Editor's Note: This is the final of a four-part series highlighting the best coaches and athletes at the University of Arkansas in 2015.
With a fistful of College World Series rings, Dave Van Horn was already a proven commodity entering this year.
In terms of championships, expectations were not high for Arkansas in 2015, but the NCAA postseason had become an unspoken expectation. Van Horn, after all, had been to 16 consecutive NCAA regionals, including one in all of previous his dozen years with the Razorbacks.
So when Arkansas lost 10 of 12 to fall a game below .500 through 23 games, eyebrows were raised. Questions were, too.
Had Van Horn lost his touch? Would this be the year the Razorbacks' postseason streak would be snapped?
"He said the season can go one of two ways," said Joe Serrano, a senior outfielder on the team. "It can go where we bounce back and we believe in what we're doing and have a chance to do something special. Or we can just kind of fold like a lawn chair and let the season go."
Other Notable Coaches
Mike Anderson, Men's Basketball: Led the Razorbacks to highest win total in 20 years and runner-up finish at the SEC Tournament. Arkansas finished the season 27-9 and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Bret Bielema, Football: After starting 2-4, the Razorbacks won five of their final six regular season games. Arkansas finished 5-3 in conference play and won three SEC road games for just the sixth time.
Chris Bucknam, Men's Track/Cross Country: Won sixth consecutive SEC championship in cross country and finished SEC runner-up indoors and outdoors.
Jimmy Dykes: Women's Basketball: With only nine players, Dykes led Arkansas to an NCAA Tournament win in his first season as a head coach.
Lance Harter, Women's Track/Cross Country: Led Arkansas to its first ever national championship in a female sport with a first place finish indoors. The Razorbacks won conference championships in all three sports coached by Harter.
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Van Horn and Arkansas emphatically answered the doubters by orchestrating college baseball's biggest midseason turnaround. After losing their first two SEC series, the Razorbacks never lost another one.
They continued their hot streak in the postseason, winning three games at an NCAA regional in Stillwater, Oklahoma, before beating national seed Missouri State twice at a super regional in Fayetteville.
A season written off by many in March ended three months later at the pinnacle of the sport - the College World Series. The Razorbacks lost a pair of one-run games there, including to eventual national champion Virginia, but it did little to detract from the journey.
"It's definitely one of the most rewarding seasons and teams I've been around," Van Horn said. "It was rewarding because it was about the people on the team. Winning helped and that makes everything better. This team really liked each other and cared about each other, and it spilled out onto the field.
"The players kept a great attitude and the coaches kept a great attitude. Kids will respond to you a lot better if they know you care about them as a person and that you still believe in them instead of beating them down all the time. I think we did a great job of recognizing that these guys hadn't quit and were still giving great effort."
It's easy to pinpoint the start of Arkansas' turnaround. It was in Memphis for the back-end of a neutral-site series that began the night before in North Little Rock.
The Razorbacks avenged their loss to Memphis from the night before with a 7-2 win at AutoZone Park. With an SEC series scheduled to begin the next day back in Fayetteville, Arkansas' bus drove overnight through thunderstorms that had produced tornado warnings a couple of hours before.
Van Horn called the experience "spooky," recounting the bus swaying from the strong winds as it traveled along Interstate-40. The Razorbacks returned home in the early morning hours and were back on the diamond less than 12 hours later for a game against Ole Miss.
Arkansas won that game and beat the Rebels two days later for its first series win in a month.
"I got ejected in the Friday game and I wasn't planning to, but I just felt we weren't getting some calls and it was time for some things to go our way," Van Horn said. "The players responded well because they knew we were still fighting for them."
With Andrew Benintendi terrorizing opposing pitchers and the Razorbacks' bullpen bouncing back from a stretch where they allowed 89 runs in 12 games, Arkansas was nearly unstoppable until its season ended in Omaha.
During one stretch, the Razorbacks won 21 of 27 games, including twice at No. 1 Texas A&M. Arkansas won seven straight SEC series and may have won a record eighth had rain not cut its home finale short.
"Last year's team overachieved and it was because we did not beat ourselves," Van Horn said. "We waited for other teams to make a mistake and then we took advantage of it."
The College World Series was Van Horn's sixth in 15 seasons dating to his final two years at Nebraska.
"We just need to take one more step," Van Horn said. "We need to put together - and I think we're on the way to doing this - a team that's not heavy one way or the other, pitching and hitting. We've been a player or two short that have kept us from getting to a national championship series and we're working on that."