Gerry Faust
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Gerry Faust | ||
|---|---|---|
| Born | May 21, 1935 | |
| Place of birth |  Dayton, Ohio |
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| Career highlights | ||
| Overall | 73-79-4 | |
| Bowls | 1-1 | |
| Coaching stats | ||
| College Football DataWarehouse | ||
| Playing career | ||
| 1955-57 | Dayton | |
| Position | QB | |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | ||
| 1986-1994 1981-1985 1962-1980 |
Akron Notre Dame Archbishop Moeller HS |
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Gerard "Gerry" Anthony Faust (born May 21, 1935 in Dayton, Ohio) is the former football coach at the University of Notre Dame from 1981 to 1985. Before beginning his coaching career, Faust enjoyed a successful stint as quarterback at the University of Dayton, where he played for a time under former Notre Dame coach Hugh Devore. He actually wanted very much to go to Notre Dame and was offered a partial scholarship, but in the end enrolled at Dayton, where he graduated in 1958. Faust's most successful run as a coach came at Archbishop Moeller High School in Cincinnati (1962-80), where he built a football program from scratch. His 178-23-2 record included seven unbeaten seasons, four national prep titles, and five Ohio state titles in his last six seasons.
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[edit] At Notre Dame
It was his amazing record, sound ethics and the quality football players from Moeller who later played at Notre Dame, that led Notre Dame officials to take a calculated gamble and hire him when Dan Devine stepped down after the 1980 season. It was a controversial move that raised many eyebrows. For Faust, a devout Roman Catholic, it was a dream come true. He had coveted the head coaching job at Notre Dame for years and said all along that he would never leave Moeller for anything else. Faust inherited a solid squad that included nine of his former players from Moeller. He switched the team's home jerseys from green back to blue, although initially it was a lighter Madonna blue shade than the navy blue that had been previously worn (and returned to in 1984), and kept the player's names on the backs. A self-proclaimed eternal optimist brimming with enthusiasm, Faust had visions of winning more games and national championships and coaching at Notre Dame longer than anyone else. Then when he saw Notre Dame's schedule, he was quoted as saying, "I hope my lifelong dream doesn't end in a nightmare." Sadly, it proved to be a prophetic statement and his era at Notre Dame, initially referred to as The Bold Experiment, became known as the Gerry Faust Error.
Faust's Notre Dame tenure started on a high note with a 27-9 victory over LSU in the 1981 season opener, one of the most widely anticipated games in school history. After top-ranked Michigan lost to Wisconsin on that same day, Notre Dame was voted #1 in the polls. The success was short-lived, however, as Michigan defeated Notre Dame the following week, 25-7. It was all downhill after that as the Irish finished 5-6 that year, their first losing season since 1963. Faust would end his stint at Notre Dame with a 30-26-1 record, never winning more than seven games in one season and never coming even close to contending for a national title. This included four consecutive losses against Air Force, whom the Irish had never lost to prior to 1982. Despite his mediocre record and growing discontent among Irish fans ("Oust Faust" became a popular slogan in South Bend), Faust was allowed to remain at Notre Dame for the entire duration of his five-year contract.
Critics agreed that Faust had his share of shortcomings, with his total lack of collegiate coaching experience being first and foremost. He had to undergo on-the-job training, which was especially difficult at Notre Dame, where fans expected the team to win consistently year in and year out. There was no continuity on his staff from season to season. It was felt that Faust did not get the most out of his players.
The highlights of his tenure at Notre Dame included a 1983 Liberty Bowl victory over Boston College and an appearance in the 1984 Aloha Bowl. His 1982 squad defeated Michigan by a score of 23-17 and upset the then top-ranked, Dan Marino-led Pitt Panthers, 31-16. In 1983, the Irish opened the season with a 52-6 win over Purdue while his 1984 team defeated Colorado by a score of 55-14 and posted a 44-7 rout over Penn State, probably the best game in his five years at Notre Dame.
Unfortunately, such moments were few and far between. Unlike for example Bob Davie, who always complained that Notre Dame didn't have the talent to compete for a national title, Faust would always talk about national championships and how good the players were only to have them go out and tie the likes of Oregon or lose to Air Force. The Irish were ranked in the preseason Top 20 in each of Faust's five years, but never finished there. It seemed that for every step they took forward, they would take one step backwards. In contrast to Dan Devine's squads, who had a knack for snatching victory from the jaws of defeat time and time again, Faust's teams developed a tendency to lose games in which they led going into the fourth quarter. In fact, in exactly half of the losses under Faust, the opposition scored the winning points late in the game. They lost their last three regular season games in 1982, 1983 and 1985 and their last two games in 1981. Only in 1984 did they finish strongly, winning their last four games after three consecutive home losses (the last time that had happened was in 1956). This tendency to fade down the stretch was attributed to Faust's grueling three-hour practice sessions that left many players overworked and worn out by November of each year.
