ACM New Female Artist of the Year Award nominee Tenille Arts took part in the ACM Wine Down Wednesday series this week.
Tenille opened by saying, “I’m so excited to be a part of this, first off I just want to thank the ACMs for having me, and 1000 Stories Wine, for letting me be a part of this awesome series for such a great cause. 1000 Stories Wine is actually donating…on behalf of every artist that is a part of this series, they’re donating two-thousand dollars to the ACM Lifting Lives COVID 19 Response fund, and that’s going to directly help people in the country music scene that have really struggled over the past year.”
After expressing her excitement about her very first ACM Award nomination, Tenille also joked that when it came to being a part of ACM Wine Down Wednesday, “I absolutely love anything that involves wine, so I am so here for this!”
If you missed it live — catch the replay of Tenille Arts on this week’s ACM Wine Down Wednesday, right HERE…
You can also see the music video for her Top-10 smash hit “Somebody Like That” right here…
Tennessee sophomore linebacker/defensive end Tyler Baron spoke with the media Wednesday before the team’s first scrimmage of the spring and 7th overall practice.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The softball series between Tennessee and Mississippi State, scheduled to be played April 9-11, has been postponed due to a positive COVID-19 test and contact tracing within the Tennessee program.
The action is consistent with COVID-19 management requirements developed by the SEC’s Medical Guidance Task Force.
The opportunity to reschedule the games later this season will be evaluated.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee football returned to the practice field for its sixth workout of the spring Tuesday evening, and the Volunteers now turn their attention to their first scrimmage under head coach Josh Heupel set for Thursday afternoon in Neyland Stadium.
Thursday’s scrimmage is closed to the public.
Wednesday’s practice was full pads and featured multiple team periods, including a two-minute drill to cap the day. Running backs coach Jerry Mack and secondary coach Willie Martinez addressed the media following practice.
Mack’s unit features junior Tiyon Evans and sophomore Jabari Small. Evans, who is in his first spring in Knoxville, was the No. 1-rated junior college running back in the nation prior to enrolling. Small came on strong toward the end of his true freshman season last fall.
“You can just tell Jabari is one of those guys that really was born to play running back,” Mack said. “He has a really natural feel. He has great instincts at the position. You can tell he has been really well coached. Every day we come out there, he is disciplined. He is focused.”
Season tickets for the 100th year of Neyland Stadium and the start of the Heupel era are on sale now at AllVols.com. Season tickets start as low as $300, with the Vol Pass and payment plan options offered. Fans can experience the Neyland Stadium 3D map to select tickets based on preference. Fans with questions related to seats, views and options can utilize the live “CHAT” feature on AllVols.com.
“Dee’s doing a really incredible job just continuing to learn the finer details of the position every single day. We talk a lot about just playing with low pad level, because he is a taller, bigger back, so just getting his pad level down and just learning some of the intricacies of the position. He played so many different things in high school, and last year, I think they moved him around a little bit, so he’s finally getting into a situation where he’s kind of getting settled in on a position. You talk about extremely intelligent – asking questions in the meetings and just from that quarterback background that he has, you can just tell that he’s got a sense of the entire game and situational football and how everything fits together. I’ve been really pleased with his progress over the last few practices. Tiyon’s situation is getting better every day. Today he was out there dressed out. He ran around and did some individual drills with us. We’re hoping to have him back really sooner rather than later.”
On what Jaylen Wright has shown thus far and how much growth he has displayed …
“Jaylen, right now, is just really learning the speed of the game more than anything. He’s had some ups and he’s had some downs, but he sure has had a lot of flashes as well. When you talk about the ability to separate from people when he gets to the second level, the speed jumps out at you about him. He’s so dynamic when he gets to the second level, it’s really hard to catch him. But, the finer details of the position and down-in and down-out just learning those different things – for a young guy, especially from a protection standpoint when you come to college – the protections are really just blowing his mind a little bit, but he is getting better. That’s what we ask of those guys, more than anything, is to try to come in every day and get one percent better each day. You can just tell, right now, even though he’s struggling here and struggling there, his flashes are big, huge flashes. You can ask anybody on the field. When he gets to that next level and he gets an opportunity to get in space, he can make people miss. He’s still learning, more than anything, about college football and how we can’t bounce a lot of runs. We have to stay in between the tackles when we need to, and we have to trust that the offensive line is going to get their block. That’s just going to come with reps. The more reps he has, the better he is going to get. I’m looking forward to the remaining practices of the spring to see exactly where he can go.”
