Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn: "What makes it special is that these guys really like each other"

Arkansas, winners of the Fayetteville Regional and Super Regional, is heading to the 2025 Men’s College World Series for the first time since 2019. The Razorbacks, which earned the No. 3 national seed, are the highest remaining seed in the field of eight.

Head coach Dave Van Horn, who is making his eighth trip to Omaha as the head coach at Arkansas, revealed just how close his team is at Thursday’s Men’s College World Series Media Day Press Conference.

“What makes it special is that these guys really like each other,” Van Horn said. “They’re kind of throwbacks. They’re just gym rats. They hang out at the ballpark. We’ve got nice facilities and a nice locker room and areas and now we have a pond back there behind the center field wall, and I’ve got 15 guys fishing back there all the time. They’re out there in little boats now, I mean, it’s comical. I love it. They just get along and like each other, like I said, and they’re talented. If the rest of my coaches were up here, they’d say the same thing. They make it fun to come to work every day and make it seem like it’s not a job.”

This year’s breakthrough comes after back-to-back disappointing seasons, in which Arkansas lost back-to-back Fayetteville Regionals for the first time since 2006-07. Key players such as Golden Spikes Finalist Wehiwa Aloy, All-SEC First Team left-handed pitcher Zach Root and All-SEC Second Team first baseman Cam Kozeal have been integral pieces on yet another OmaHog squad.

Van Horn revealed that part of their motivation dates back to the regular season. There, Arkansas lost the regular season championship to newcomer Texas.

“We came in second in the SEC,” Van Horn responded when asked about their motivations. “Texas won the league. We swept Texas at our place seventh or eighth weekend of the 10 weeks. But we still couldn’t catch them because they had such a big lead. We still had to — I think we just played at Georgia, at Florida, at LSU. Tennessee was coming in. That’s the way we finished. It’s like, we just kept going, woo, here we go. I think it made us tougher. It made us stronger. I don’t know. These guys, I wouldn’t say so much chip-on-their-shoulder-type team, but just really determined team to play and not have the season end because they like playing man. They want to play, they want to win. It’s been fun.”

The Razorbacks open play in the Men’s College World Series on Friday at 6 p.m. CT/7 p.m. ET against fellow SEC foe LSU. The Tigers won the regular season series between the two programs in May.