah Darling
Rachel Reinert

Jimmy’s blog: West Virginia passing attack overwhelms Vols

Jimmy’s blog: West Virginia passing attack overwhelms Vols

Posted on September 2, 2018

By Jimmy Hyams

Tennessee showed signs Saturday of going in the right direction in the debut of first-year coach Jeremy Pruitt.

But, as expected, the Vols’ pass defense was no match for West Virginia’s aerial attack in the season opener at Charlotte as the Mountaineers rolled 40-14, easily beating the 10-point spread.

Mountaineer preseason All-American quarterback Will Grier torched the Vols for a career-high 429 yards and five touchdowns, hitting 25 of 34 throws against a secondary that played three true freshman.

Grier was particularly effective in the second half, throwing for 275 yards and four scores. He picked apart UT with strikes to David Sills V (seven catches, 140 yards, two touchdowns) and Gary Jennings (six for 113, one score) after a lackluster first half in which he hit 9 of 15 passes for 154 yards.

This was simply a case of Tennessee not having enough talent in the secondary to cover WVA’s wideouts. It was also a case of Grier making some pinpoint throws and his receivers making nice catches.

Tennessee kept it close in the first half, thanks to a nine-minute 17-play drive that left Grier and Co. on the bench. The Vols’ touchdown drive cut WVA’s lead to 10-7 in the second quarter and it appeared the Vols might make a game of it. UT trailed 13-7 at halftime.

“I liked the way we played the first half,’’ said Pruitt, who called the defensive signals. “But we didn’t play very smart. We made lots of mistakes on the offensive line.’’

Yet, UT had gone toe-to-toe with the 17th-ranked team in the country.

But after an 85-minute weather delay at halftime, the Vols didn’t seem like the same team. Did the delay impact the Vols?

“Give Dana (Holgorsen, WVA head coach) and his staff credit,’’ Pruitt said. “We had the same amount of time (to make adjustments) as they did.’’

While the Mountaineers’ offense was heating up, UT had no answers.

Despite the 26-point margin of defeat, Tennessee had some bright moments.

Quarterback Jarrett Guarantano was 19 of 25 for 172 yards and fired some impressive bullets to Marquez Callaway and Jauan Jennings. He looked more accurate and more decisive than at any time last season.

“I thought in the first half Jarrett kept his poise,’’ Pruitt said. “He got put in some bad looks and made some bad plays. But he didn’t try to do something he couldn’t do.

“Jarrett’s tough …. He’s a tough kid. And he’ll only get better.’’

Backup running back Tim Jordan, subbing for the injured Ty Chandler (head), had a career-high 118 yards on 20 carries, showing toughness and determination.

“It’s not surprising,’’ Pruitt said. “Tim has been one of our better competitors since we got here.’’

The run defense, which allowed over 250 yards per game last year, held WVA to 118 yards. But overall, it’s hard to give the defense a better grade than a D as the Mountaineers rolled up 574 yards, 26 first downs and scored a touchdown on five of 10 possessions.

“The defense has got to execute better,’’ Pruitt said. “Some guys played well on defense. We’ve got to get all 11 playing well.’’

Darrin Kirkland Jr., who missed last season with knee injuries, led the Vols with 10 tackles, an encouraging sign.

The final score could have been closer had the Vols cashed in on a fourth-quarter drive that reached the WVA 2-yard line. A touchdown with 7 minutes left would have cut the margin to 33-21. But a fourth-down incompletion and an ensuing 98-yard WVA drive sealed the deal.

A big difference in the halves was third down. WVA converted 5 of 6 in the second half after going 0 for 3 in the first half. Meanwhile, the Vols were 0 for 4 in the second half after making 5 of 10 in the first half, twice making third-and-8.

Pruitt said the Vols played 30 good minutes against West Virginia. That might be enough to beat East Tennessee State and UTEP, but it won’t cut it against any team in the SEC.

Bottom line: UT must improve its pass defense and run game if it hopes to achieve a .500 season.

