Mitchell Tenpenny released his Neon Christmas EP a couple of months ago, but now the music video for the title track is available for fans to check out, and it features a very special co-star along side Mitchell. It’s his girlfriend and fellow country music singer Meghan Patrick.
Mitchell shares, “This was my first video with Meghan, and its one we will never forget,” and he goes onto to say “She makes it easy for me to be comfortable and be myself. I know a lot of us will be stuck in this Christmas, but I hope you can still find your Neon Christmas wherever you are.”
“Neon Christmas” was written by Mitchell, Lindsay Rimes and Matt Rogers and is one of seven songs on the Neon ChristmasEP. The project includes three original songs, “Snow Angels,” “Naughty List,” and “Neon Christmas” as well as four Christmas classics, “Joy To The World,” “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!,” “O Holy Night,” and Mitchell’s personal favorite, “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.”
Check out Mitchell Tenpenny’s music video for “Neon Christmas” featuring Meghan Patrick right here…
Gabby Barrett has had a record year when it comes to her career, and is finishing it on many Year-End lists, including being named Billboard’s Top New Country Artist for 2020. Her number-one hit “I Hope” has also been named the top country song for the entire year, as it lands at number-one on the Hot Country Songs, Country Digital Song Sales, and Country Streaming Songs charts.
Gabby says “It just happened to be the fourth song I had ever written in Nashville and has opened so many doors for me.”
One of those doors included getting a message from Charlie Puth. It was 6 months after hitting number-one with “I Hope” on the country charts, that Charlie reached out to Gabby about recording a duet version of “I Hope” which has introduced the song to a whole new audience.
Billboard also named her on their 21 Under 21 list for 2020. In the article Gabby shares which artist she most admires, “Dolly Parton in country music and Michael Jackson in pop. Dolly is an icon in our genre — she has continued making relevant, creative, and thoughtful music for decades while also giving back to others. Michael Jackson is my favorite male artist of all time, and musically I think he left a permanent footprint on American culture and pop music. His performances were always original and game-changing, and the songs he brought into the world will stand the test of time.”
Gabby also finishes 2020 on Variety’s 2020 Power of Young Hollywood List, and Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in Music.
Check out the top country song of 2020 from Gabby Barrett’s album Goldmine (which came out in June of this year)…
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The Tennessee men’s basketball team (at long last) tips off its 111th basketball season with a Tuesday night clash against Colorado. The opening jump is slated for 6 p.m. ET on SEC Network+.
Tuesday’s game can be seen on SEC Network+, an online platform through WatchESPN and on any mobile device with the ESPN App. Fans can access WatchESPN at espn.com/watch. Roger Hoover and VFL Steve Hamer will have the call.
Fans can also listen live on their local Vol Network affiliate to hear Bob Kesling and Bert Bertlekamp describing the action.
Tuesday’s tip will be the Vols first game in 276 days and UT’s first matchup with Colorado since 1981. Tennessee leads the all-time series with the Buffaloes, 2-0, dating to 1980.
A win would give the Orange & White a 31-3 record in home openers inside Thompson-Boling and head man Rick Barnes an 18-1 record in his last 19 season lid lifters.
Up next, Tennessee will remain at home for a Saturday contest with Cincinnati. Tipoff inside Thompson-Boling Arena is set for 12:30 p.m. ET on SEC Network Alternate.
THE VOLS ARE BACK
• The 2019-20 college basketball season came to a screeching halt on March 12 due to the first major American spike of the global coronavirus pandemic. While the pandemic is far from over—to the contrary, it just delayed the start of Tennessee’s season 13 days—reaching tipoff on Tuesday is a moment worth celebrating.
• When the jump ball is tossed Tuesday, 276 days will have elapsed since the last time the Volunteers played a game.
• After their first four scheduled games were canceled, the Vols had aimed to open the season this Wednesday against UT Martin, but positive COVID-19 tests in the Skyhawks program last week led to the cancellation of that matchup. Tuesday’s Colorado game came together on Saturday and was announced that evening—less than 72 hours before tipoff.
THE SERIES
• UT leads its all-time series with Colorado, 2-0, dating to 1980. The programs have not met since 1981.
• Colorado head coach Tad Boyle was Tennessee’s director of basketball operations under head coach Jerry Green during the 1997-98 season. That team finished 20-9 and earned an NCAA Tournament berth.
• Second-year UT assistant coach Kim English was an assistant coach on Boyle’s staff at Colorado for two seasons from 2017-19. During that span, the Buffaloes posted a 40-28 record. English helped recruit and develop several players on this year’s CU roster.
A WIN WOULD…
• Give the Volunteers a 31-3 record in home openers at Thompson-Boling Arena.
• Stand as Rick Barnes‘ 18th win in his last 19 season-openers.
LAYUP LINES
• Tennessee, ranked No. 12 in the AP poll and No. 16 in the coaches poll, enters Tuesday’s matchup with a 30-3 all-time record in season-openers at Thompson-Boling Arena.
• This is Tennessee’s 34th season in Thompson-Boling Arena.
• Thompson-Boling Arena will be at close to 18 percent capacity this season. See note on Page 3.
• Given the reduced capacity, all 16 Tennessee home games are sold out and no ticket inventory remains.
