Van Horn to get jump on fellow SEC schools that make it to College World Series
There’s not much of a silver lining after the brutal way things ended on both sides of the coin as it pertains to Arkansas sports on the diamond earlier this week.
Instead, Razorbacks fans are boning up on the career of Little Rock’s Blake Simpson and wondering why reliever Tag Andrews and pitching coach Evan Lee’s names sound familiar. While cheering Little Rock in the improbable Battle of the Trojans in the super regional at Troy will be fun for Hogs fans without the extreme emotional scarring on the back end if it doesn’t work out, there is an advantage to no longer having Arkansas in the field. The Razorbacks get to be legitimate participants in the transfer portal this year.
A lot of people might roll their eyes at the thought that Power Four programs, especially one like Arkansas, can become an afterthought once the window opens, but the fact not a single team from last year’s College World Series made it to super regionals is proof enough to shut that idea down.
Baseball is a much different game when it comes to NIL than other sports. There is a limited amount of money floating around out there and it doesn’t hang around long.
That’s why while Van Horn and his staff were dutifully prepping their team for a legitimate run at a national championship for the final two weeks of the postseason, top talent came off the board quickly to take solid offers from coaches who had time to go through the full NIL recruitment process last year.
The Hogs weren’t among those teams. Van Horn verified that in his postgame talk following the 13-10 loss to Kansas.
“We didn’t get the help we needed right away, and [portal recruits] ended up other places,” Van Horn said. “I’m sure the same thing happened to some other schools. When you’re in Omaha, teams are getting a jump on you. They’re getting kids on immediately. The kids, they’re taking it, and that’s where they go.”
This isn’t like football or basketball where coaches have essentially a coach or analyst for nearly every player on the team. Van Horn has four assistants, which is a sizeable staff for college baseball, just don’t look at their salaries, and a handful of support staff where positions like the trainer, strength coach, equipment manager and the team secretary reside.
There was no room to coddle transfers and lock up NIL deals last season and also have the team at its best in Omaha As a result, the Hogs missed out on some guys who could have made the difference.
It would be easy to take all of that in and assume it means Arkansas can only make a run to to the College World Series every other year. However, it’s possible that may no longer be the case.
See, DJ Baxendale’s new role as baseball general manager provides the Razorbacks the chance to salvage at least a couple of the guys who would normally get away. Imagine Arkansas with one more elite pitcher and one more strong hitter with patience at the plate and good agility in the field.
That would have at least been enough to put away pesky Kansas, and with Oklahoma coming to Baum-Walker for a chance to advance to a CWS that will be unusually heavy on underdogs, so who knows what may have happened.
“It takes a lot off (my plate), honestly – just the phone calls and all the things that are involved there,” Van Horn said following a Swatter’s Club meeting earlier this year. “It’s so needed now. Five years ago? No. Now, it’s different.”
The point is, at least according to Van Horn, there is good reason to believe Hogs fans won’t see another season play out from portal window to finish the way this last one did. And that’s a good thing for Arkansas fans.
As much fun as they will have cheering on the Trojans, they would obviously prefer to cheer on both programs while knowing just a tad less about the Little Rock players than they will by Friday.
