Florida State figures to be popular with sports fans looking to “adopt a team” for the College World Series. The Seminoles are coached by Mike Martin, the sport’s all-time winningest coach. For all his accomplishments, however, Martin has yet to capture a CWS championship. The 2019 Noles appear determined to change that. The over-achieving FSU squad made it to Omaha by knocking out Regional host Georgia and Super Regional host LSU.

At Friday’s press conference in Omaha, Martin was asked about having to beat two SEC teams to get to the College World Series. The always classy Martin even worked in some praise for arch-rival Florida, pointing out that the Gators have dominated the Sunshine State rivalry as of late and he’s relieved to be done with UF.

Q. Coach Martin, you knocked off Georgia, you knocked off LSU, now you’ve got to play another SEC team. Just wondering how you feel about that, given your success in the tournament so far against SEC teams.

MIKE MARTIN: If I was coming back to Florida State, I’d drop the University of Florida. That deserves more than that. You try to drop Florida, they run you so far out of Tallahassee, it ain’t funny. But anyway, they’ve beaten us like a drum for a few years. The Southeastern Conference is obviously a very strong conference in all sports, but we just happened to have a weekend at the University of Georgia in which everything went our way. When we went to LSU, we just seemed to get the hits when we needed to get them. We got outstanding pitching from Drew and C.J. Van Eyk. It was just one of those weekends that you will always remember because there were some things that happened that you just don’t expect to happen. But I was very, very pleased with the approach that our guys took at the plate, and I was obviously elated after the game was over because we were able to know we were coming back out here.

Arkansas looks to put FSU in the loser’s bracket when the two teams face off Saturday night (7 p.m. ET). The Noles didn’t fare so well against the Hogs in 2004 and 2009. The UA atmosphere left a lasting impression on Martin.

Q. My question is for Coach Martin. Coach Van Horn alluded to the 2004 and 2009 super regionals. What do you remember about those two meetings previously with Arkansas?

MIKE MARTIN: It was really an eye-opening experience when we went down there in ’04. Fans are just tremendous. The facilities are outstanding. It was a let’s-see-what-you’ve-got situation, and they showed us what we got. They outplayed us. They deserved to win, and they advanced.

In ’09, I remember a misplayed fly ball that we had, and they took full advantage of it, and again, came out on top. I look at that as a program that is at the top in college baseball. They don’t beat themselves. There were a couple of times that the Florida State team did not do what they were supposed to do, and they deserved to get beat.

Dave Van Horn is (obviously) hoping to bring a title home to Fayetteville. But, if not the Hogs, there will be room on the FSU/Mike Martin bandwagon:

Q. Given the demands of your profession, can you imagine coaching baseball at the age of 75? And if you can’t win this, would a little piece of you kind of like to see Florida State win?

DAVE VAN HORN: A real small piece. (Laughter.)

I won’t be coaching baseball when I’m 75. I’ll be watching it. That’s amazing to me. For someone to stay at one university as long as he’s been, I think those days are gone. It’s at this level now to keep people happy. He’s done a tremendous job.

I think the key, he’s always had great coaches and good people around him, a lot of support, but I won’t be coaching baseball when I’m 75. I hope I’m alive at 75. (Laughter.)