by Cory Woodroof | Oct 28, 2014 | Opinion, Sports
Hello, fellow NFL fans! Cory Woodroof here. The NFL season is half-way over, and we’ve got some awards to give out. The players and teams below are the ones I designate the “Midseason fill-in-the-blank” winner so far this year. These players or teams may not hang on for the rest of the year, but I’d bet in their favor. MVP: DEMARCO MURRAY – RB, COWBOYS To me, the best player in the NFL comes down to three players: DeMarco Murray, Peyton Manning and J.J. Watt. Manning is playing at an incredibly high level on the best team in the NFL, and Watt is wrecking opposing offenses on a regular basis. But, can we really say anyone is having a more impactful year than Murray? The running back has rushed for over 100 yards in eight consecutive games and has seven touchdowns on the season. Murray is also reportedly on pace to top former Rams great Eric Dickerson’s all-time season rushing yard record of 2, 105. The Cowboys are the surprise team of the NFL this year, and Murray’s big year is one of the huge sparks that has gotten them there. If Murray keeps up this pace and breaks Dickerson’s record, he’s the MVP. No questions asked. OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR: PEYTON MANNING – QB, BRONCOS After winning MVP last year, the Sherriff has not slowed down. Manning has thrown for 22 touchdowns and has a 90.1 QBR so far this season. After getting settled in the season, he’s got the Broncos offense playing at such a high level right now that the team looks to be unbeatable. Having...
by Cory Woodroof | Oct 20, 2014 | News Slider
A few parts of Lipscomb’s campus will be without water late Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning, per the university. From Tuesday evening at 11 p.m. to Wednesday morning at 6 a.m., the Fanning and Elam dormitories will be without water. This outage includes showers, toilets and sinks. Metro Water Services will be accessing an existing waterline, which will lead to the lack of water on various parts of campus. Crisman, Crisman Annex, McFarland and Ward will also be affected by the outage....
by Cory Woodroof | Oct 7, 2014 | News Slider
The sound of banging drums, clapping hands and joyful praise filled Lipscomb’s Allen Arena once more as the Dove Awards returned to campus for their 46th ceremony. The event, hosted by Christian hip-hop sensation Lecrae and MercyMe frontman Bard Millard, made its grand return to Nashville last year after spending time in Atlanta and chose Lipscomb as its new nest. University president Randy Lowry addressed the show crowd by sharing a thought he had – that, 123 years ago, Lipscomb once used to be the farm of school founder David Lipscomb. To Lowry, the ground that Lipscomb founded his school on now holds a new purpose. “I don’t know what he had in mind, but he could not have possibly have imagined this evening with this entertainment and this worship and this crowd in this place,” Lowry said. In the audience was Lowry’s 95-year-old father, whose attendance was applauded by the crowd. The Dove Awards being hosted on Lipscomb’s campus holds even more significance because the group that runs the show, the Gospel Music Association, now calls the university their home. With a year of hosting the event under Lipscomb’s belt, the school – including its security team – was better prepared to deal with the ins and outs of hosting such a massive undertaking. Lipscomb’s Assistant Director of Campus Security Patrick Cameron provided some insight into how the security staff was better able to facilitate the ceremony. “[Having already prepared for a Doves show] really helps,” Cameron said. “We were very fortunate to experience it last year, so we kind of worked out a lot of the bugs we...
by Cory Woodroof | Oct 6, 2014 | News Slider
To co-curator Ted Parks, Lipscomb’s documentary screening series HumanDocs means far more than an earned chapel credit. Now, students who attend an installment of the series, typically nestled in a time-friendly slot on a Wednesday night, do earn a credit, but like most chapel opportunities, the impact goes far beyond the met requirement. The HumanDocs film screening series aims to teach its attendees about issues facing our world through the art of the documentary, which fits right in with the genesis of the documentary form. “My sense is that documentary has always been a form that has had an alternative distribution to commercial film,” Parks said, “and it’s always, from what I know about it, been used to raise consciousness about issues.” Parks says that at the beginning of the documentary, filmmakers were more able to pursue the issues and topics that they were passionate about because of the leniency of not working within the confines of commercial requirements. “Documentary filmmakers are not in it to make a buck,” Parks said. “They’re in it because they want to tell a story that they think will impact the world, and I really like that part of documentary film in contrast with commercial filmmaking.” Parks, an associate professor, said that HumanDocs was born out of his Hispanic Cinema class. He would have students volunteer at the Nashville Film Festival as part of the course, which got Parks wondering if Lipscomb could forge a more formal bond with the festival. “I wanted to try to develop a closer relationship between Lipscomb and the Nashville Film Festival, so talking to my colleague and...
by Cory Woodroof | Sep 23, 2014 | News Slider, Opinion, Sports
This week in the NFL, an age-old truth was once again proved: the better team always wins. We saw it when Baltimore got a last-minute win against Cleveland. We saw it when the Bears held off the Jets. We saw it when Philadelphia fended off Washington. We saw it when the Patriots got the best of the Raiders by game’s end. The NFL regular season isn’t always the kindest to the underdog, which can make things fairly predictable. But, what happens when Goliath stumbles? So far this season, three NFL powerhouses, the Packers, the Saints and the 49ers, are all staring a 1-3 record in the face if they all lose in week four. With the Pack traveling to Chicago, the Saints heading to Dallas and the Niners hosting the Eagles, there’s a distinct possibility these three teams could quickly be headed in this direction. The NFL can be predictable, but it can also be full of surprises. Rookies can emerge to have huge games. Veterans can struggle at all the wrong moments. The Browns can prove to be competitive without their top offensive weapon. Sometimes, you just don’t know what professional football will have in store. Here are the 10 things I’m thinking after week three. 1. The Broncos and Seahawks’ Super Bowl rematch was the game we needed back in February. Despite being bullied by Seattle for three quarters, the Broncos put up 17 points on Seattle’s defense, including a late-game drive by QB Peyton Manning that looked like the kind of football that usually closes out a movie. Ultimately, the Seahawks were able to pull out...