• A preseason media poll predicted Tennessee to win this year’s SEC championship.
• Seniors John Fulkerson and Yves Pons were both named to the Wooden Award preseason top-50 watch list. Pons also earned a spot on the preseason watch list for the Naismith Trophy College Player of the Year.
• Sixth-year head coach Rick Barnes has already recruited and developed four Vols who have progressed to the NBA. That includes one four-star, one three-star and two unranked prospects (per ESPN). Now, this season’s Tennessee roster features three five-star prospects.
ABOUT COLORADO
• Colorado (2-0) was picked seventh in the annual Pac-12 preseason poll.
• During the tenure of 11th-year head coach Tad Boyle, the Buffaloes have logged 19 wins over ranked opponents.
• Senior McKinley Wright IV was named to the preseason All-Pac-12 team, while junior Evan Battey earned honorable mention.
• Gifted guard Wright IV chose to return to Colorado after going through the 2020 NBA Draft process. Through two games, Wright is averaging 22.0 points per game and is shooting an impressive .643 from the field (18-28) while dishing out 5.0 assists per game.
• Wright’s 10 assists so far this season leave him just 41 helpers away from breaking Colorado’s all-time assist record, held by Jay Humphrey, who finished his career with 562.
• Off the bench, transfer Jeriah Horne has made an instant impact in his first season in Boulder. Through two games, he’s the Buffs second-leading scorer with 10.0 points per game and the team’s leading rebounder, grabbing 5.0 boards per game.
• Notable alumni of the University of Colorado include Spencer Silver, inventor of the Post-It note, and veteran ESPN broadcaster Chris Fowler.
UT HIT WITH COVID CANCELLATIONS
• So far this season, Tennessee has seen five scheduled games canceled.
• Tennessee was originally slated to open its season on Nov. 25, but the program was forced to pause team activities on Nov. 23 after multiple individuals tested positive for COVID-19 (including coach Rick Barnes).
• That temporary shutdown forced the cancellation of four games—Charlotte (Nov. 25), VCU (Nov. 27), vs. Gonzaga (Dec. 2) and at Notre Dame (Dec. 4).
• The Charlotte and VCU games would have been part of a three-team multi-team-event (MTE) hosted by Tennessee at Thompson-Boling Arena.
• The Vols would have faced top-ranked Gonzaga in a neutral-site showdown as part of the Jimmy V Classic in Indianapolis. As part of that same road trip, Tennessee would have bused to South Bend after the Gonzaga game to play a true road game at Notre Dame.
• Most recently, three days after the announcement of a replacement game on Dec. 9 against UT Martin, positive COVID-19 tests within the Skyhawks program forced the cancellation of that matchup.
LONGEST LAYOFF IN 56 YEARS
• Tennessee was less than two hours from tipping off against Alabama at the SEC Tournament in Nashville when the college basketball world screeched to a halt on March 12. The Vols had last played on March 7, at Auburn.
• When the clock starts Tuesday for the Vols’ season-opener vs. Colorado, 276 days will have elapsed between games for UT.
• That stands as the program’s longest duration between games since 277 days elapsed between the end of the 1963-64 season (ended on Feb. 29, 1964) and the 1964-65 campaign (started on Dec. 2, 1964).
PANDEMIC PROTOCOLS LEAD TO ADJUSTED SEATING PLAN
• To comply with health and safety recommendations from the CDC, local officials and the Southeastern Conference, Tennessee has implemented an adjusted-seating ticket plan at Thompson-Boling Arena this season.
• Gameday capacity will be close to 4,000—or about 18 percent of the venue’s normal capacity (21,678).
• To allow for a mandatory 12-foot buffer between the general public and essential personnel on and around the court, the first five rows of the arena’s lower bowl will remain vacant.
• SEC guidelines for indoor events explicitly state that all references to “physically distanced” means a minimum of six feet. Thus, seating pods will be spaced at least six feet apart throughout the arena.
LEAGUE MEDIA PICKS VOLS TO WIN REGULAR-SEASON CHAMPIONSHIP
• In mid-November, a panel of league media picked Tennessee to win the SEC regular-season title.
• The media tabbed John Fulkerson as a first-team preseason All-SEC selection and placed Yves Pons on the second team. Both seniors were among the select group of players who received preseason votes for SEC Player of the Year.
• The league’s 14 head coaches picked both Pons and Fulkerson as preseason All-SEC first-teamers.
ROSTER BREAKDOWN
• The Vols’ 2020-21 roster features 17 players (13 scholarship student-athletes) representing eight states as well as Finland, France, Serbia and Uruguay.
• There are five Vols who hail from the state of Tennessee, two from North Carolina and one each from Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, New York, South Carolina and Texas.
• UT has three seniors, two juniors, seven sophomores and five freshmen.
• Six Vols stand 6-5 or shorter, and 11 players are 6-6 or taller.
THREE WE’LL MISS
• Last season was a farewell tour for three Vols who were key to establishing the culture of the Tennessee basketball program under Rick Barnes.
• Guards Lamonté Turner and Jordan Bowden both were 1,000-point scorers and impactful two-way players. Bowden has been invited to attend training camp with the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets.