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Tennessee postgame quotes – Belk College Kickoff

Tennessee postgame quotes – Belk College Kickoff

Posted on September 2, 2018
Bank of America Stadium / Credit: WNML Staff

Tennessee Head Coach Jeremy Pruitt
First off I want to give credit to West Virginia. Those guys got better as the game went, which is what a good football team is supposed to do. We didn’t. I thought our guys fought hard in the first half. We had some costly penalty’s, some lack of execution…against a good team like that, a good quarterback you can’t give them a whole lot of time. I don’t know how much pressure we got on the quarterback and he got away from us…in the second half the guy made some throws. Made some throws, made some catches and we’ve got to find a way to get around.

What went from being a very close football game…basically with a little bit lack of execution, and execution on their part…gets out of hand just like that. That’s what happens when you have a team that’s very well coached, he’s got a good trigger man, knows how to protect, and knows what he’s doing with the football. He does a great job. You can try to disguise and muddy the looks all you want, the guy’s got a lot of experience and he’s got some really good receivers on the other side that made some plays.

Offensively for us in the first half we really shot ourselves in the foot. Those guys did a really good job mixing up the looks. Way too many negative plays…too many negative plays, we got behind the down and distance. We put a good drive together, 17 plays at one point, got us back in the football game and we did some good things as the game went. There’s a lot of positives, lot of positives, but the most important thing is who wins and loses the game. We didn’t win today and West Virginia did and they deserved to win.

I’m going to look at our football team and I’m going to take the things that we did well, and there’s lots of things that we did well. Probably one of the biggest problems that we had is that we were inconsistent and we’ve got to be able to do that. If you’re going to be a good football team you can’t make mental mistakes. You’ve got to play with good technique and you’ve got to do a good job communicating.

We’ve got some things that we can go back and build on. If we’d have won this game we’d been 1-0…What does that mean? It means we’re 1-0. We lost it, we’re 0-1. I’m not real happy about that but somebody’s going to lose and unfortunately today it was us. We can either wallow in it or we can sit here and figure out a way to make us better and I think that’s what our guys will try to do.

On impressions of Will Grier:
I’ll tell you something about him and it really impressed me. Our offense kept the ball in the first half, I think we had 20 minutes to their 8 minutes in the first half. I thought he did a really good job not being impatient, letting the game come to him which shows maturity, it shows that he is very well coached. And when he got the looks that he was looking for he took advantage of it. He executed and those guys did a nice job and made a couple of really nice catches. Great throws, nice catches into the right coverage. To answer your question, he’s really good.

Tennessee Running Back Tim Jordan

On the 100-yard day
I had a 100-yard day – I had an okay day but we lost. We couldn’t secure a couple plays and need to execute better.

On if you knew you were going to get a lot of carries today…
I knew I had to step up a little bit today and I tried to do that.

When did you find out you were the guy?
Right before the game.

Coach’s message after the game?
We’ve got to execute and do our jobs better.

Tennessee Defensive Lineman Shy Tuttle

Thoughts after the game…
WV executed and we didn’t. we made a lot of mistakes and they didn’t especially in the 2nd half

On Will Grier after halftime…
He was making the right throws and that was it.

On him getting out of the pocket… 
That’s part of it. As the rush you have to contain the QB.

On difference between first half and second half…
We didn’t match their intensity in the second half.

What was the message from coach after the game…
That we made too many mistakes. They capitalized on our mistakes.

Coach has been talking about intensity – did you see that carry over to the game?
Yes. 100%. Our play was inconsistent. We have to pick it up from here on out. You can’t come into the game and do stuff you haven’t been doing all week.

How do you fix something like that?
It starts with practice. It starts with film study. We have to come out with a higher energy in practice and have that carry over into the game. It’s stuff that you haven’t been practicing that you have to prepare for.

Is it nice to have an easier 2 games next before Florida rolls into town?
I mean we go into every week expecting to win every game. It’s about ourselves and not the other team – that’s the way I try to look at it. No matter who we have next, we are preparing to win.

Do you think things snowballed? One mistake to another?
No. After one play, things clear. You have to go get it. We have to pick up our intensity.

Did you see Tim Jordan’s runs? What did you think of him?
Yes. Tim is our heart. He went out there and did what he was supposed to do.

What do you learn from a game like this?
We came out with high intensity in the first half. In the second half we let it get to us. We got lackadaisical and couldn’t keep up.

What’s the message to the younger guys?
It starts with practice. The intensity in practice.

