re: Remove

Georgia looks really good overall. I totally did not expect them to look this good this soon. You all can watch their routines on Twitter (@collegegymnews_). Whoever did their floor choreography did an amazing job! Looks like they kinda took a page out of Oklahoma’s book. I can honestly say that their floor routines (choreography wise) is better than both LSU and UCLA’s. They had a few mistakes on bars and beam. But Vega, Hawthorne, and Lukacs look really good. LSU needs to get as many people healthy as possible because I see a lot of competition from a lot of teams.

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Personally, not a fan of CGN's new rankings. They seem very pro-UCLA and Florida without much reason to be, and quite anti-LSU and Utah.

UCLA hasn't replaced Ohashi's routines in any sense of the word. Meet the Bruins wasn't such a strong showing that they should be considered the team to beat.

In the same sense, Florida hasn't replaced Boren's routines at all, and I'm yet to see how their vault has improved from last season. Vault was what really let them down in terms of NQS, that beam rotation kept them out of finals, but what evidence do we have that they are improving?

Back in May CGN did a 'Way Too Early' ranking, and put LSU in at 6th citing the number of routines we're losing. That was when we had 4 recruits (Rivers, Johnson, Smith and Goodrich). You're telling me that adding Shchennikova does nothing?

I see Johnson as the new Finnegan, Rivers as the new Kelley, and Shchennikova as the new Priessman. Nibbs and Ryan can vault, and Goodrich has potential on floor.

We might not be top 2, but no way should LSU not be considered top 4 material.

Yes CGN does tend to be pro-UCLA, Florida, and Oklahoma. However, when you factor in the "first looks" of each of the teams ranked ahead of LSU, I sorta kinda tend to agree (except for Denver) for now. And only for now. I expect LSU to finish in the top 4, if not win the national title. We have the potential to win it all if Kai and Alyona get healthy.

But LSU did put up five vaults at 101, two of which we hope not to use. Bars was fine, although the lineup order was very questionable. Beam is going to good again, but we really need Alyona in toward the end of the lineup. And on floor, LSU did have a lot of spotting and did not do full floor routines (first pass done separately). I know this was precautionary. Other teams had full team vs. team instrasquads, with some going 8-9 deep on each event. LSU has a lot of questions to answer and kinks to work through. The potential is there but I think we have to be patient.

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Watch a routine of Elena arenas in practice before her season gets going. You will notice a familiar face in the video

Was that Hambrick? I sure do miss her. She was such a rock.

Alyona posted a video on her Instagram of her doing a back flip on floor. I think she had surgery at the end of June. How is that possible? Her foot is not even wrapped. Has she healed that fast?

I think it depends on how severe the injury was. Whether it was whole or partial tear.

I watched Florida’s instrasquad videos on YouTube. I did see that Richards and Gowey both did two floor passes. I was hoping that this was precautionary. I actually don’t see both of them making the lineup. Thomas, Reed, Baumann, & Hundley are the four locks. Johnson-Scharpf, Skaggs, and Foberg should fight for the last two spots depending on their health and mental state (Jenny admitted that SJS kept psyching herself out on floor). I think Richards is the stronger floor worker of the two. But you never know with Rowland. Missing out on nationals last year has got to sting a bit.

Some nice bar work by Olivia. She will likely have this combination at LSU.