• Veteran wing Jalen Johnson provided important depth for three seasons before earning his degree and transitioning to Wake Forest as a grad transfer.
UNITY MARK: “GIVE LIGHT”
• For 50 years, the Volunteer statue, best known by its nickname, the Torchbearer, has been the proud embodiment of a Tennessee Volunteer, a combination of leadership and service that improves the world around us.
• The torch is a symbol of knowledge, enlightenment, truth and intellectual optimism—the belief that the light of truth and reason overcomes the darkness of ignorance.
• A torch is prominently featured in this year’s Tennessee Athletics unity patch, held aloft by two Volunteers of different races, joining forces to champion UT’s Torchbearer Creed: “One who beareth the torch shadoweth oneself to give light to others.”
• The basketball Vols are wearing the unity patch on the right side of their jerseys, just above the Nike swoosh.
Tennessee men’s basketball coach Rick Barnes met with the media on Monday afternoon over Zoom to discuss the start of the 2020-21 season.
On how far behind the team is after missing the first few games of the season:
“I think we’re behind, because like I said earlier, we had a chance to go up and down the floor three times in two weeks leading into tomorrow. I do think the older guys can handle it, more so than the younger guys. Our younger guys, the stops and starts have definitely affected them more in terms of their recall and being able to understand what we’re doing. Overall, I’ve got to think that these guys, I know they’re excited about playing. We got back early Friday and we went twice that day just to break it up, because we knew they would struggle with stamina. It’s just a tough practice when you’ve been off two weeks. They handled it well, and then we found out that the game with (UT) Martin would be canceled. By the next morning, we were in contact with Colorado and knew that maybe that was a possibility, so we had to readjust our schedule as opposed to practicing Friday and Saturday. We had to flip it where we little very little at all on Saturday, even though the game wasn’t totally submitted yet, to put us on our two-day prep that we like to do throughout the season. We are on schedule to that. This is the first time our young guys have gone through this. Normally, by now we would’ve had a two-day prep to get ready for an exhibition game. We don’t have any of that, and because of that we haven’t had the whole team on the bench together. Tomorrow, all that is going to be new to those guys. Even though we had started preparing prior to the shutdown to get ready for Charlotte and VCU. Today is actually the first time we have been able to do what we normally would do, and tomorrow will be the first time that we’ve had our whole team together on the same bench. Our substitutions, we can think about it, we don’t know how it’s going to play out. We don’t know foul situations, so our older guys will handle it better than you would expect, but the younger guys are going to have to learn on the fly. They’re going to be nervous. They don’t know exactly what to expect. We appreciate Colorado doing what they’re doing for us, and we were able to put this together quickly and we have a lot of respect.”
On if he will have everyone available for the game vs. Colorado:
“We’ll have two guys that won’t be playing. Corey Walker and Drew Pember.”
On his experience with having Covid:
“Well, the toughest part was just missing all of you guys. I just wanted to hug all you guys and tell you how much I love you. That was the hardest part about isolation. There wasn’t a day that I had it that I didn’t feel like I could go to work. I could’ve gone to work. I thought it progressively got worse for me around the sixth and seventh days. I’m really thankful for Tom Izzo. Tom reached out to me early. When I get sick, I expect to start getting better each day, and I was cruising along there pretty good. It probably took me twelve days before I felt really good, and I don’t think at any point in time I lost my sense of smell or taste, but I did lose my appetite.”
On how the decision was made to make a three-game series between UT and Colorado:
“We were in the same situation with Notre Dame. We were going to play Gonzaga then drive over and play Notre Dame. We were going to play Notre Dame in a year where they would probably have 2,000 fans in the stands, and then a year later, we’re going to have 21,000 people in the stands. So, we’re going to work out some kind of compensation, because it wouldn’t be fair. So, with Colorado, we started talking. One, I think anytime you’ve got a chance to play a quality program with a coach that’s as upstanding and runs a clean and as good of a program as there is in the country, you want to be involved with them. I’ve got great respect for him [Tad Boyle]. They’re going to come in here tomorrow, and we’ve got about 3,500 people in the stands. I know when we go out there next year it will be sold out. So instead of exchanging money, we decided we would make a neutral game out of it and go to Nashville. We do want to have a presence in Nashville, and I think Nashville will receive it.”
On if having so many possible season opener opponents can help with tournament prep later in the season:
“We had started preparing for Charlotte and VCU back before we got shut down and coming out of that we only had one day where we did not do any preparation for UT Martin at all. We didn’t do anything Saturday in preparation for Colorado, because we weren’t sure yet that the game was actually going to go. While we were working on that game, we were in contact with two or three other schools that we possibly would have to get on the road and go play on a Wednesday, which at this point in time we were prepared to do whatever we had to do to get our season going. Tomorrow will be the first time that we have everybody sitting on the same bench together. We’re opening up this week with Colorado and ten we have Cincinnati, and it is what it is. We’re just glad to be playing, and I think our guys will tell you that they’re excited.”
On if having a Veteran team can eliminate tome of the issues that come with not having a preseason:
“Our older guys, they’ve been able to handle the stops and starts better than the younger guys. The older guys, they came into the gym and did what they were supposed to do. It’s the team concept where when we call something, the older guys get it and the younger guys are looking around saying ‘What was that?’ but that’s where we have to have a different package with some of those younger guys. The older guys, they should know. They should be able to handle it. The biggest thing we’ve tried to do is keep those young guys as fresh as we can and try to teach them how hard they are going to have to play.”
