Speaking to Sun JSF 1.2 RI
The Faces
Servlet is where everything starts and is defined in web.xml
The controller in JSF is used for navigation, or actions or validation. The controller can be any POJO method that returns a
string that is used to handle page navigation. Page navigation is defined in the faces-config.xml using a navigation-case element. The method is tied to a form submit or some other form element.
The Java EE 5 Tutorial - What is a JavaServer Faces Application.
Adding a button
See how the h:commandButton has an action of "sucess" ? That value comes from a backing bean you define and as a result something happens; page navigation, validation, custom message, etc.
[edit]
In the sense that you are thinking of a controller as a servlet that processes the request, creates other beans, forwarding to other pages, etc. then in JSF the controller is still really the same as it has been.