by Cory Woodroof | Sep 17, 2014 | Opinion, Sports
Week two in the NFL is one of the more perplexing times of the season. It’s the big week when those ominous playoff statistics start to float around. If your team is sitting pretty at 2-0, the odds are in your favor. If your team is lacking two wins to start the season, things aren’t exactly floating down your team’s stream. However, when teams like the Bills and Texans are perfect and teams like the Saints and Colts are without wins, it’s hard to believe that these teams’ fates are set in stone. But, this is the NFL, and anything can happen on any given game day. Are the perfect teams for real? Are the winless teams on the downward path? What about the plethora of 1-1 teams? One thing that week two does effectively is end week one honeymoons. If your favorite team won big in the first game and got squashed in the second game, those feel-good jitters were probably replaced with worrisome questions and bummed-out frowns. But, you know what, that’s okay. Early season NFL is all about working out the kinks and getting your team clicking. We’ve still got a long, long stretch to go, and who knows where your selected franchise will be once the final whistle blows. Here are the 10 thoughts I had during the week. 1. The San Diego Chargers and New Orleans Saints are highly-respectable franchises with wonderful rosters, but those two teams have one bad thing in common: they both let RB Darren Sproles get out of their hands. After Monday night’s big comeback win for the Eagles, both...
by Cory Woodroof | Sep 9, 2014 | Opinion, Sports
Hello, NFL fans! Football nerd Cory Woodroof here. I’d like to welcome you into The Film Session, a new recap of the week in the NFL that will be published every Tuesday here on the site. I’ll always offer you 10 of my takeaways from the week, go over the power rankings and give my player of the week. Also, I’ll highlight five games that have me excited for the week ahead. Shall we begin? Week one in the NFL is always one of the sports’ best times, but it’s also one of the worst times to be gauging a team’s future success (or lack-thereof). Think back to last year. Could any of us predict that, after week one, the Chiefs were back in business? How about that the Texans were on track to pick number one in the 2014 draft? We may get small hints of this and that, but there’s still a long season ahead. So, if your team won a big one, congrats, but don’t get too comfortable. And, if your team is struggling, don’t lose hope. The best coaches can always make adjustments and get their teams back to business. This week, a few teams got back to playing like they’re known for playing, a few surprise teams handed defeats to some of the league’s best and Peyton Manning was Peyton Manning. Here are my top 10 takeaways from the first week of the season. If there’s such a thing as the “Super Bowl Slump,” don’t tell the Seattle Seahawks. In a complete home field pummeling of the Green Bay Packers, the reigning champions proved...
by Cory Woodroof | Sep 8, 2014 | News Slider
Briefly: Big Men will serve as HumanDoc’s first film of the season Wednesday night. The documentary, selected for the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival, will screen for free in Shamblin Theatre at 8:30 p.m. A panel will follow. “Over the course of five years, director Rachel Boynton and her cinematographer filmed the quest for oil in Ghana by Dallas-based Kosmos,” Janel Shoun-Smith wrote for Lipscomb’s website. “The company developed the country’s first commercial oil field, yet its success was quickly compromised by political intrigue and accusations of corruption. As Ghanaians waited to reap the benefits of oil, the filmmakers discovered violent resistance down the coast in the Niger Delta, where impoverished Nigerians have yet to prosper from decades-old oil fields.” The news story says the film “provides an unprecedented inside look at the global deal making and dark underside of energy development — a contest for money and power that is reshaping the world.” For more information on the screening, visit Lipscomb’s website. Photo courtesy of...
by Cory Woodroof | Sep 2, 2014 | Opinion, Sports
Hello, football fans! Lumination Senior Editor and self-described NFL nut Cory Woodroof here. We’re just around the corner from the start of the 2014 NFL season – a season that is sure to be filled with all the patented drama, excitement and intrigue that always accompanies another installment of professional football. Will this be the year Broncos QB Peyton Manning finally gets his second Super Bowl ring? Will Aaron Rodgers take his Packers back to the top after being sidelined for most of 2013? Will the reigning Super Bowl champions, the Seattle Seahawks, become the first team to win two top titles in a row since the heyday of the Belichick-Brady Patriots? All these questions and more lay ahead in what is shaping up to be a stellar year in the NFL. Below, I’ve broken down each division, picked a winner and have provided even more speculation into some of the league’s top awards. So, without further ado, down, set, hut, hut, hike! AFC PREDICTIONS AFC NORTH With the AFC North, it’s all about who can stop the Bengals. With one of 2013’s most potent offenses in the NFL remaining largely intact, Andy Dalton and company should be able to produce the same results as last season. Their defense is also one of the more feared in the NFL. But, the Ravens, with added weapon Steve Smith on offense and Alabama great C.J. Mosley now at linebacker, could cause some noise. The Steelers need a little more help on offense before returning to the postseason, and the Browns are still in the middle of an identity crisis at the...
by Cory Woodroof | Aug 27, 2014 | News Slider
Christian Universities Online, a website dedicated to higher Christian education, ranked Lipscomb among the best Christian universities in the country. The site put Lipscomb at number 13 on a list of 50 and lists the school in the same company as Pepperdine University, Abilene Christian University and Baylor University. “Institutions that are accredited by the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools or are a Council of Christian Colleges and Universities member or affiliate were eligible for the ranking,” writes Kim Chaudoin for Lipscomb’s website. “The ranking considered which colleges offered the highest degree of personal attention (student-to-faculty ratio), selectivity (acceptance rate), financial assistance (percent of students receiving financial aid) and student satisfaction (retention and graduation rates).” The site notes Lipscomb’s variety of academic possibilities, quality of education and the school’s combination of faith in the classroom and...