On what he likes out of Jordan Springer and Keon Johnson defensively:
“They both have the ability to guard the ball one on one, and they’re certainly going to get challenged with that tomorrow night. Both of those guys can rebound the ball. They have the ability to blow it out and go with it in transition, which I think really helps a lot. I think offensively, we’ll watch them grow up in front of us. One thing we expect out of both of them is to come in and guard the ball and we hope to create some havoc there.
On how important guard play is at the college level:
“It’s like playing baseball without a pitcher, catcher, shortstop, second baseman and center fielder. You’ve got no shot if you’re not good up the middle. You’ve got to have guys that know what they’re doing but also can break out and make plays when they have to. You’re going to compete every night against guys who can play. In our system, we put a lot of pressure on our point guard. We expect him to do a lot of reading, we expect him to get the ball where we want him to get it, and we expect him to attack space on the floor where we want to get the ball to start with. It’s important that those other guys get where they need to go so he can do his job. So, it’s not just the guard play. It’s everybody doing what they need to do so they can help each other all the time. You’re never going to look like you’re well coached if you don’t have good guard play. ”
On if most inside the program have dealt with COVID and if he feels like they can move smoothly from here:
“We’re close with everybody, but we still don’t have everybody. We’ve dealt with it. Like I said we’ve had three stops-and-starts and we’ve had one player miss 52 days because of contact tracing. And he never had it. There’s a ton of things we’ve had to deal with, with it. And I’ll say it again. I don’t think anybody can do anymore than what Chad Newman and Mary-Carter and our whole staff have done. What they did to help—I don’t know what I would have done differently. Even as we got closer to the season we were very, very conscious of what we were doing. We eve locked it down even more so, but once it got going there was no stopping it—with our staff especially. Even though some players had to deal with it, not everyone in our program has had it.”
On how many guys he feels comfortable playing:
“It’s the first time here that we’ve had this situation, where among our scholarship players that of the 11 guys we’ll have out there tomorrow, we feel confident in all of them. I don’t think there’s any question about that. At some point in time every single one of our scholarship players has shown they can help us. The key word with that is consistency. What can we know in terms of what we’re going to get every single time they step on the floor. There’s not one guy on our team who hasn’t improved. Were we more ready to play two weeks ago than we are today? Absolutely. There’s no doubt we were. We had built it up to where we felt like we were ready to go and then we got shut down for two weeks. Going back to what I said earlier, I do feel like the older guys have been able to get going here a bit quicker than you would expect. But again, we’re just excited to play. Since I’ve been here, we haven’t had this many guys. But, the players will determine how many guys are going to play. It’s up to them. We tell them that if they do their job, then we’ll find a way to get them on the court.”
On if the players were able to do things individually during the shutdown:
“We did a lot of shooting. We were trying to get 500 shots made a day with them. Not just 3-point shots either. Game shots, with game speed and game spots. It was hard obviously, because they’re on the court by themselves with a gun, shooting. They were allowed to have a manager that had been tested and ready to go. So, they were mostly getting shots up. One thing they did do, was continued to lift weights via Zoom. And Garrett Medenwald worked hard on that from his end. We were going to follow the protocol in the exact way it was supposed to be done and our guys did that. And, they were tired, but it’s just not the same as five-on-five, going up and down the floor, getting your timing down where there’s 10 bodies moving with cutting and banging around. Now, I’m going to tell you, there isn’t anything more they could have done on their own. They pushed it as far as they could push it trying to get better with their individual skills. Not just shooting, they worked on their weaknesses.
“As you would expect the older guys—one of my first days back, Josiah-(Jordan James) was in the weight room by himself doing a yoga workout on his own. The older guys understand their bodies and know what they need to do. That’s where the younger guys are still learning. Again, we’ve got a great and very unselfish group of guys. We have a group of guys that is unselfish almost to a fault at times, but they pull for each other. If it were up to them they would want everyone to play as much as possible, but tomorrow will be the first time we’ve been on the same bench together and we’ll see how it goes.”
On if it was always just one player in the gym with a manager at a time:
“No, we could have three guys in there at one time. We could have one on each end and one in the middle. In most situations it was two guys in the gym, but it could be three. They were organized with their times. They were allowed to get a couple of hours a day in there where we had to rotate. Again, some guys even with as much as we asked them to do some of them wanted to come back and do more. We’ve got some guys that are real gym rats. But, most of the time it was two guys. They started sometimes at six in the morning and it would go until about 7:30 to 8 at night.”
