Perhaps the circumstances have more to do with the timing, but the future of Arkansas baseball has spent a lot more on mind than Arkansas football did in the fall or Arkansas basketball did pre-John Calipari.
The Razorbacks’ football and basketball programs are not on the level of Arkansas baseball. Neither are as year-in, year-out competitive as baseball has been under coach Dave Van Horn. What he has done with the Diamond Hogs in his 20-plus years is (baseball) godlike.
It’s awfully dismaying, then, to see the same band of n’er-do-wells come after Van Horn as they went after Eric Musselman and as they have gone after (and will go after) Sam Pittman. Remarking that it’s time for the university to move on or it’s time for Van Horn to call it a career.
Bollocks, as they say across the pond.
Norm DeBriyn brought Arkansas baseball into consideration, going to four College World Series from 1979 to 1989 then another six NCAA Tournaments until he exited in 2002. Van Horn has been to Omaha six times since 2004 with one appearance in the national championships, heights never before seen in Fayetteville.
There are no signs of slowing, either. Arkansas consistently earns top-5 recruiting classes when it comes to freshmen and the transfer portal has been kind to the Razorbacks, too, in its short usage. Barring offseason exodus, Arkansas will be a top-25 team in the preseason again next academic year and is very likely to be even higher than that, par standard.
The national championship remains elusive. No doubt about that. But go ask Florida State fans if they wished Mike Martin would have been shown the door. He never won a title in Tallahassee and is considered one of the 10 best coaches the game has ever seen.
Sure, Van Horn might say he’s had enough. He has grandchildren and family and the intricacies of the transfer portal, NIL and the NCAA are so nebulous that they could drive any coach wacky. Nothing Van Horn has said or done suggests that will be the case, though, and it’s more people talking.
If it happens, sadness will overtake Razorbacks Nation, a sadness greater than the one that has manifest itself since late November when the disappointment of Arkansas athletics 2023-24 began.
Don’t be so hasty, haters.