Gerry Faust Gerard Anthony " Gerry " Faust ( born May 21 , 1935 ) is a former American football player and coach . He served as the head football coach at the University of Notre Dame from 1981 to 1985 and at the University of Akron from 1986 to 1994 , compiling a career college football record of 73 – 79 – 4 . From 1962 to 1980 , Faust was the head football coach at Moeller High School in Cincinnati , Ohio , where he tallied a mark of 178 – 23 – 2 and won four High School Football National Championship s . Before coaching , Faust enjoyed a successful stint as a quarterback at the University of Dayton , where he played under former Notre Dame coach Hugh Devore . Faust was offered a partial scholarship to Notre Dame , but enrolled at Dayton , where he graduated in 1958 . Coaching career . Moeller High School . Faust had a highly successful run at Moeller High School in Cincinnati , Ohio from 1962 to 80 , where he built the program from scratch . The Crusaders under Faust had a 178 – 23 – 2 record and included seven unbeaten seasons , four national prep titles , and five Ohio state titles in his last six seasons . One of Faust ' s linebacker s at Moeller was John Boehner , who would later become a United States Congress man and 61st Speaker of the United States House of Representatives . 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 . 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 players ' 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 " , fell far short of living up to expectations . 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 the 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 ended his stint at Notre Dame with a 30 – 26 – 1 record , never winning more than seven games in one season and never 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 , Faust was allowed to remain at Notre Dame for the entire duration of his five - year contract . The highlights of Faust ' s 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 Pittsburgh 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 . In exactly half of Notre Dame ' s losses under Faust , the opposition scored the winning points late in the game . The Fighting Irish 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 . Going into the 1985 season , hopes were high that things would turn around . 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 the Miami Orange Bowl . 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 58 points in 1904 ) . Faust was succeeded by University of Minnesota head coach Lou Holtz . Akron . Faust spent the next nine seasons ( 1986 – 1994 ) 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 Zips 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 . Personal and later life . Despite his unsuccessful coaching tenure at Notre Dame , Faust ' s love for the school has never wavered and he still regularly attends Irish home football games . He has said " I had only 26 miserable days at Notre Dame ; that ' s when we lost . Other than that , I was the happiest guy in the world . I loved walking on the campus , loved being there , loved being a part of Notre Dame . " Faust was married to the former Marlene Agruso in 1964 . They are parents of three children and have six grandchildren . Their son , Steve , is a Notre Dame graduate . Faust lives in Fairlawn , Ohio , a suburb of Akron . He now works as a motivational speaker . Faust spoke with the National Catholic Register after Notre Dame ' s amazing 2012 season : http : / / www . ncregister . com / site / article / gerry - faust - on - mother - mary - and - his - days - at - notre - dame