On if he could give out an award for most improved who would it be:
“That’s a great question and it’s hard to give it to one guy, because I think every guy has gotten better. I think (Santiago Vescovi) came back in the best shape. He was never in great shape. He wasn’t even in great shape at the end of the year, because he didn’t have a chance to get himself in great shape, because of what he was thrust into. I think Fulky and Yves both have improved in terms of what we need from them. Josiah has definitely improved. Olivier and Uros have gotten more confident in terms of understanding the system and I think that’s going to help them. We have big plans for those guys. V.J. Bailey was with us a year ago. V.J. has done well. E.J. in a short time has improved as much as anyone in his short time. He had to do a shot make over, which he did. It’s going to help him and he’s going to do exactly what you tell him to do. The younger guys. We know those guys are talented, but the starts and stops have definitely hurt them. They’ve shown glimpses of what they can be, but they’ve struggled physically at times, because the older guys don’t need as much, but can go all day long. The younger guys can’t go all day long, but they need to and they’re having to learn that in a year where all of these starts and stops definitely affect that part of their game. I know I’m all over the place with that question, but it’d be hard for me to pick one guy, because I think all of these guys have worked hard to improve and we’re going to find out starting tomorrow if the guys who have improved can they bring it when the lights come on.”
On mental management during period of tons of cancellations:
“It would be exactly what you would expect when you get your expectations up. A week before we got shut down we were excited. Think about it, I had passed three straight COVID tests on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I wasn’t feeling very good, but I was ready to go. So, we come in on Sunday to get ready for the game the following weeks, I test positive and then we get shutdown. We were all excited. We were right where we wanted to be. We had spent 10 days where we finally had everyone out there. We were scrimmaging and we had been playing a lot. We had played our way into shape, because we had been shut down. When we came back from that second shut down, we said that we had to play, because we wouldn’t have an exhibition game. We had three scrimmages with referees and we had been building up. Then you go 13 days without getting up-and-down the floor and now we’re going to play four or five days later. There’s no doubt that each time we shut down—and if you asked the players during that time if it was tough for them to watch college basketball get off to a start and them not being able to play? Yes. I didn’t want to watch it. I’ll be honest with you, I had a hard time wanting to watch college basketball. I had a hard time wanting to watch anything to be honest with you. The fact is though, the players were wanting to play. It is an emotional drain on everybody, because you’re getting excited and want to play. If there’s one common denominator through this, it’s that every player will tell you, ‘We want to play.’ This is the longest in my life since I’ve been around a team where we haven’t played a game, but I’ve never ever been a part of a program where you decide on your first game three days before you play it and we still have a game we want to make up. Looking back, I wish the NCAA had set a blanket set of dates to play 27 games and to get rid of the MTE’s, because there’s a lot of teams that will want to scramble to make up games. We would love to get to 25 games if we can, but right now we just want to get going tomorrow night. I would say now that there isn’t a game we won’t be able to play, because of where we are, but we don’t know where our opponents are and what they’re going to have to deal with. I had talked with Mark Few about possibly playing later on and they had, had a situation down in Florida and they were talking about how they were going to transport players. He and I had talked a few different times even after they had played in Indianapolis when they were getting ready to play Baylor. And, we just don’t know. It could be a year like that where you get ready to play and all at once, you can’t. Believe me, in the grand scheme of the world it’s not that big of a deal, but in terms of the world we live in and what we’re trying to do with our young players here, yeah, it’s tough on them. But, like I said, hopefully we can get going here and be blessed enough to not have any more interruptions.”
On how Fulky and Yves have responded and led the team through all of this:
“We don’t have a guy on our team who is a loud and vocal leader. The loudest guy on our team is Uros. He’s talks the way we want him to talk on the court. If I had to pick someone who’s led us through this is Mary-Carter Eggert. You wouldn’t believe what she has done to help these guys. You have no idea. She works 18 hours a day delivering food here, there and everywhere. I think that’s where the real leadership has come from. And, our guys have been great knowing there isn’t anything we can do about it other than that we have to protect each other and those around us. So, her and Chad Newman—Chad has been unbelievable with it. Chad has struggled with it as much as anybody, but through this whole thing Dr. Klenck and this university have been unbelievable. They really have. I don’t know what we could have done differently. You hear them talk, they say it is what it is and they would tell you what I said earlier. There are a lot of people that have had to deal with it in a lot worse ways. They know people have lost their lives, because of it and they would tell—and they have taken it very seriously. Our guys have taken it really serious and they still take it serious, because we still don’t have herd immunity or anything. We still wear masks in the film room, we’re spread out and we’re doing everything the way we’re supposed to. You wouldn’t believe the amount of that has on into how we do our timeouts during games. There’s so many things that they have talked about how we do things, but the one constant has been our guys doing what they’re supposed to do. I admire them for it, but the real leaders have not been our players, but our administrators who have been phenomenal.”
Congrats to Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani as their song “Happy Anywhere” tops the country radio charts this week. It’s the happy couple’s second trip to number-one, and Blake’s 28th. It would be hard to find someone anywhere who hasn’t heard this song with it now being streamed on-demand over 70 million times…and counting.
Blake Shelton says, “I don’t know how the hell this keeps happening, but I couldn’t be more grateful that it does. Thank you to the songwriters, the music makers, the fans… thank you to my team and to country radio… and, of course, thank you to the incredible Gwen Stefani.”
Playing off the title of his new number-1 song, Blake sends a special message out to his fans, “Wishing everyone health and safety. We hope that y’all can be ‘Happy Anywhere’ this holiday season.”
If you’re up late this Thursday, you catch Blake on Late Night with Seth Meyers, and of course you can always catch him on The Voice. Right now, you can check out his video with Gwen…this is their new number-one song “Happy Anywhere.”
