Northwestern State Tabs Mississippi State's Lane Burroughs as Baseball Coach
NATCHITOCHES, La. - Mississippi State assistant coach Lane
Burroughs, who has coached eight NCAA Regional tournament teams and helped
guide Northwestern State to the 1998 Southland Conference championship, is the
Demons' new head baseball coach, Northwestern director of athletics Greg Burke
said Wednesday.
Burroughs, 39, succeeds J.P. Davis, who resigned May 31. The
hiring is subject to the approval of the University of Louisiana System Board
of Supervisors, who oversee Northwestern. Burroughs will be officially
introduced Monday at Northwestern as he takes over a program which is the
winningest in the Southland Conference since 1990 with an average of nearly 36
victories per season, while the Demons captured nine Southland championships in
a 14-year span (1991-2005).
"It's time to get back to Demon baseball, which means having
a program that will challenge for conference titles and postseason berths, and
Lane Burroughs' background and personal qualities make him the person to help
achieve that goal," Burke said.
The 17-year coaching veteran received ringing endorsements
from former Demon baseball coaches Jim Wells, Dave Van Horn, Rob Childress,
John Cohen and Mitch Gaspard, among others. He worked under Van Horn and Cohen,
and with Childress, in 1997-98 at Northwestern, and has been on Cohen's
Mississippi State staff for the past four years.
Burroughs has been a key factor in the Bulldogs' recruiting
efforts which have garnered top 25 national ranking in each of his first three
years, with the 2012 rankings to come later this summer. Mississippi State won
the 2012 Southeastern Conference Tournament championship and made a second
straight NCAA Regional appearance a year after nearly making the College World
Series field, falling in a nail-biting NCAA Super Regional loss at Florida.
Burroughs helped Kansas State emerge as a Big 12 Conference
contender, coaching under Brad Hill as the Wildcats reached the Big 12
Conference Tournament champion game in 2008. Burroughs spent nine years on
Corky Palmer's staff at Southern Mississippi from 1999-2007, serving as
recruiting coordinator, hitting coach, infield coach and third base coach as
the Golden Eagles made their first six NCAA Regional appearances.
He steps into a post that has been held by some of the
finest coaches in college baseball.
Wells retired in 2009 as the greatest coach in Alabama
history and Gaspard succeeded him and nearly reached the College World Series
two years ago. Van Horn left Northwestern to take over at Nebraska, and has
just steered Arkansas into another CWS berth, the fifth of his career along
with a Division II national championship. Childress was Van Horn's pitching
coach at Northwestern and Nebraska, then took over at Texas A&M and has
developed a Top 10-ranked program. Cohen sparked Kentucky to a Southeastern
Conference championship before engineering Mississippi State's return as a
college baseball power.
Wells, Van Horn, and Cohen each have won national Coach of
the Year honors.
"Our goal is to bring Northwestern State back to being the
premiere baseball program in the Southland Conference, and in the process
prepare young men for unlimited possibilities in their future," Burroughs said.
"Lane is the right
hire at the right time for Demon baseball," Burke said. "He brings a wealth of
baseball experience to Northwestern, having worked side by side with some of
the best coaches in the country, along with having a strong network of contacts
in the baseball world which will be helpful in both the recruiting and coaching
aspects of his job.
"Baseball acumen aside, Lane will be good for our department
and for our community. He is a players' coach who will hold his young men
accountable while at the same time creating an encouraging atmosphere in the
clubhouse and in the dugout. The Natchitoches community is going to love him
because he is going to love the community. You will see him immersed in
activities and organizations around town and just as importantly, he
understands the importance of reaching out to surrounding communities and to
connecting with the baseball alumni."
"It's his (Burroughs') time and he is certainly qualified to
do that job," said Wells, a Northwestern alumnus. "He has SEC experience, has a
stable demeanor and is level-headed, he has acquired baseball knowledge, and is
well-respected. He specifically has great reputation regionally, which is where
Northwestern State will get most of its players.
"The bottom line is this - when his name was mentioned to me
as a candidate for the Northwestern State job, I just thought to myself 'yeah,
that sounds right,' " said Wells, 192-89 with three Southland titles and two
NCAA Regional appearances from 1990-94 at Northwestern, before guiding Alabama
to three CWS appearances including a 1997 national runner-up finish, six SEC
Tournament crowns and five regular-season championships from 1995-2009.
Cohen, whose 2012 team posted a cumulative 3.31 grade point
average, was effusive in praising his assistant coach.
"People there are going to love Lane Burroughs! He has
worked hard for this head coaching opportunity and can handle all aspects of
that job at Northwestern State," said Cohen, 146-84 from 1998-2001 as the
Demons' coach, with Southland titles in 1998 and 2001. "He relates to well to
our players. I asked him step in for me and give a pre-game speech during a
tough stretch for us this past year and he knocked it out of the park to the
point that I had him speak several more times during the season. He is that guy
that I can envision speaking to the Kiwanis Club and immediately winning over
fans and alumni."
"Lane is a great
choice for that job," Van Horn said. "He is a really good recruiter and is
well-liked by his players. He had to develop an eye for talent while at
Southern Miss and that will carry over to his recruiting at Northwestern
State."
"He has a fire in his belly that will help him be
successful," said Childress, who helped Van Horn's Northwestern teams win
Southland titles in 1995 and 1997, and has guided the A&M Aggies to the
2011 CWS and two more NCAA Super Regional appearances after his Nebraska
pitchers helped Van Horn's Cornhuskers make CWS appearances in 2001 and 2002.
"Lane can 100 percent do that job," said Gaspard, who led
the Demons a 210-138 record, Southland titles in 2002 and 2005, and a 2005 NCAA
Regional appearance, and has since added two more NCAA berths in his first
three years running the Crimson Tide program. "He is very, very
well-respected in baseball circles and he will do things the right way. He is
very professional and will represent the program and the school well. He can
sit down with anybody from a booster to an administrator to a player and
they're going to walk away saying 'that's a classy guy.' "
Burroughs and his wife Susan have three children, Parker
Grace (10), Camryn Laine (8) and Thomas Jackson (4). He was a catcher and
outfielder and a pre-law major at Mississippi College, where he earned an
undergraduate degree in 1995. A year later, he received his master's in social
sciences as a graduate assistant coach and he moved to East Mississippi
Community College as an assistant coach in 1997 before getting hired at Northwestern
by Van Horn that summer.
Burroughs coached 12 Mississippi State players chosen in the
Major League Baseball Draft, including three top 10-round picks and 2012
first-rounder Chris Stratton. The Bulldogs have had 47 All-SEC Academic Honor
Roll selections in his first three seasons.
In a year at Kansas State, he coached hitters, outfielders
and was in charge of recruiting with 14 players drafted and seven top 10 round
selections.
During his seven years at USM, the Golden Eagles had five
top 10-round draft picks and produced four major league players while winning
their first Conference USA title in 2003 and winning 47 games a year later
while setting school records for hits, runs and RBI.