Clemson makes a major coaching move in the offseason — Morgan Price looks back at her Fisk career

I discussed one of the most high-profile athlete moves in last week’s column: Morgan Price’s exit from Fisk. Price is now headed to Arkansas for her final year of eligibility. She will join her sister Frankie on the Razorbacks roster. You may recall that Price was committed to Arkansas before opting to become part of Fisk’s debut gymnastics squad in 2022.

But it isn’t just gymnasts transferring during the period immediately following the NCAA championships.

It’s also coaches. 

And one of those high-profile moves also took place this week. Cal’s former co-head coaches, Justin Howell and Liz Crandall-Howell, a husband-and-wife team, will take the reins at Clemson, which let Amy Smith go last month.

The Howells have coached at Berkeley for 13 years, and shared the head coach title since 2018. They made regionals for 12 of those years, and six out of the last eight national championships. Cal joined the ACC, to which Clemson also belongs, for the 2025 season and was undefeated within the conference. 

One of the Howells’ recruits, Sydney Snyder, who will start college this fall, has now committed to Clemson. Snyder was formerly signed at Cal, but appears to be moving with the Golden Bears’s former coaches to South Carolina. It will be interesting to see (albeit devastating to Cal’s lineups) if other recruits follow suit. 

Clemson has some experience with this phenomenon. When Smith was hired to start the gymnastics program at the school three years ago, she had been coaching at Utah State. About half of that team  came with her to Clemson, and several remain on the team. 

There was lots of chatter about people not believing that someone would pass up the opportunity to live in northern California to take a job in South Carolina. Jessica O’Beirne of GymCastic pointed out this week, though, that Howell and Crandall-Howell have taken the Cal team as far as they could with the resources they had. Cal placed second at nationals in 2024, and while they didn’t make it to Four on the Floor this year, they finished the season ranked ninth and senior Mya Lauzon competed on floor and beam as an individual at nationals, winning third on the latter. (Maddie Williams, also a senior, competed at nationals on bars as well.) Cal’s facilities are older, their athletes are not as competitive for NIL money as at some schools, and California’s budget cuts has meant less competitive coaching salaries as well. 

Which brings us to Clemson and their deep, deep pockets. The Howells signed identical five-year coaching contracts with the Tigers for $225,000 apiece per year before any bonuses. Clemson is shelling out an additional $1.35 million to buy out the Howells’ Cal contracts and help with the cross-country move. It’s an investment that speaks of high expectations, but those are likely expectations the Howells can meet, given the resources and fandom that exist at Clemson — a new practice gym, built just for the gymnastics team, and 5,000 season tickets sold for the 2025 season (and remember, that was just Clemson’s second season as a team). 

In other words, Clemson is about where Cal was, as a team, when the Howells began with the program. It’s time to see if they can replicate their magic, this time with more money and better facilities. Seems like a no-brainer. 

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Other gym news

Check out Spencer Barnes’ GIFs of the Varna Challenge Cup over at The Balance Beam Situation. BBS also has the results of the Level 10 national championships. 

College Gym News also covered Level 10 nationals, and they bring us a look at UCLA recruit Nola Matthews, a Data Deep Dive into whether freshmen gymnasts were affected by teammates taking Covid years, and a Judge’s Inquiry about five-star recruits and their chances of success at top-ranked schools versus other schools. 

The Gymternet has the Varna Challenge Cup results and the nominative roster for Euros, which begin Thursday in Leipzig, Germany.  

Jordan Bowers won the Honda Award. 

Pauline Schäfer-Betz of Germany had hip surgery, but appears to have her sights set on a comeback at the LA Olympics in 2028. 

Laurie Hernandez spoke at Kean University’s commencement in her home state of New Jersey this week. 

Five at The IX: Morgan Price looks back at her Fisk Career

This short video is worth another look now that we know Price is off to Fayetteville next season. Price looks back at her career at Fisk and the history she helped make.