Longtime college football coach Jerry Faust died Monday. He was 89.
Faust coached at Notre Dame from 1981 through 1985 and then spent nine years as the head coach at Akron. Notre Dame was 30-26-1 in Faust’s time at the school and went to two bowl games.
Faust was hired at Notre Dame without any head coaching experience in college football. He was hired by the Fighting Irish from Moeller High School in Ohio, where he had been the head coach since 1962. Nine of Faust’s former high school players were on the roster when he took over at Notre Dame for Dan Devine.
However, Notre Dame didn’t continue the success it had with Devine and Ara Parseghian under Faust. The Fighting Irish were above .500 in three of his five seasons, but they never won more than seven games in a single season. The team’s only bowl win in his tenure came in 1983 in the Liberty Bowl.
The highlight of Faust’s time at Notre Dame came in 1982 when the Fighting Irish beat then-No. 10 Michigan in what was the first night game at Notre Dame Stadium. The game was Notre Dame’s season opener as the Irish won 23-17 on the way to a 6-4-1 season.
Faust announced his resignation near the end of the 1985 season, a year that concluded with a blowout loss at Miami. After leaving Notre Dame, Faust was hired by the Zips as they made the move to the top level of college football.
Akron went to the FBS level after Faust’s first season and posted a winning record in 1989. However, that was just one of two winning seasons in Faust’s time with the Zips, and his tenure ended in 1994 after a 1-10 season that included a 1-8 record in the MAC.
