Kirksville State
After college, Faurot was appointed head coach at Kirksville State Teachers College (now Truman State University), where he spent nine years, from 1926 through 1934, with a record of 63 wins, 13 losses and 3 ties. From 1932 to 1934, his teams had a 26–0 record, the best small-college record in the country. During the run the team was the MIAA champion in 1927, 1928, 1929, 1930, 1932, 1933 and 1934. He also coached the basketball team to the 1927 MIAA championship. In 1933, he led KSTC to a 26–6 win against Missouri in Columbia. This win, along with his MIAA conference titles in 1933 and 1934 led to the offering of the head coaching position at Missouri following the 1934 season.
Missouri
Even while coaching at Kirksville State, Faurot remained close to Mizzou. As a graduate student in agriculture in 1926, Faurot helped lay the sod for Missouri's new Memorial Stadium in 1926. In 1935, Faurot returned to his alma mater as head coach and athletic director, titles he retained until 1956 except for three years of service in the United States Navy during World War II. At Missouri, he took over a team that had won only two games in three years and with the athletic program over $500,000 in debt.
His major contributions were two-fold: retiring the $500,000 debt through scheduling Ohio State over 9 of 11 years (losing all of them) and to football through his innovation of the Split-T offense at Mizzou in 1941. In the post-World War II era, many coaches adopted the Faurot formation—most notably, Bud Wilkinson and Jim Tatum, who learned the offense first-hand while serving as his assistant coaches with the Iowa Pre-Flight Seahawks during World War II. More than 60 years later, it is still in vogue today at all levels of football. Several of football's most notable formations—the Wishbone, Wingbone, Veer or I-attack and others—utilize Faurot's option play as their basic concept.
In 19 years as the Tiger football coach, Faurot's record was 101 wins, 79 losses and 10 ties, a record that remained unmatched until coach Gary Pinkel passed him in 2013. His 1939 team, featuring All-American Paul Christman, won Faurot's first Big Six Conference title and a bid to the Orange Bowl. His 1941 team also won the Big 6 title after a 45–6 drubbing of Kansas, and played in the Sugar Bowl. After a last-second win against arch-rival Kansas in 1956, he stepped down as head coach to concentrate on his duties as athletic director. Under him, the Tigers won three conference titles and went to four bowl games. When he retired as athletic director in 1967, the program was in the black and Memorial Stadium's capacity had doubled to more than 50,000 through five different expansions.