Well, you may want to listen to his new song with Kane Brown, called “Famous Friends.” Chris says that all the names he sings about are real people in his life, but the fun part is…he says there’s a few that don’t even know that they made it into the lyrics.
“By the way, all those people are actually real. All the names that I say in this song are actual people…some of them do not know they’re named in this song yet. So, as this song starts getting out there I expect text messages and phone calls (laugh)”
Check out the lyric video for Chris Young and Kane Brown’s “Famous Friends” right here…
Dec 5, 2020; Knoxville, Tennessee, USA; Tennessee Volunteers head coach Jeremy Pruitt during the first half against the Florida Gators at Neyland Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee returns to action this week with its final away contest as the Vols travel to face Vanderbilt at 4 p.m. ET / 3 p.m. CT Saturday in Nashville. Head coach Jeremy Pruitt previewed the matchup at his Monday press conference.
The Vols (2-6) and Commodores (0-8) will be televised on SEC Network with Taylor Zarzour, Matt Stinchcomb and Dawn Davenport on the call.
Below are quotes from Pruitt’s press conference:
Opening Statement…
“Reviewing the Florida game, starting with special teams, we had two penalties on kickoff returns that were huge and hurt us in field position. I thought Paxton (Brooks) did an excellent job of kicking the football and controlling their punt returner. We had really good coverage and created some really good vertical field position. We had the one fake punt that I thought we executed really well, we just needed to finish it. When we didn’t, it cost us field position for the remainder of the first half. Offensively, I felt like once the second quarter started, we were much more aggressive in play calling and started moving the ball at times. We had a couple of times where we didn’t protect like we needed to. We had some guys open. There were two really critical plays at the end of the third quarter and fourth quarter. We got an intentional grounding where we were throwing the ball down the field and then end up giving up a sack. Both of those very easily could have resulted in points, but it knocked us out of field goal range and it was too far to go for it. I think it was fourth-and-14 and maybe fourth-and-12. Defensively, I thought we did a nice job controlling the run game. There were three plays in the game that we got our hand on the ball but didn’t come down with the interceptions that we needed to. There were probably four third downs in the game that I felt like we were in a good call and just didn’t get off the field. They (Florida) made some plays there. I didn’t say it after the game, but I thought the guys that hadn’t practiced all week played extremely hard. It says a lot about them to come out there and play without any practice. After the game, on Sunday, we had a special graduation for our football team that didn’t get to participate earlier in graduation ceremonies. I believe it was the week of the Auburn game. We had 15 guys that received degrees on Sunday. Chancellor (Donde) Plowman and Coach (Phillip) Fulmer were there. We had a special ceremony for those guys and their families. I thought it was a fantastic event. We had two guys that got their graduate degrees. That’s good to see. That’s why you come to school – to get a degree. Looking at Vanderbilt – with Tennessee and Vanderbilt, you are always going to get the best game from Vanderbilt. You look at these guys, they’re playing a young quarterback. I think he’s leading the country in yards per game for a freshman. He’s had three 300-plus yard games where he’s passed for that amount of yardage. They always play hard on defense. Looking at them on special teams, they create issues there, with some unorthodox looks. Our kids are excited about going and playing. I feel like our kids played hard on Saturday. They continue to do that and work hard. We’ve got to go back and go to work this week.”
On what Tennessee’s quarantine numbers look like…
“We got our results back from our Sunday test and everybody was negative, so that was good. We’ll get a couple of players back this week, at some point in time. That will probably help a little bit more with some depth. Right now, I feel like we’re in a good spot with the quarantine.”
“K’Rojhn and Cade Mays both had lower leg injuries. I think both of them will be out today, or maybe today and tomorrow. I think we’ll probably get them back as the week goes.”
On when a decision will be made on Saturday’s starting quarterback…
“Harrison (Bailey) and J.T. (Shrout) will take the majority of the reps moving forward. Brian (Maurer) brings an extra element with his athleticism. We’re trying to keep him with a role. I thought he did a nice job on Saturday with the role that he had. We’ll continue doing that moving forward.”
On when the latest time is that he has waited to name a starting quarterback…
“I think that it’s probably normal (to wait until Thursday or Friday), maybe at the beginning of a season. On a couple of the staffs that I’ve worked on, the quarterback competition was so close that it went all the way up until Thursday or Friday before the first game.”
“Not traveling to Arkansas (for J.T. Shrout) was really a unique circumstance at that time. That was the week we had a lot of false positives. It was Thursday before we got a lot of guys cleared. We didn’t know exactly where we were at with the 70-man roster traveling. That probably wasn’t as much about him as it was the other positions on the team. J.T.’s a guy that has continued to work really hard. He started one year in high school. He had a really good fall camp this fall. The couple of plays that he played against Kentucky, it wasn’t his best, but he’s continued to work hard. Like I said last week, he had a really good 10 days of practice leading up to the game on Saturday. That was good to see. If you look at the game with him and Harrison, number one, they took care of the football. I thought Harrison showed some poise in stepping up, scrambling and making some plays. I felt like he handled the signaling from the game, the communication with the O-Line and the wide receivers well. We did use one timeout there around the 30-yard-line. He told me when he was coming off the field that he was snapping the ball. I thought he did a nice job. I thought J.T. came in and did a really nice job and Brian did too on the plays he played.”