Going into the 1985 season, Faust figured it would take a 9-2 or 8-3 record to save his job. With the team at 5-5 and the program rapidly unraveling after a 10-7 loss to LSU in the tenth game, Faust, who said he would never quit, announced his resignation effective at the end of the season and spared the university from having to fire him. His final game was against a Jimmy Johnson-coached Miami team, a humiliating 58-7 loss at Orange Bowl Stadium in which the team clearly gave up during the second half while the Hurricanes kept pouring it on. It was one of the worst defeats in school history and the second-highest point total ever given up in one game by the Irish (Army rang up 59 points in 1944 while Wisconsin matched Miami's point total in 1904). Faust could have refused to shake hands with Johnson after being so thoroughly embarrassed (and was even advised not to do so by a Notre Dame priest) and chances are nobody would have blamed him, but Gerry turned the other cheek and in an ultimate display of class, shook Jimmy's hand. When asked if that loss ever bothered him or if he held a grudge against Johnson, Faust replied that it never did and added, "I never judge another person. The Lord does that. I just shook Jimmy Johnson's hand and left it at that." He would be succeeded by Minnesota head coach Lou Holtz.
[edit] Post-Notre Dame
Faust spent the next nine seasons (1986-94) as head coach at the University of Akron, compiling an overall record of 43-53-3 at the school. As was the case at Notre Dame, his Zip teams never won more than seven games in one season. Following a 1-10 finish in 1994, he was relieved of his coaching duties and became a fundraiser for the university.
Despite his unsuccessful coaching tenure at Notre Dame, Faust's love for the school has never wavered. An accomplished motivational speaker, he was the guest speaker at the 2006 football awards banquet.
[edit] Personal life
Faust was married to the former Marlene Agruso in 1964. They are parents of three children. Their son, Steve, is a Notre Dame graduate.
[edit] Head coaching record
| Year | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Bowl | Coaches# | AP° | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Archbishop Moeller High School (Greater Catholic League) (1962 – 1980) | |||||||||
| 1962 | Archbishop Moeller | 4-6 | 2-4 | 5th | |||||
| 1963 | Archbishop Moeller | 9-1 | 5-1 | 2nd | |||||
| 1964 | Archbishop Moeller | 8-2 | 4-2 | 3rd | |||||
| 1965 | Archbishop Moeller | 10-0 | 6-0 | 1st | |||||
| 1966 | Archbishop Moeller | 7-3 | 6-1 | 1st | |||||
| 1967 | Archbishop Moeller | 8-2 | 5-2 | 3rd | |||||
| 1968 | Archbishop Moeller | 6-2-2 | 4-2-1 | 3rd | |||||
| 1969 | Archbishop Moeller | 10-0 | 7-0 | 1st | |||||
| 1970 | Archbishop Moeller | 9-1 | 5-1 | 2nd | |||||
| 1971 | Archbishop Moeller | 9-1 | 4-1 | 1st | |||||
| 1972 | Archbishop Moeller | 8-2 | 4-1 | 2nd | |||||
| 1973 | Archbishop Moeller | 10-1 | 5-0 | 1st | L 7-34 1st round Playoffs | ||||
| 1974 | Archbishop Moeller | 10-1 | 5-0 | 1st | L 10-20 1st round Playoffs | ||||
| 1975 | Archbishop Moeller | 12-0 | 5-0 | 1st | W 14-12 Ohio AAA State Champion | ||||
| 1976 | Archbishop Moeller | 12-0 | 5-0 | 1st | W 43-5 Ohio AAA State Champion | ||||
| 1977 | Archbishop Moeller | 12-0 | 5-0 | 1st | W 14-2 Ohio AAA State Champion | ||||
| 1978 | Archbishop Moeller | 9-1 | 5-0 | 1st | |||||
| 1979 | Archbishop Moeller | 12-0 | 4-0 | 1st | W 41-7 Ohio AAA State Champion | ||||
| 1980 | Archbishop Moeller | 13-0 | 4-0 | 1st | W 30-7 Ohio Div. I State Champion | ||||
| TOTAL | 178-23-2 | 90-15-1 | |||||||
| UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME (Independent) (1981 – 1985) | |||||||||
| 1981 | Notre Dame | 5-6 | |||||||
| 1982 | Notre Dame | 6-4-1 | |||||||
| 1983 | Notre Dame | 7-5 | W 19-18 Liberty Bowl | ||||||
| 1984 | Notre Dame | 7-5 | L 27-20 Aloha Bowl | ||||||
| 1985 | Notre Dame | 5-6 | |||||||
| UNIVERSITY OF AKRON (Mid-American) (1986 – 1994) | |||||||||
| 1986 | Akron | 7-4 | |||||||
| 1987 | Akron | 4-7 | |||||||
| 1988 | Akron | 5-6 | |||||||
| 1989 | Akron | 6-4-1 | |||||||
| 1990 | Akron | 3-7-1 | |||||||
| 1991 | Akron | 5-6 | |||||||
| 1992 | Akron | 7-3-1 | 5-3 | ||||||
| 1993 | Akron | 5-6 | 4-4 | ||||||
| 1994 | Akron | 1-10 | 1-8 | ||||||
| Total: | 73-79-4 | ||||||||
| National Championship Conference Title Conference Division Title | |||||||||
| #Rankings from final Coaches Poll (started in 1950) of the season. °Rankings from final AP Poll of the season. |
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[edit] External links
| Preceded by Jim Dennison |
University of Akron Head Football Coach 1986–1994 |
Succeeded by Lee Owens |
| Preceded by Dan Devine |
University of Notre Dame Head Football Coach 1981–1985 |
Succeeded by Lou Holtz |
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