Burroughs' Jesse Craven (Burbank) voted SBLive's California Football Coach of the Week by fans (10/18/2023)

Burroughs outdueled Muir 32-27 in Week Seven for a Pacific League - Upper Division title

Best Burroughs (Burbank) football team of Jesse Craven's four-year tenure with the Bears? No doubt.

A better question would be, is this the best Burroughs football team since its players were born?

In the coming weeks or months, Burroughs will have a chance to prove itself as just that.

That's the way things are going for the Bears right now after a 32-27 win against Muir on Oct. 6. The victory moved them to 6-1 and gave them a vice grip around the Pacific League - Upper Division race. A league title would be their first since 2015. 

Burroughs followed the Muir win up with a 41-7 rout of Arcadia, and is now 7-1, tying its most wins in a season under Craven.

For Burroughs' Week Seven road up against Muir, fans have voted Craven as SBLive's California Football Coach of the Week. Craven made a late push in the voting to finish with just over 50-percent of votes.

The Bears' narrow win over Muir was the second of those in a row in the series. Last year, Burroughs snapped a slide of four straight blowouts to Muir last year with a 35-25 home victory for second place in the conference. Now, the Pacific League is Burroughs' to lose.

Flash back to spring of 2021, and the odds were seemingly stacked against Craven revitalizing the program so quickly. 

When he was named head coach at just 26 years old in the middle of a pandemic, his team had about a week to prepare before their Mar. 19 opener. Before that, Burroughs had no playoff appearances and only one winning season since its 10-2 campaign in 2015, which was arguably its strongest of the CalPreps era. The Bears would go 1-4 (0-4 in league play) in their debut under Craven and 4-6 (2-3) the next season before breaking through for a 7-4 record and CIFSS Division 9 playoff appearance in 2022. 

Now, Burroughs has seven wins in eight tries, and 3-0 in league play, Burroughs will be the heavy favorite at home this week against Crescenta Valley as well. However, the Bears will need another strong effort to ensure a victory over the 6-2 Falcons and an official conference championship.

If that happens, it would be very hard to argue that this isn't as good as any Burroughs team in the last 20 years or more. Either way, Burroughs will be postseason-bound in a few weeks and looking to make history."

To nominate a coach in future weeks, please email Lance@scorebooklive.com or tag us on Twitter or Instagram at @SBLiveCA.

– Lance Smith | lance@scorebooklive.com | @sbliveca