Razorbacks' Sustained Success More of Mental Approach for Van Horn

Hagen Smith having this kind of year on mound, though, wasn't surprising to Hogs' coach

Arkansas Razorbacks pitcher Hagen Smith throws a pitch against the Florida Gators in a game on April 26, 2024, at Baum-Walker Stadium in Fayetteville, Ark. / Andy Hodges-allHOGS Images

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The reason for the sustained success isn't that hard for Arkansas Razorbacks coach Dave Van Horn. He's well aware Mississippi State is coming into town for a three-game series after a two-year slide following a national title, but don't ask him for the reasons for the slump.

As usual, he is pretty narrowly focused on his team and the opponent is usually just numbers and video on strengths and weaknesses.

"To be good every year, it’s really a mindset," the Hogs' skipper said Thursday morning. "A lot of expectation and a lot of policing each other and that’s what we have our players do. It’s all about the players taking care of the program and making sure guys are doing the right thing. They’re not perfect, we get it. Kids are going to be kids, but there’s just a lot of expectation around here and I don’t feel like the kids feel pressure from it. It’s just that’s what they want. Last year, we felt like as a team and a staff that we won the SEC West, tied for the SEC championship and nobody around here knew it. I mean, it was kind of like we didn’t get to Omaha and they didn’t think we had a very good year. Which was a little frustrating for us as a staff."

That was how he answered a question from a Mississippi State beat writer on Arkansas' sustained success over the past several years. The Razorbacks haven't won the title in Omaha, though, which is about the only hill Van Horn has left to get over. Expectations for that to finally happen soared around here a couple of months ago, but have cooled off a little, after dropping a couple of road series.

That doesn't include Friday starter Hagen Smith, who has mowed down SEC batters this year at a program-record pace. Nothing there has been particularly surprising for Van Horn based on what he's seen in Smith's development.

"We saw him workout all summer here," Van Horn said. "We saw him get bigger and stronger. He was still 19 all of last summer. He turned 20 in August. He already had two full years being in the middle of a couple of pretty good teams. An SEC Championship team and a team that went to Omaha when he was a freshman, and he was the reason that we got to go. Then he turns 20, and you can just see him physically, he’s starting to look older. We’re watching his bullpens (in the fall) going, wow, this is incredible."

Van Horn saw what he had, but after losing his top pitcher before last season even got started with an injury, he wasn't taking many chances. He may have also wanted to not diminish any of his batters at the plate because they weren't having a lot of success.

"We didn’t let him pitch much," Van Horn said about Smith. "His first outing, he throws one inning at the end of September. We let him throw one inning, and he struck out the side on like 12 pitches, and it wasn’t even competitive. We’re going, holy cow. He was supposed to pitch the next Friday and all the scouts we’re going to come in, and there was a few there. After he threw, I went and saw Coach (Matt) Hobbs and I said I don’t want him to pitch anymore this fall. And then we went and told him, and he wasn’t really happy. What are you pitching for? You don’t need to pitch. You need to get ready for the spring. The scouts will figure it out in the spring."

Shutting down one batter after another was expected 100% by Van Horn and the team. About the only way it would have been surprising would have been if he didn't. Dave's been doing this for a few decades and he tends to be pretty accurate on these things.

"We knew he was going to have a big year," he said. "Did we know that he was going to do what he’s doing? I mean, we thought it was in there because I've been doing it a long time and I’ve had some really good pitchers and I’ve never had a better one."

Now he gets to see if he can do it again Friday. The Bulldogs and Razorbacks kick off the weekend series with a first pitch at 6:30 p.m. on SEC Network+, then a 6 p.m. game on Saturday evening (also SEC Network+) before Sunday's finale at 2 p.m. on the SEC Network.

You can hear all the games with the pregame show from Phil Elson and Bubba Carpenter starting 30 minutes before every game on ESPN Arkansas 95.3 in the River Valley, 96.3 in Hot Springs and 104.3 in Harrison-Mountain Home and online at HitThatLine.com.

HOGS FEED:

• New Razorbacks assistant coach for Calipari could be an impactful hire

• Razorbacks' path to Omaha Relies on Hagen Smith and a prayer

• Arkansas in the mix for another top transfer

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