STARKVILLE — Lane Burroughs has agreed to join a very exclusive and successful club.
The Northwestern State University baseball program has named Burroughs, an assistant on the Mississippi State University staff, as its 10th head baseball coach in school history.
“I told the guys at Mississippi State (Wednesday) that I have a peace about this decision because I’m ready to be a head coach,” Burroughs said. “There’s no doubt I’ll be a nervous wreck before the first game or be pounding my head on that desk at some point but I’ve been lucky enough to work with people that have let me figure out how I would coach nearly every situation that comes up.”
Burroughs will be replacing J.P. Davis, who resigned earlier this month. An announcement from the university is set for Wednesday.
“Anytime one of your assistants becomes a head coach somewhere else, it’s exciting because they get to finally pursue their dreams,” MSU head coach John Cohen said. “However, the bitter part of that is you have to replace a really good coach. We’ll take it very seriously and yeah since I learned of this possible opportunity for Lane, I’ve started thinking about the candidates of replacement. Mississippi State is a place that will attract great coaches and we will continue to improve going forward.”
Burroughs was an assistant at MSU under Cohen, also a former Northwestern State head coach, for the past four seasons. Burroughs’ previous stops as an assistant included Kansas State University (2008), University of Southern Mississippi (1999-2007), Northwestern State (1997-98) and East Mississippi Community College (1997).
Burroughs’ one-year stint with the Demons program came as an assistant on Cohen’s staff. He joined the Demons’ staff under Dave Van Horn, who took the head-coaching job at Nebraska prior to the 1998 season, and stayed on when Cohen was named head coach.
“Here’s what’s important in this whole thing and I told this to the search committee – if you go in there thinking that let me stockpiling a bunch of wins and get out of there then the kids will see right through that,” Burroughs said. “If it’s meant to be that I’m there 20 years then that’s fine with me. I never know what will happen from one day to the next in this profession.”
The list of former Northwestern State head coach that have eventually moved on to major programs includes Cohen, Van Horn (currently at University of Arkansas), Mitch Gaspard (currently at University of Alabama), Jim Wells (former Alabama head coach). Texas A&M University coach Rob Childress was also an assistant under Van Horn at NSU before moving with him to Nebraska.
“Northwestern State is a program that I obviously have a fondness for,” Cohen said. “It’s a special club that have had that job from Dave Van Horn to myself, to Mitch Gaspard, to Jim Wells and Texas A&M head coach Rod Childress. Lane gets to be part of a really cool club.”
The Demons finished 19-32 in Davis’ fifth and final season, missing the Southland Conference tournament for the second straight season, while Burroughs helped lead Mississippi State to a second straight NCAA Regional appearance.
“There’s no doubt Lane will have challenges and simply put, those challenges are you’re coming off a 18 and 19-win seasons,” Cohen said. “So Lane will have to identify the problems and fix them quickly. The good news is they are next to Texas and there’s always a bunch of D-1 players in that area to recruit.”
Burroughs has been a vital part of the recruiting efforts in making the MSU program relevant again since Cohen took over four years ago.
“This area of West Texas and Louisiana is where I cut my teeth recruiting and there’s a track record of a lot of talent in that area,” Burroughs said. “These kids and this area love their baseball and want to get back to where they were before. I’m nothing but confident that I can help take them there.”
He has been a key assistant in building three consecutive top-25 recruiting classes for the Bulldogs program.
As an assistant coach, Burroughs enjoyed the most success at Southern Miss, which made six NCAA regional appearances with him as an assistant.
Cohen said a search has already begun to find a replacement for Burroughs, who coached third base and was a important part to MSU’s offensive development in his tenure. The MSU head coach laid out what he’s looking for in an assistant in Starkville.
“The candidate has to really clearly understand what we’re doing offensively, they’ve got to work with our catchers and be a huge portion of our recruiting effort,” Cohen said. “I just don’t like labels that could limit you as a future coach down the road. Our next coach must be hitting, base running guy, work with outfielders and understand what we’re doing here offensively.”
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