Rod Rust, who spent 14 seasons as an NFL assistant, has become the second oldest coach in the league, taking over the New England Patriots a day after the team fired Raymond Berry.
The 61-year-old Rust, Pittsburgh's defensive coordinator last season, had been the Patriots defensive coordinator from 1983-1987, the last 31/2 years under Berry. Patriots general manager Pat Sullivan fired Berry on Monday after disagreements over the direction each of them wanted the team to go. Rust signed a four-year contract.Minnesota Vikings' coach Jerry Burns, at 63, is the NFL's oldest head coach.
"Energy level and enthusiasm and commitment to what you want to do are the critical factors," rather than his age, Rust said, adding he has never harbored a burning ambition to be a head coach. "It's not like this is some profoundly deep event in my life. I'm very happy about it."
Rust returned Tuesday to a team that finished 5-11 and missed the playoffs for a third straight season. The coaching change came a month after Sullivan had given Berry a vote of confidence.
But events escalated swiftly last week when Sullivan pushed Berry to make changes. After encountering great "philosophical difference," Sullivan got permission last Friday from owner Victor Kiam to fire Berry.
With the draft less than two months away and a possible March 1 deadline for hiring another team's assistant, the Patriots made a move. An NFL guideline states that no team can seek permission after March 1 to hire another team's assistant to become its own assistant. A league spokesman said that probably could apply if the new job is head coach.
So Sullivan turned to a familiar face. Rust, an assistant with New England when it went to its only Super Bowl in 1985, was named head coach on Berry's 57th birthday.
"The transition period will be muted greatly by the fact we're bringing in a man who is very familiar with our organization," Sullivan said.
"I feel I'm a teacher," Rust said. "I see coaching as a teaching function. The staff who will come here, to a man, will see coaching as a teaching function."
Defensive line coach Ed Khayat, linebacker coach Don Shinnick, receivers coach Harold Jackson and offensive line coach Guy Morriss were fired and secondary coach Jimmy Carr resigned. Assistants Richard Wood, Keith Rowen, Don Blackmon, John Polonchek and Jerry Simmons will stay. No final decision was reached on running back coach Bobby Grier or assistant defensive line coach Ray Hamilton.
Rust said he plans "to have coordinators on both sides of the ball and that lets me walk around and talk to anybody I want to. That's funny but it's also meant to be serious."
Rust said "it would be presumptuous of me to get into (discussing the Patriots' offense) in any detail.
"I think we should have a good football team."
Rust became defensive coordinator in 1988 under Kansas City coach Frank Gansz but lost the job when Gansz was fired, and moved to Pittsburgh in 1989.
Rust steered clear of discussing the differences with Sullivan that forced Berry out.
"This is a team endeavor and any team endeavor is based on mutual trust," Rust said. "This has nothing to do with the past."
In taking his fourth job in four years, Rust rejoins a club he had left temporarily in one of its more bizarre situations.
Midway through the 1984 season, on Oct. 24, Patriots coach Ron Meyer fired Rust before telling Sullivan, who was in New Orleans at league meetings. Sullivan rushed home, hired Berry that night and fired Meyer the next morning. One of Berry's first acts as head coach was to bring Rust back as defensive coordinator.
There are other parallels in the careers of Rust and Berry.
Like Rust, Berry returned to a team he had left after serving as one of its assistant coaches. Berry was New England's receivers coach from 1978-1981, then was out of football the next three seasons.
Like Berry, the soft-spoken Rust is not outwardly emotional or revealing and rarely criticizes his players.
But while Berry's unimaginative offense sparked criticism of his football knowledge, Rust's constant employment in key coaching positions leaves little doubt about his ability.
"He gets a lot of respect because of his intelligence," Pittsburgh linebacker coach David Brazil said.