Mid-nineties is when multiple teams started making the playoffs. MB's 1998 team was the first to qualify for that.
If we compare apples to apples, Ethridge had 4 outright district championships. Burnett and Faircloth had 2 each.
In his other 13 seasons Burnett had 4 teams make the playoffs as either co-champ (1), tri-champ (1) or other. Faircloth has had 8 playoff teams in his other 9 seasons that the Indians didn't claim a sole 1st place in district, 2 as co-champ and 1 as tri-champ. Ethridge only the 4 playoff teams during his time.
Burnett coached teams played +11 'extra' games if you look at it as abnormal. Faircloth coached teams played +14 games. And of course, Ethridge teams had no playoff games other than the 4 district championship seasons.
If we really get down to brass tacks, forgetting playoff games in
non-outright district championship years, Faircloth leads the big 3 in regular season winning percentage during those seasons. (Set aside the extra playoff games and the DC years.)
Regular Season Games - Seasons When Not Outright District Champion
| W | L | T | Total | Win Pct. | Seasons |
| Faircloth | 61 | 28 | 0 | 89 | 0.685 | 9 |
| Burnett | 69 | 57 | 0 | 126 | 0.548 | 13 |
| Ethridge | 36 | 32 | 2 | 70 | 0.529 | 7 |
Point being even teams that didn’t win it all in the past 10 years were pretty darn good.
Speaking of advantages or disadvantages, that goes beyond opportunity to make the playoffs more often.
Burnett and Faircloth didn't have Ethridge’s staff of assistants that included:
Greg Davis who became a very successful college OC including a national championship at UT.
Bruce Bush who later won 271 games as a head coach (#22 in Texas HS history). And
Tim Nunez who had a long, successful career coaching at The University of Texas, Marshall University, Southwest Texas State, Tulane University, and Texas A&M. And though he didn't achieve those levels of further coaching success, Butch Troy who coached those overachieving PN-G offensive lines in the 70s. Those coaches deserve much of the credit for those 70s teams.
Ethridge didn't have the luxury of larger players that are so common these days. Or a Dustin Long or Roschon Johnson along with the spread offense they ran.
Faircloth didn't have defensive players like Shawn Lang, Trayce Boudoin, Cody Clark or Chris Gohlke to help his defenses.
And neither Burnett nor Faircloth had that class of players who almost never lost a game in their junior and senior high careers during the 1974-77 run. A possibly once in a PN-G lifetime group of players that fueled off the charts community spirit.
The game has evolved. The rules have changed. Time marches on. My point was the current head coach is a good one and his style of offense is great. And he deserves and should be recognized for his success.
The 70s was a different era of football with an easier path to a championship. Same for the 90s. Top teams today are often stacked with much more size and speed, even D1 talent. And some even benefit from a lot of move ins because of their success.
So no, Faircloth has not made it to a state championship game. Very few coaches do. As much as I hate to say it, those days are going to be very difficult to achieve again. That might change when PN-G has enough top players to man the offense and defense.
Not making it during the seasons that RJ, Preston Riggs and other great players were here had little to do with coaching deficiencies. It will take a very, very special group of players on both sides of the ball to get past a Fort Bend Marshall, A&M Consolidated, College Station, and then beat the Aledo’s of the world.
Here’s to a great 2020 season and more wins.
Final note about message board Interest:
Yes, interest in this and other similar message boards have dropped over the years as has game attendance and overall enthusiasm as well. We live in a different world now where interest in football has dropped at every level. NFL attendance hit a decade low in 2019. NCAA attendance reached a 22-year low in 2019 and has dropped every year since about 2012. PN-G attendance is down as well both at home and away. I can't explain that. But I have had many, many people tell me that they no longer post here because of the controversy years ago concerning Burnett and the school board. The political nature of all that turned people off. That's a real shame because if you truly like Indian football, there is no better place to talk about it or immerse yourself in past and present PN-G football. Time to put that behind and support and celebrate Indian football.
