College Podcast: Louisiana Tech’s Lane Burroughs On Breakout 2021

Image credit: Louisiana Tech coach Lane Burroughs (Photo by Tom Morris)

On this episode of the Baseball America College Podcast, presented by Rapsodo, Teddy Cahill and Joe Healy are joined by Louisiana Tech coach Lane Burroughs to discuss his team’s breakout 2021 season, the opening of the new “Love Shack” in Ruston, fan support for the Bulldogs and where he’d like to see his program grow from here.

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The 2021 season was a historic one for La Tech. It opened up a new stadium, which immediately became the best facility in Conference USA and can only help the program recruit a level of player that it might not have been able to recruit before.

When the season was all said and done, the team finished 42-20 overall and 22-8 in conference play, collecting important wins over Arkansas and Mississippi along the way, and that was enough to earn the program a spot as a regional host for the first time. Although it was eliminated by North Carolina State in regionals, it was still a season to celebrate and one that provides a ton of hope about what Louisiana Tech baseball can be in the future. 

After the season, some important players departed for the next level, most notably center fielder Parker Bates, but enough proven talent returns that the Bulldogs again have to be seen as a contender for the C-USA title and a spot in the postseason. 

Among the topics discussed on this episode are: 

• How Burroughs feels about the 2021 season now that he’s had some time to reflect back on it
• How rewarding it was to help get a veteran group of players who had been through so much in their careers to the postseason and host a regional
• What it was like to open a new stadium and play in front of raucous crowds all season
• The ways in which the new ballpark has made the lives of coaches and players at La Tech easier
• Expectations for the fall, based on the relatively high number of impact players returning to the team
• His impressions of Conference USA, which placed four teams into regionals in 2021, and how sustainable he thinks that level of play is for the conference
• His recent contract extension, which will take him through 2026
• His goals for the program over the course of his new contract
• What newly-elevated associate head coach Mitch Gaspard has brought to the program in his time in Ruston