Notre Dame's Haywood named Miami coach

Dec 23, 2008 - 9:17 PM OXFORD, Ohio (Ticker) - Notre Dame offensive coordinator Mike Haywood was named coach at Miami-Ohio on Tuesday, becoming the latest African-American to get a shot to run a program in the Football Bowl Subdivision.

Haywood is the third black coach to take over a program in the last two week. He joins New Mexico's Mike Locksley and Eastern Michigan's Ron English, who was hired Monday.

There are now six black head coaches in the FBS as the three newcomers join Buffalo's Turner Gill, Miami's Randy Shannon and Houston's Kevin Sumlin.

Haywood currently is in Honolulu with the Notre Dame team, which is preparing for Wednesday's game against Hawaii in the Hawaii Bowl. He will coach in that game before taking the reins at Miami-Ohio.

"It's an institution with outstanding academics and a storied football tradition," Haywood said. "The Cradle of Coaches, Ara Parseghian, Bo Schembechler, Bill Mallory, Jim Tressel. ... what an unbelievable coaching tradition. I'm so excited about joining the Miami family, with a fan and alumni base that is nationwide."

A 1986 Notre Dame graduate, Haywood, 44, replaces Shane Montgomery, who resigned last month. Montgomery posted a 17-31 record in his four seasons with the RedHawks, including a 2-10 mark this year.

Haywood spent the past four seasons as Notre Dame's offensive coordinator. He was hired in 2005, when Charlie Weis replaced Tyrone Willingham as the head coach of the Fighting Irish.

A four-year football letterman at Notre Dame, Haywood has been a collegiate coach for the past 22 years. He joined Weis' staff following two years at Texas under Mack Brown. Prior to that, he was running backs coach at Louisiana State for coaches Gerry DiNardo and Nick Saban.

In 2005, he was named NCAA Division I-A assistant coach of the year by the American Football Coaches Association.

"His extraordinary experience with some of the most successful football programs in the country makes him an outstanding choice," Miami president David Hodge said. "He is passionate about the future of our program and has a well-thought out plan to assure success both on and off the field."

However, Notre Dame's offense has sputtered the last two seasons following the graduation of quarterback Brady Quinn and Jeff Samardzija, the school's all-time leading receiver.

Last year, Haywood's unit ranked last out of 120 teams in the FBS in total offense. This season, Notre Dame has improved to a still-mediocre 76th.

Weis took over the play-calling for Notre Dame's final four regular-season games and also will call the plays against Hawaii.