You’re an older guy – do you relish the chance to get back out there Monday?
Yes. Senior year came fast. I’m ready to get back out there.

On the weather delay – did it affect you guys? What did you do?
We tried to stay focused and stretch. No I don’t think it affected us.

Tennessee Tight End Dominick Wood-Anderson

On coach’s decision to go for it on 4th down – what does that say?
That he has confidence in us.

What was coaches message after the game?
We’ve got to execute better. Shout out to West Virginia, they wanted it more.

What did you guys do at halftime with the rain delay?
Same thing as always- just breaking down the defense.

Did they do anything different on defense than what they showed on film?
No. they did everything the film showed us. It’s just us having the execute better.

The first play of the game was a fumble and you got hit pretty good
It’s football – those things happen.

-UT Athletics

 

Jordan Shines as Vols Fall to #17 West Virginia in Opener

Jordan Shines as Vols Fall to #17 West Virginia in Opener

Posted on September 2, 2018
Vols RB Tim Jordan / Credit: UT Athletics

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Tennessee fell to No. 17 West Virginia, 40-14, to open the 2018 season Saturday in the Belk College Kickoff at Bank of America Stadium.

The Volunteers now turn their focus to next Saturday’s home-opener against ETSU. Kickoff for that contest—which marks first-year UT head coach Jeremy Pruitt‘s Neyland Stadium debut—is set for 4 p.m. ET (SEC Network).

All-American West Virginia quarterback Will Grier led a high-powered Mountaineers offense that came to life in the second half—scoring 27 points over the final 30 minutes. Grier finished the game having completed 25 of 34 passes for 429 yards and five touchdowns.

Tennessee won the time of possession and played turnover-free football Saturday but was outgained 547-301 in total yardage. West Virginia averaged 9.0 yards per play on offense and totaled 12 tackles for loss on defense.

After appearing in nine games and making six starts a season ago, redshirt sophomore Jarrett Guarantano earned the opening-day start at quarterback for the Vols and was 19-of-25 passing for 172 yards and a touchdown. His 19 completions were a career-high.

Sophomore running back Tim Jordan enjoyed his best game as a Vol, logging career-highs for carries (20) and rushing yards (118) and scoring his first collegiate touchdown. Marquez Callaway led the Tennessee receiving corps with a career-best seven catches for 85 yards.

Linebacker Darrin Kirkland Jr. led UT’s defense with 10 tackles, and safety Nigel Warrior added eight stops.

The Mountaineers opened the game’s scoring with a 26-yard field goal on their first offensive possession. They then extended their lead to 10-0 via a 59-yard touchdown pass by Grier with less than four minutes to play in the first quarter.

Tennessee’s first scoring drive of the Pruitt era was an impressive, 17-play march that covered 78 yards in 8:47 in the second quarter. On fourth-and-goal from the WVU 1-yard line, Gaurantano—who completed five of six passes during the drive—found first-year tight end Dominick Wood-Anderson in the end zone to cut the Mountaineers’ lead to three, 10-7.

West Virginia added a field goal as the second-quarter clock expired to take a 13-7 lead into halftime.

WVU’s first two possessions of the third quarter both ended with Grier touchdown passes. His second and third TD strikes of the day went to David Sills V and Gary Jennings, and the Vols found themselves facing a 20-point deficit.

The Vols were quick to counter with a 4-yard scoring scamper by Jordan. His first-career touchdown capped a five-play, 75-yard drive for the Big Orange.

But another Grier touchdown strike, which came on the ensuing drive, pushed the WVU lead to 19 points (the Mountaineers’ attempt at a two-point conversion failed). A fifth Grier TD toss with two minutes remaining in the game brought the final score to 40-14.

“There’s always something you can learn,” Tennessee starting offensive guard Ryan Johnson said of the setback. “Every game, every snap, has a lesson in it. We’re going to go back and focus on (ETSU) now.”

Saturday’s game featured an 85-minute halftime due to a weather delay (lightning strikes within an eight-mile radius) that began after the teams left the field.

Tennessee’s opening-day captains were sophomore running back Ty Chandler, senior linebacker Jonathan Kongbo, senior defensive lineman Kyle Phillips and junior tight end Eli Wolf.

The game’s attendance was 66,793.

-UT Athletics

 

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