LSUonodi

On the topic of medical retirements... how is Caitlin Smith looking?

It's absolutely beyond me why these super competitive, highly-skilled elites are willing to commit to a program where they'll be lucky to compete on 2 events. And even with all this talent I'm doubtful Jenny will get them a natty. Just insane.

I see a lot of similarities between Courtney Goodrich and McKenna Kelley's gymnastics, particularly their tumbling. If you HAVE to give her a recycled routine, why give her Sarah's? I also think it's a slight slap in the face to only give some athletes new floor routines. Gunter deserved her own too, and this last season was probably her best shot to compete considering depth issues. Really hoping for some fresh and exciting choreo from hereon out for all routines.

The Facebook College Gym page is saying that Rachel asked to walk-on next year at Georgia, and CKC said no.

I'm hoping there's an extra piece of the puzzle we're missing, but wow, I cannot understand knocking back an athlete of Rachel's calibre and with her leadership skills. Particularly as Georgia said so much about how she was a great leader with a great attitude when she first had her injury. LSU rehabbed McKenna so well, surely Rachel knows that and will be considering us.

We better be thanking our lucky stars that Sarah's injury wasn't more serious. She was looking damn good this season. Hoping they play it safe for the next 2 weeks, having her back by 16 Feb against Kentucky might still be optimistic, but she would be a real help there.

Any idea whether we can get Ryan vaulting this season? Rau just isn't cutting it, and honestly I think Nibbs has earned that spot next week over Rau. I was impressed that Ruby picked herself back up after her vault floor and delivered on ub and fx, she has a tendency to get a bit in her head after a mistake, so that was good growth.

The difficulty on floor is killing us. UCLA finesses routines by doing jumps out of tumbling passes. A lot easier to get a 10 like Gracie Kramer if you're landing a pass on your whole front rather than sticking on feet. We need smarter routines. Interesting that LSU's 2 away scores are higher than all 3 home scores though... don't know if any other team can say that.

If you rank teams by highest score, LSU is third after Florida and Oklahoma. Not sure how we'd measure up with UCLA, which has had beam issues of its own and is yet to compete this week, but this seems much more optimistic than how we looked this time last week.

Once we get Kai on floor, Edwards back on vault and floor, Desiderio on beam and floor, and Alyona on bars, we're going to be looking great.

I'm really impressed with how good Olivia Gunter is looking. Once she got those early nerves out she has been fab. Hopefully the same can happen for Maddie Rau. Reagan needs her 10 this year, I really think she can get it sooner rather than later.

I'm optimistic that it might not be Sarah's achilles at least, she tried to continue and do her leaps, with an achilles injury i doubt she'd even be able to push off the floor.

Ruby and Kai both had great meets, they could be doing a lot of the heavy lifting for us as the season goes on.

I reckon that beam is crooked...

Just my 2 cents - we're suffering from inexperience. Good thing that's an easy problem to fix.

We need Sarah to consistently find her landings on vault. She had a fab meet this weekend we should give her credit for. We also just need depth, which is where not having Bailey hurts us.

We shouldn't have 3 freshman at the start of the bars lineup. I like having Sami later for that score boost, but she's dependable and we should use that. Hopefully that whole lineup moves around and settles to a better pattern once Alyona is healthy and Kai gets more reps.

I still think Bridget is getting hit with that pause deduction on beam that no other conference seems to get. I think Sami and Kiya's falls were just bad luck to be honest. Hoping Reagan gets her 10 soon, hoping Alyona can help out once she's healthier, and hoping D'Antonio gets a shot too. Beam looking ok in my opinion.

We have so much depth on floor, but we're just not consistent. Reagan and Christina need to step up, I really thought those two would be anchoring in no time back before they arrived at LSU. Gunter is a sweetheart and I loved seeing her in that lineup, I think she can deliver next time. Wish we still had Kirby here too.

We're just an inexperienced team. We can all admit we lost some good routines last year, but those girls were leaders for years which kept our current team in early lineup positions and sometimes out of the lineup entirely. And with that inexperience, who do our freshmen look to for that confidence boost? No competitors in the sophomore class, no all arounders in the junior class, and only 2 in the senior class. They'll make their own way, give it a minute and they'll get their confidence too. No real reason to worry just yet.

Has Desiderio had another injury setback or is she just a slow recover-er? Last I heard, her and Reagan Campbell had surgery at the same time, but Reagan is looking fab. Getting Desiderio in the 9.9 range on floor would be so good.

On a different note, I would also love to see Olivia Gunter on floor particularly in the early season. Hoping Bridget Dean still has her spot in the beam lineup too.

Happy we seem to have a lot of depth on floor and bars this year. Both looking harder to crack than the UCLA floor lineup!