On how to handle QB Jarrett Guarantano being available to practice again and moving forward…
“Well, we’re going to go with Harrison (Bailey) and J.T. (Shrout) and probably stay with the same schedule as we did this past week.”
On the tight ends being more productive the past few weeks and Princeton Fant’s improvement…
“Princeton (Fant) is up here all the time. Football is very important to him. He continues to work hard. He’s a guy that early on in his career here bounced around at a couple of different positions, but he’s finding a home at tight end. He’s a guy that probably the strength of his game is his pass catching ability, his speed and his athleticism. He’s worked hard to be a good blocker in the C-area, but he’s going to continue to improve because football is important to him.”
On what he meant when he said he might be too tough on his players…
“So, you’ve got 10 or 12 guys that haven’t practiced, right? So, it’s very easy in the heat of the moment, when a guy makes a mistake, you forget that they’ve not been there for 14 days. Just the reality of the circumstances that have been presented in some of these cases along the season.”
On WR Josh Palmer accepting an invite to the Senior Bowl and what that means for his future at Tennessee …
“Usually we talk to players about these things at the end of the season. It’s kind of unusual, I guess this past week would normally have been the SEC Championship Game, so our season has been moved back a couple of weeks. We’ve not really had those conversations, but it’s a great opportunity for Josh (Palmer). With an invite to the Senior Bowl, they don’t just give those things away, so it’s a great opportunity for him.”
On if he thinks the program has developed how he would like and what gives him confidence moving forward…
“Well, Saturday, that’s a really good football team we played against. There were times in the game that we’re playing with them toe-to-toe, and it’s been that way for most of the season, periodically with every team we’ve played. The circumstances around the season – and hey, it’s everybody, and I only know our circumstances, I don’t know the circumstances anywhere else – but our kids play hard. There’s lots of really good that we do every single week. You see a lot more younger guys that continue to develop and get an opportunity to contribute. I feel like our guys are gaining confidence and that’s part of it right now. I can tell you this, when the game’s over with Saturday, we got a lot of guys hurting in our locker room. The No. 1 thing for us is to win and obviously we didn’t get that done Saturday. But when you look at it, we’ll come back in here today and figure out what we did really well (and) try to continue to develop that part of our football team. Figure out the issues that we had during the game, was it a preparation area? Was it a technique issue? Correct it and continue to move forward.”
On the team’s play at the end of the first half and early in the second half vs. Florida…
“I think if you look Saturday, the difference in the ball game is what we call the middle eight. The last four minutes of the first half and the first four minutes of the second half. We lost that 14-0, so we didn’t play good in the last 1:38 of the first half on defense. There’s a third-and-12 they convert, there’s a third-and-11 they convert. On the first drive of the second half, they go down and score, so there’s 14 points. If you look, when we had won eight games in a row, I think seven out of those eight games we either tied or won the middle eight. That’s something that we’ve always really focused on and we’ve got to do a better job executing that part of the game plan.”
On seeing his players graduating during a difficult year…
“Well, just the circumstances for all these guys, and not just ours, everybody across the country. I’m 46 years old and the last nine months has been tough on me, just like I’m sure it’s been tough on y’all. Just the circumstances changing. I can’t imagine being a teenager, somebody in college, the way the whole dynamic of our world has changed. The fact that these guys have stayed the course, worked hard and continued and finished their degrees just speaks volumes about them and our academic support here at the university.”
On how crucial a win vs. Vanderbilt will be…
“Yeah we are focusing on Vanderbilt. We continue to improve every week but the bottom line is you want to win football games. That’s the bottom line. We’ve got to figure out a way to put our players in the best position to have a chance to do that.”
On Velus Jones Jr. getting more targets and third down execution defensively…
“To start with Velus, he is a guy that is strong. He weighs 200 pounds. He has experience and he’s fast. He’s a guy that we’ve tried to use in our game plan in a bunch of different ways so it was good to see us have a chance to get him the ball. Defensively, I think we were 6-of-13 on third down on Saturday. There are probably four calls in the game that we felt we were in the right call for the play that they had called, and we just didn’t get off the field. Obviously, it goes back to us, right? We’ve got to do a better job so our players understand what they’re trying to do. We’ve got to be more technical, because some of it was more technical, some of it was awareness. You have to go back and just keep coaching them, that’s all you can do. Just keep coaching the fundamentals, the details until you can’t get it wrong.”
On an assistant coach having a head coaching opportunity…
“I’ve worked at places where those opportunities have presented themselves. For us as coaches, we always continue to do our job but just like players want to advance their career, coaches want to advance their career. For me, I want to help coaches do that. It is a great opportunity for guys, if they get that opportunity, to go and take that next step. It’s not unusual, it goes on with every staff. We’ve really only had one situation since I’ve been here and that was with Tyson (Helton). Tyson knew the Western Kentucky job was very open.”
