Naya Howard will spend the remainder of her college gymnastics career at Michigan State after three stellar years at Georgia. She took a parting shot at her former program and first-year head coach Cecile Canqueteau-Landi on the way to East Lansing.
It is unclear as to what exactly she was trying to say with the cryptic statement but it does not reflect well on the Bulldogs!
Howard, a certified star in college gym, immediately burst onto the scene as the top freshman overall finisher at the SEC Championship in 2023. The 5-foot-6 all-around competitor was limited as a sophomore due to injury but she rallied back as Georgia’s highest vault scorer at Regionals in 2024.
That leads us to this past season, 2025. Cecile Canqueteau-Landi was named as the GymDogs’ co-head coach after more than 10 years as Simone Biles’ personal coach. Georgia finished 5-9-1 during the grueling regular season but it completely fell apart during the postseason at the SEC Championships and during Regionals. Something didn’t click. The Bulldogs did not even make it to Day 2 of the national tournament.
Howard competed 10 times on beam, and seven times on vault and bars during the regular season. Her 9.9 on Beam matched a career-high.
She compiled an National Qualifying Score of 9.770 on vault, 9.810 on bars, and 9.850 on beam but she chose not to compete at Regionals due to “unforeseen circumstances”. Georgia could not advance without her.
Nobody knew what the deal was at the time. We still don’t. All we know is that Naya Howard had enough.
The rising senior entered the transfer portal to “explore new places and opportunities that feel more in line with the direction she sees for herself moving forward.” She also unfollowed both co-head coaches on social media and took parting shot at the Bulldogs on her way out.
Howard committed to Michigan State on Memorial Day. Her caption could not be more cryptic.
What part of the process in Athens is flawed? What happened over the last three months that caused the program to collapse down the stretch and inspired Naya Howard to leave?
We may never get those answers. Howard will likely move on from the conversation even though she was so quick to fire a shot on the back-end of her departure. Georgia would prefer that this entire saga soon blows over. Neither party is going to talk so all we know is what we know.