Pitt's new coach rings in 2011 in jail, on a domestic assault charge

By all rights, the turn from 2010 to 2011 should be one of the happiest new years of Mike Haywood's life: He's less than a month removed from finishing off the best single-season turnaround in the nation with a win in the MAC Championship Game for Miami (Ohio), and barely two weeks removed from accepting his first BCS head coaching job, at Pittsburgh. Instead of glasses clinking today, though, it was handcuffs, following a domestic assault arrest in the wake of an apparent custody fight at his home:

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP)—New Pitt coach Mike Haywood is jailed on a domestic violence charge after a struggle at his South Bend home.

Assistant St. Joseph County Police Chief Bill Redman says Haywood was arrested about 3 p.m. Friday after a custody issue developed with a woman with whom Haywood has a child. The unidentified woman told police that Haywood grabbed her by the arm and neck and pushed her as she tried to leave.

Redman says the woman had marks on her neck, arms and back.

Haywood was being held without bond in St. Joseph County Jail until he goes before a judge, which may not happen until Monday. His relationship with the woman is "kind of unclear right now," according to police, who said she told them she was "trying to leave the house with the child and he didn't want her to leave."

Newly hired coaches behaving badly (or allegedly behaving badly) is hardly unprecedented. Unfortunately for Haywood, the recent precedents in the cases of George O' Leary at Notre Dame and Mike Price at Alabama suggest a pink slip on the way: Both were quickly fired for a few lies on a resumé and indiscretion at a strip club, respectively. Neither was arrested, but Georgia athletic director Damon Evans was after being pulled over for DUI this summer, and he got the axe, too.

The most damning incident on any other current head coach's resumé is probably New Mexico coach Mike Locksley's altercation with an assistant last year, which earned him a mid-season suspension, but not a pink slip. Then again, the Lobos' 2-22 record over two years hasn't done Locksley in, either, and we know Pitt won't stand for that. We'll find out the bar soon enough: The ball is in the university's court.

[Update, 8:32 p.m. ET] And we have a mug shot. It's ugly business all the way around.

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Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.

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