If we are talking top 10 at the end of the regular season, thats a pretty big jump to make in 1 off season. Even just looking at it in a conference view, that would involve Georgia overtaking 3 conference teams or in a wider view, improving their NQS by 0.6 which is quite a big jump to make.
Wait, what? Where have you read anything about people wanting Eaker to return to elite? From what I have read, everyone is talking about her doing college gym again. Eaker has posted a few times on Instagram from Georgia. She has an apartment there and reportedly intends to transfer to UGA, but there are some academic credit issues.
My thoughts exactly. But I do think a good team to compare Georgia to is Arkansas.
I get your point, but when I say compare Arkansas to UGA I’m talking about their improvement over the past year. They were 17th in 23 and 7th in 24. Weiber being first year head coach in 2020 is not really comparable with Ryan Roberts and his present situation at UGA. He had success at Alabama (with Koltakov) and has done well at Georgia. Bama won the SEC in 21 and came in 2nd in 22. He's a great recruiter and the fact that none of the Georgia gymnasts chose to transfer says volumes about him. I heard some of them even told the AD at UGA if he goes, we go. Heck Lily Smith changed her commitment from Bama because of him. Some people have suggested that much of UGA's latest upward trend with recruiting as well as performance was due to him and not CKC. I get he is a first year head coach but not an unproven college coach as Landi will be and as Weiber was in 2020. It will be interesting to see how Roberts and Landi work together. It seems more likely to be successful than not as they have worked together in the past and therefore know each other’s coaching styles. Also it was Roberts idea to finally get Landi to take the UGA job. Roberts knows how college gymnastics works so he should be able to handle the things that will be new to her. Cecile should be able to come in and immediately focus on coaching- something everyone can agree she excels at. Why people think that it will take years for her and Roberts to be successful does not make sense, especially given all the talent on the team. They in all likelihood now have 5 experienced gymnasts who can legitimately do the AA: Smith, Wahl, Snyder, Howard and Backsay. They also will have a legit vault rotation of at least five 10.0 start values. Their beam will be insane even if Eaker does not join the team as they have about 15 gymnasts to choose from on this event. Floor should also be much improved with Tomlin, Aquino, and Backsay. On UB they return their best and most consistent routines from last year as well as gaining some promising ones with Mason and Berry. One final thing to consider- their upward trend at the end of last year. They were finally really putting it altogether posting some great scores in the 197s. Again I'm not suggesting national champions. I’m simply saying it is very likely they will improve to be a top 10 team this coming year for all the reasons I’ve listed and not over exuberant wishful thinking.
I certainly see your logic and it is a reasonable position. I am just presenting an equally logical viewpoint. Being a head coach is a lot different than being an assistant coach. There is a lot of other overhead to deal with, and just because Cecil and Ryan have coached together before doesn't mean there won't be hiccups in figuring out who makes what decisions. The only reason why Ryan and Cecile are the head coaches is because Jay Clark backed out of the deal and Georgia was left with a big unknown entering transfer deadline with Ryan being the only anchor for the gymnasts. He had the AD in a bind.
I agree with you- we shall have to wait and see. I just wish UGA wasn’t being compared to Oklahoma, LSU or Florida as they are teams currently at the very top of the rankings. And incidentally all three of the current head coaches at these programs inherited teams that were already in the top 10. Oklahoma was 10th when Kindler took over, LSU was ranked 6th when Clark took over and Florida was the number one team when Rowland took over. Again not realistically comparable to Roberts/Landi and the UGA situation.I certainly see your logic and it is a reasonable position. I am just presenting an equally logical viewpoint. Being a head coach is a lot different than being an assistant coach. There is a lot of other overhead to deal with, and just because Cecil and Ryan have coached together before doesn't mean there won't be hiccups in figuring out who makes what decisions. The only reason why Ryan and Cecile are the head coaches is because Jay Clark backed out of the deal and Georgia was left with a big unknown entering transfer deadline with Ryan being the only anchor for the gymnasts. He had the AD in a bind.
Its taken Wieber 5 years to start seeing the fruits of her labor, it took KJ several years to get OU rolling, it took Jay several years to push LSU to the top, still waiting on Jenny at UF. Thats why I am skeptical to say its very likely Georgia is suddenly going to become a top 10 team in one year. Your logic while not crazy is a Georgia fan's logic. Only time will tell.
It is a big jump. However, I have been hearing for years that UGA has a lot of talented gymnasts that are not performing to their full potential...and that this was due to CKC's coaching or lack thereof. I tend to agree with this point of view and I'm optimistic that Roberts/Landi with better coaching and an even more talented/experienced roster will get better results than CKC.
Well if you're saying Arkansas got some lucky breaks and that's why they were ranked 7th at the end of the year, I'll concede that. Unfortunately UGA was not getting any lucky breaks.