On Vanderbilt playing without former head coach Derek Mason…
“There’s really nothing to go on. They have not played a game without Derek being the head coach and let me tell you, those guys played really hard for Derek. I thought he had always done a fantastic job coaching against him, recruit against him. He’s very well respected within our conference for the job that he did there. Knowing the guys that are on the staff there now, those kids will be ready to play and they will play hard.”
On PK Brent Cimaglia opting out for the remainder of the season…
“I just got done having a conversation with him and, I’ve said this before, he’s played through some difficult circumstances throughout the season. We just got done talking and he feels like it is better for him to not participate for the remainder of the season and put him in a better spot to get ready for next year. His indication to me is yes he’s coming back next year.”
“Well Paxton (Brooks) has been doing it. Paxton has been our backup. If not him then Toby Wilson. When we play home games, Toby comes and he’s the backup kicker. This past week, Paxton was not at practice the entire week. Toby was there and was ready. We will figure that out as the week goes.” On if he’s talked to anyone from Vanderbilt to confirm the game this weekend…
“I’ve not talked to anybody from Vanderbilt. We’re working on (prepping for) them. I think the last time we were supposed to play them, we practiced on a Sunday night, took Monday off and we were in the middle of our Tuesday practice when we got word that we wouldn’t play. We’ve probably worked two days on them already, and today will be our third day.”
On who determines if games will be shuffled or rescheduled…
“It goes through the SEC office.”
On how much time he feels would be adequate if the team had to play Texas A&M instead this week…
“We already started working on A&M one week, so already kind of been down that road before. So, hey, we’ll play whoever they tell us to play. We’re just going to worry about the things we can control.”
On if the team missed Brandon Kennedy’s presence at center against Florida…
“Well, I thought that Cooper (Mays) and Jerome (Carvin) played well. They’ve done a lot of really good things. Jerome hadn’t had an opportunity to play a lot since the Missouri game. He was a guy that we felt like was one of our best six or seven offensive linemen going into the season, and he played a lot in the first two games. Getting him back out there was good. I thought Coop did a really nice job. And hey, we’ll be happy to get Brandon back whenever that comes.”
On if they will continue Sunday practices moving forward after not practicing yesterday…
“Well we didn’t do this Sunday because of graduation. I just felt like (because) we had parents in town for the game, we had a graduation ceremony at 2 o’clock and I just felt like it was a great opportunity for our players and their families to really kind of enjoy the moment.”
On if he grades J.T. Shrout differently than Harrison Bailey based on which quarter they played against Florida…
“No, I can assure you Florida was trying to stop us and Dan (Mullen) was going to try to score more points.”
On how the pandemic has impacted future recruiting classes…
“Really the circumstances are different everywhere. There are schools that played in the state of Tennessee. There are schools that didn’t. Some of the schools that played, maybe they didn’t have a whole lot of practice time leading up to when they started to play. Maybe some of them had a lot of practice time. The state of Alabama, Georgia, Florida, to an extent, have played a season. I think Louisiana has, maybe Mississippi. North Carolina has not. South Carolina started late. It’s unusual across the country, so you really have to worry about the ones that you get, not the ones that you don’t. You got to really focus and make sure you know what you’re getting. For the younger kids, it’s unfortunate because you don’t have camps and an opportunity to bring them in and kind of see where they’re at. I think we’re all trying to adjust to this and we’ve had a plan that we’ve really worked hard to execute and we’ll continue to do that. With the NCAA changing rules and allowing players to come back and this season not to count, that also affects your numbers a little bit when you talk about recruiting.”
On how he prepares for Vanderbilt having a different head coach…
“We’ll probably just look and see what they’re doing right now.”
On how many early signees he expects and what common questions have recruits been asking…
“It’s hard to predict how many guys will sign with the early signing period because it’s their choice. They can sign in December. They can sign in February. So, we try to figure that out as you get closer to it. There’s a lot of them that we obviously know because their midyear. That obviously plays into some of it. In recruiting, it’s pretty interesting. Because from a recruiting standpoint, the circumstances at their high schools have been so different than what their used to. A lot of the questions are about, are we going to have school in the spring, when is the next time you think recruiting will be open – things of that nature.”
On if it’s too much of a load for Paxton Brooks to take care of all of the kicking responsibilities…
“It’d be the first time that he’s done it in a college game. He’s done it in high school. I think you have to be careful about how much time he kicks during the week and just be efficient with how many kicks that he has.”
Maddie & Tae recently debuted the video for their song “We Need Christmas”–which is the title track of their 6-song holiday EP of the same name!
Now the duo is pulling the curtain back a little and sharing the behind the scenes making of the “We Need Christmas” video, which they wanted to have an “elegant, timeless, classic look.” When it came to the song, the duo shared that they made sure to include all the things that make Christmas special to them in the lyrics. The song was written this past May, in the middle of the pandemic, and Maddie & Tae knew that they were looking forward to the Christmas season, and this song was just a way to try and help everyone remember what is good about this time of year.
During the behind the scenes look, Tae shares that she collects Christmas snow globes. She can’t remember how it started, but since she was a little girl, family and friends have contributed to her collection.
During the video shoot you also get to see Maddie request a little food, as she turns “We Need Christmas” into “We Need Cheese Sticks.”
Check out the full behind the scenes video for Maddie & Tae’s “We Need Christmas” video right here…
