When LSU senior all-arounder Jessie Jordan suffered a back injury during warm-ups Friday night, LSU gymnastics coach D-D Breaux knew she could count on someone to step up against No. 9 Georgia in place of the No. 4 all-arounder in the nation.
But she didn’t expect it to be LSU football coach Les Miles, who was sitting courtside with his youngest daughter Macy.
The crowd of 7,722 — the third largest in school history — erupted during senior all-arounder Lloimincia Hall’s floor routine when she and Miles simultaneously did his famous clap.
“We invited [Miles] to come see [Hall’s] routine,” Breaux said. “To be a part of what she is doing to mimic some of the things that he does, and to try to bring the crowd into her performance. It really worked.”

Despite Jordan’s absence, the No. 3 Tigers set the second-highest score in the nation and eclipsed a 198 team score for the third time in program history with their 198.075-196.850 win against the Gym Dogs.
Miles wasn’t the only one to chip in after Jordan pulled a back muscle during vaulting warmups.
The injury, which Breaux said is minor, forced Breaux to change the lineup less than an hour before the competition started.
“We told the kids we got a lemon, now we’re going to make some lemonade,” Breaux said. “We decided to create some emotion to offset a bit of a hitch in our giddyup, and the kids rose to the occasion and did a tremendous job.”
The Tigers combined to set or tie seven career-highs, one season-high and the crowd chanted “LSU” more than 10 times during LSU’s dominant performance.
“It shows how much even the freshmen on this team have so much maturity and confidence,” said senior all-arounder Rheagan Courville. “We don’t look at any spot differently. They’re all interchangeable. That’s how much depth and talent we have on this team.”
Courville put together the best all-around performance of her career and the second-best in school history in the wake of Jordan’s injury.
Courville accounted for three scores of 9.950 and wrapped up the highest all-around score in the nation, a 39.825, by tying her career-high on floor with a 9.975.
“It’s owed to how much energy we had coming off this week of practice,” Courville said. “We knew we were going to come out here and not leave anything behind … I fed off such a great lineup in front of me on everything.”
Freshman all-arounder Myia Hambrick filled in for Jordan on several events, leading to her competing in the all-around for the first time since the season-opener against Iowa.
Hambrick made the most of the opportunity by earning a career-high on vault and beam by scoring a 9.900 on both.
“I did compete in the all-around one time this year so far, so it wasn’t really a lot of pressure,” Hambrick said. “I felt that I owed it to [Jordan] to give it my best. I did my best, and the team did our best with her there cheering [for] us on the sidelines.”

Breaux also praised the performances of sophomore all-arounder Sydney Ewing and freshman all-arounder Erin Macadaeg.
Ewing tied her career-high on vault with a 9.900 and set a new season-high on floor by scoring a 9.875.
Macadaeg performed her best beam set of the season, causing the fans to demand a perfect score and resulting in a new career-high of 9.950.
“What they did is they saw the No. 1 team in the country, [Oklahoma], and saw what we needed to do,” Breaux said. “They answered that call … This team is drinking each other’s Kool-Aid.”