Dave Van Horn, Jeff Goodman, Arkansas baseball, Arkansas basketballphoto credit: Craven Whitlow / TikTok/Field of 68

As much as it sucks to think about, Dave Van Horn isn’t getting any younger. 

The Arkansas baseball coach had already referred to retirement heading into this most recent Omaha trip, which ended with a galactic gut punch coming the Hogs’ way in a walk-off, season-ending loss to LSU.

Van Horn turns 65 in September and has grandchildren to enjoy now. It’s a very real possibility that he will never hoist the hardware even if he coaches through his contract in 2031 and makes two or three more trips to Charles Schwab Field.

It’s easy to feel like Van Horn is entitled to a championship, but that just isn’t how this sort of thing goes. Mike Martin, the legendary Florida State coach, made the College World Series a whopping 17 times as the Seminoles coach. Van Horn has been to Omaha eight times with the Hogs, and 10 overall as a head coach. 

It’s very possible that he will join Martin as the best coach in the game to never win a national championship. As the heartbreaks pile up, that possibility becomes more and more real.

Rearranging of the deck chairs on the Titanic will happen. New pieces will be brought in via the transfer portal or the high school ranks, some studs from this team will return, fans will get excited in the fall as they play at Baum-Walker, they will have hype early in the season as they look formidable playing non-conference ball in Texas, and will go through the SEC schedule as one of the top teams in America.

You know how the story goes. But what makes you think it will be any different next June? Usually a trip to Omaha in the Van Horn era leads to two years of losing in regionals before a return trip.

Postseason Pattern for Arkansas Baseball?

2009 – Omaha, eliminated in Super in ‘10 and regionals in ‘11

2012 – Omaha, eliminated in regionals in ‘14 and ‘15

2015 – Omaha, finish dead last in SEC in ‘16, lose home regional in ‘17

2018 – Omaha, make Omaha next year, then COVID, then ‘21 meltdown in Super

2022 – Omaha, lose home regionals in ‘23 and ‘24

2025 – Omaha, to be determined…

Do you really want to have to wait until 2028 to see the baseball program possibly make it again? Who knows what kind of disastrous way of losing the baseball gods will cast on Arkansas next. 

It’s enough for Arkansas baseball fans to differ with a famous line of one of their own native sons. In the 2004 film ‘Friday Night Lights,’ Malvern, Ark. native Billy Bob Thornton plays the role of Gary Gaines, a Texas high school football coach who tells his star quarterback, Mike Winchell, that “there ain’t no curses.”

Psssh.

The track record on the Hill seems to say otherwise. 

Leaving out the 1994 basketball national title, which is the only championship in a major sport won by the University of Arkansas that is undisputed, it seems like Arkansas always comes up short or screws up in big games when it matters.

1969 – Big Shootout in football. Arkansas blows 14-point lead, Frank Broyles elects not to kick field goal to go up two scores, loses 15-14 to lose out on national title consideration.

1995 – Arkansas basketball loses to UCLA in the NCAA title game in Seattle, missing out on a chance to win back-to-back national titles and join elite company.

1998 – Clint Stoerner stumbles and fumbles in Knoxville with No. 10 Arkansas (8-0) trying to run clock out and knock off No. 1 Tennessee. The Vols win 28-24 and win the BCS crown.

2006 – Reggie Fish fumbles a punt return backwards into his own end zone after Florida’s Urban Meyer calls his final timeout late in the third quarter and costs the Razorbacks a chance to win its first SEC football title. Gators win and end up winning the BCS title.

2017 – Referees swallow their whistle and Arkansas basketball blows a 5-point lead with 2 minutes to play against North Carolina in the round of 32. Tar Heels end up cutting down the nets that April.

2018 – You know this one. Eric Cole, Jared Gates and Carson Shaddy are all unable to secure a foul ball pop-up with two outs against Oregon State in game 2 of the championship series. Beavers take advantage and win the game and win the next night to win the whole thing. They remain the last team to come through the loser’s bracket to win it.

2021 – Arkansas wins first game of Super Regional against NC State 21-2, then loses the next two games at home even with Golden Spikes winner Kevin Kopps on the mound in both.

2025 – Arkansas had a chance to force a winner-take-all game to go to the championship series against LSU. Led 3-2 in the 8th and 5-3 in the 9th and with one out, Wehiwa Aloy failed to turn a double play, and then a batter later LSU hit a frozen rope to left that Charles Davalan misplayed, letting them tie the game, and then Cam Kozeal could not secure a line drive of Jared Jones, allowing the Tigers to advance to the best-of-3 against Coastal Carolina.

This latest round of Omahorrors, as BoAS contributor Doc Harper deemed them, is even more troubling  knowing that the football program isn’t going to flirt with the College Football Playoff anytime soon.

Guess Who’s Crashing the Party for John Calipari

John Calipari obviously inspires hope in basketball, but the collapse against Texas Tech in the Sweet 16 is still fresh in fans’ minds. Nobody expected him to win a national championship in his first season at Arkansas, but make no mistake: that expectation is absolutely there and should remain there so long as he’s bringing in top-end recruiting and transfer classes.

It just so happens that the main critique leveled at Calipari also applies to Van Horn: too few titles relative to the talent at his disposal.

Calipari had absolutely loaded teams at UMass, Memphis and Kentucky and reached the Final Four six times, but only brought home up the bacon once. Jeff Goodman, who stands as probably mainstream media’s No. 1 gadfly in Calipari’s side, seems to get no end of joy pointing that out almost every time he has a chance. 

His latest opportunity came on the heels of Calipari brag last week about how much money his future NBA players have made:

Nobody in their right mind would accuse Calipari of being cursed. Indeed, he brings up how blessed he is quite often. Dave Van Horn very likely has a similar outlook. 

If Calipari and Van Horn didn’t have such lofty reputations and every single type of marker of success you’d want outside of national championships, then this would be a moot point. 

Both men, however, keep producing on the recruiting front, in the regular season and some of the postseason at such high clips that they have created their own kinds of monsters.

That’s both the blessing and curse of such big-time college coaches with big-time blank spots on their resumes.

“I’m not too far behind you.”- Dave Van Horn says to retiring Creighton Head Coach Ed Servais.

DVH is 64 years old. https://t.co/9W6EheIyg0

— Andrew Riedell (@RiedellAndrew) June 2, 2025

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