On the running backs group as a whole …
“As a group right now, I think we are getting a lot better. Every day we kind of come in and we focus on something to get better at. We choose two or three things that we know each man in that room has to get better at something individually and specific. We put the notes on the board, and we go around and talk about what do you have to do individually to get better and then what do we have to do as a group to get better. I’ve been very pleased with the effort they’ve been giving me every single day to try to come out there and really focus on those finer things. Today, the heat kind of got us a little bit. We were sluggish. We were up and down, but toward the end we tried to find a way to push through in that fourth quarter and find a way to come out on top.”
“You can just tell Jabari is one of those guys that really was born to play running back. He has a really natural feel. He has great instincts at the position. You can tell he has been really well coached in high school and also, too, with the previous staff. He has a natural feel for that position right now. Every day we come out there, he is disciplined. He is focused. He understands protections right now, which is really intriguing and impressive for a guy of his youth. He has been extremely impressive to everybody on the field. The way he handles his business, the way he goes about his business – he takes care of business like a pro. We talk about that in the room all the time, making sure you’re handling yourself, taking notes and then go out there and apply it to the field. That’s what I’ve been really impressed with by him this entire spring. These first six practices, he’s really sparked and showed his true colors, and I think he’s really going to help us this season.”
On the number of defensive backs he’d like on the roster …
“I’m going to act serious when I answer this question. I’ll take 20-24. You need a lot of them. It’s changed. You’ve got to have guys that have to be able to cover. The offense, whether it is this offense or any offense, are looking for mismatches. You’ve got to be able to run. You’ve got to be athletic. You can’t be one-dimensional. You can’t be just a one-position guy. You can’t just be a nickel. You can’t just be a corner and have a weakness to your game. You can’t line up at corner and take this guy because he can cover really well but he can’t tackle very well because you are going to be exposed. The more athletic you are in the defense, and it doesn’t just have to be defensive backs, your linebackers and your d-linemen. Your d-linemen make a lot of the plays that you may not think have an effect on types of styles of offense. The tempo teams. You are creating quick decisions by the offense instead of sitting there and patting the ball and having a little more time. To answer the question, you have to be able to play six defensive backs. Six guys that can actually cover, play man. That’s on the field when you want it. Ideally, it’s probably more like five. It depends on what you’re playing too because we are so multiple. We are playing 3-4. We are playing 4-3. The more multiple you are on defense now, where you can have the same personnel on the field but give you all different types of looks is an advantage. That’s something that we are looking at, guys that we can keep on the field but be multiple in positions. I like to have a lot, at least three-deep at each position in the backend. I think everybody on our defense would like that. It starts up front.”
His early impressions of his secondary group …
“I think the guys in the backend have been locked in. I’ve just noticed how they pay attention to detail and it’s important to them. It’s not a big group. We don’t have the numbers there, but I guess you could say that about everybody on our team. Having guys like Alontae Taylor, who have a tremendous amount of experience and have been here. Theo Jackson. Just naming two guys who have been here and played for a while. They do things how you want them done off the field. When you have that kind of leadership, I don’t care what room it is, you have a chance. They’re good players and they know how to get things done both on and off the field.”
On facing a fast-paced, up-tempo offense in practice …
“I think they’ve done a really good job. I’m not saying that just to say it. I think we’ve done a really good job of trying to prepare them for what the expectations are going to be. How fast it was going to be. Obviously, in our offseason conditioning, just trying to prepare them to the thought process. It’s going to happen really fast. We were doing some exercises prior to it. Whether you are in the meeting room and when you’re asking a question, you are wanting one-word answers. That’s how you have to communicate on the field. It can’t be long answers. Today we were coming off the field and it was really fast because we had a two-minute drill. They have to process stuff really quickly. Get the signals off the sideline and communicate it. We like to say you have to get back to your spot when the play is over with. If the ball is on the hash, that’s why we play left corner, right corner, left safety and right safety. We are very multiple in how we line up because you have to be that way and you have to know it all. You have to play both sides, strong and weak because it’s going to go fast. If you’re just a person that is going to line up strong side or weakside, you’re in trouble. They’ve adapted and adjusted pretty good to that. By no means are we there. There was some frustration the last couple of practices when the tempo goes really fast, but it has been mainly the ones who are inexperienced and trying to look around looking for help. The help is not going to be there. You just have to get lined up and have short memory. Hit the reset button and go on to the next play. Don’t let the last play beat you. Just like if the last play was really good.”
Kenny Chesney has made a lot of music videos throughout his career, but he admits that the crew on the shoot for “Knowing You” might have went above and beyond the call of duty to get the job completed on this one.
