He did resign following the Penn State loss in '85, IIRC, effective at season's end.

he was cryin like a pussy.

Yeah!

both guys should have resigned (in Weis' case, negotiate a buyout) at least a year before they were removed. Both came from outside of college football and both struggled to adjust.

Weis is a bigger jerkoff and a better overall x and o coach, but he's also a big fat lazy slob.

I taught at Mishawaka Marian High School during his tenure and every year he'd show up at our fall fundraising festival with 5-6 players to hang out and greet people. He helped us raise a lot of money and was very gracious with his time. He believed in a Catholic education. It was sad that he didn't succeed because, unlike most of our later coaches, he was a good representative of the university.

And I remember him showing up with some players in tow at those fundraisers in mid August. Nice guy, just wasn’t qualified for the job. I don’t blame him for taking the job, but Joyce and Hesburgh should’ve never offered it to him in the first place.

What in God’s name were Joyce and Hesburgh thinking?

They had two homerun hires in a row (to an extent, at least) with Ara and Devine and thought they could do no wrong.

love for Our Lady. He makes the rounds these days as a speaker at Catholic men's conferences. For Faust, faith come first. That served him well as a high school coach. That and the rest of his coaching repertoire did not translate to the ND sideline. Too bad.

I was a student manager for the first two years of his tenure. A few notable highs--the win in his first game at LSU, the first night game win v Michigan, but more than our share of lows--the shellacking by Michigan in his second game, Miami wipeouts, losing to Air Force in back to back years.
He wore his faith, and his devotion to the Blessed Mother, on his sleeve. His tendency to tell his players on the sideline to "Say a Hail Mary" that a play would be successful carried over to Notre Dame. Good man, over his head as a DI football coach. He did introduce Larry Williams to his wife, Laura, during summer camp 1981, so he did have some chops as a matchmaker, however.

talked with him on the porch at Warren the year ND hosted the BigEast golf tournament (2000?). Could not meet a nicer man, but as you say, he was not ready to coach upper level D1 football.

initial five year contract, it wasn't renewed and the parties went their separate ways.

.... he resigned right before the, ugh, Miami shlacking.

This was my senior year. Faust did use the word “resign,” but nobody doubted for a nanosecond that he’d be gone after the finale at Miami. In fact, there were “Gerry Faust Farewell Tour” t-shirts at the outset of the season, concluding with “January 1 — Idle.”

In those days though, you got a 5 year contract and then went year to year. He did actually resign then, several games before the end of the year. He spared the University the trouble of not 'renewing' him.

There were also rumors that after his first 5-6 year, he tried to resign but Moose wouldn't accept it.

The tragic figure comment mentioned above is how I view him, and much like Dillon 301, he spoke at my Class Dinner that Friday as well. He supposedly was speaking at two that night.