Kenny explains…
Check out the final product of the crew — and Kenny’s — hard work.
New Female Artist of the Year nominee Tenille Arts is counting down the days until this year’s ACM Awards — which is on April 18th.
But today, Wednesday April 7th, she’s wine’ing them down on the latest episode of ACM Wine Down Wednesday.
The Academy of Country Music – in partnership with 1000 Stories Bourbon Barrel-Aged Wine -will feature New Female Artist nominee, Tenille Arts, on the latest episode of the three-week ACM Wine Down Wednesday series – where Tenille will share stories with viewers and sing her top 10 single “Somebody Like That.”
The upcoming episode of the ACM Wine Down Wednesday series featuring Tenillewill be available to stream on the Academy of Country Music and 1000 Stories Wine official Facebook pages on Wednesday, April 7th at 6 p.m. CT.
If you don’t catch it live — no worries…the episode will be featured — and available to watch at TheHub.ACMcountry.com for the next month.
Recent episodes of the ACM Wine Down Wednesday series featuring Kameron Marlowe and Jimmie Allen are now available to watch at TheHub.ACMcountry.com.
Along with entertaining, some good is being done too…On behalf of each artist featured in the series, 1000 Stories Wine is contributing a $2,000 donation towards the ACM Lifting Lives COVID-19 Response Fund to be disbursed to individuals in the Country Music community who are currently on the waitlist for pandemic relief assistance. To learn more about ACM Lifting Lives COVID-19 Response Fund, visit ACMLiftingLives.org.
Since the ACM Wine Down Wednesday series launched in July 2020, episodes have featured Jimmie Allen, Lindsay Ell, Caylee Hammack, Nicolle Galyon, Maddie & Tae, Kameron Marlowe, Carly Pearce, Cassadee Pope, MacKenzie Porter, Tenille Townes, Hailey Whitters and Lainey Wilson.
When it comes to her nomination for New Female Artist of the Year, Tenille recalls her reaction as the nominations were announced, “I was totally shocked, like I sat there until the next nomination was announced with my mouth open just like ‘Is this real? Is this actually happening right now?’ and then it started to sink in, and I was just so excited, and so grateful to be a part of the awards this year. It’s been a weird couple of years for everybody. So, I’m just very grateful, very proud of my team, and everybody that’s been a part of my career so far…this kind of feels like the launching off point for a lot of things, so I’m just really thankful and really excited to be nominated.”
Check out the music video for Tenille’s hit song that you can see her perform on this week’s ACM Wine Down Wednesday — “Somebody Like That.”
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – No. 4 Tennessee jumped out to an early lead with four runs in the first inning and never looked back, cruising to a 10-1 win over Eastern Kentucky on Tuesday night at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
The bats of Trey Lipscomb and Logan Steenstra did the majority of the damage for the Vols, as the duo combined for four hits and five RBI on the night. Lipscomb opened the scoring with a two-run double while Steenstra also recorded an RBI double in the first inning to put UT ahead 4-0.
Steenstra drove in two more runs with single in the fifth to extend Tennessee’s lead to six and give him a career-high three RBI for the game. Jake Rucker also had another strong night, joining Steenstra and Lipscomb as Vols with multiple hits after going 2-for-3 with a run and an RBI.
The Vols (25-5) used nine different pitchers, each one pitching one inning. Freshman Jake Fitzgibbons made his second-career start and looked good despite walking one batter in the first inning.
Redshirt junior Jason Rackers and sophomore Will Mabrey both pitched scoreless innings in their first appearances since early-season outings against Arkansas Pine Bluff on Feb. 23. Rackers was credited with the win, the first of his UT career.
The Big Orange scored multiple runs in the first, fifth and eighth innings and finished with 11 hits on the night. UT has now scored eight or more runs in 10 of its last 15 games.
Kendal Ewell drove in the only run of the night for the Colonels (9-18) with an RBI single in the fourth inning. EKU starter Garret Simpson fell to 0-3 on the year after allowing four runs on five hits in three innings of work.
Next up for Tennessee is a showdown with No. 9 Florida at home this weekend. First pitch for Friday night’s series opener is slated for 6:30 p.m. on SEC Network+ and the ESPN app.
NOTABLE
25-5 THROUGH 30: With Tuesday’s victory, Tennessee improved to 25-5 this season, which matches its best start through 30 games since also going 25-5 in 2004.
STEENSTRA ON FIRE: In UT’s last three games, Logan Steenstra is batting .417 (5-for-12) with three doubles, three runs and four RBI. The Liberty, Missouri native had two more hits and set a career high with three runs batted on Tuesday night.
