Pittsburgh has called a news conference for 4 p.m. ET Thursday to introduce Mike Haywood as its next head coach.

Haywood spent two years at Miami (Ohio), going 9-4 and winning the MAC title this year after going 1-11 in his first year as a head coach.

Before that, he spent four seasons at his alma mater, Notre Dame, coaching the running backs and serving as offensive coordinator under Charlie Weis (though Weis took over play-calling duties late in the 2008 season). Haywood also coached running backs at Texas, LSU and Ball State while coaching defensive ends at Army and outside linebackers at Ohio earlier in his career. He has spent time as a special teams coordinator and was the Texas recruiting coordinator in 2004.

Miami went 8-1 in the MAC this year and beat Northern Illinois in the conference championship game. The RedHawks were competitive at Florida before losing 34-12 in the opener and lost to rival Cincinnati 45-3. They also fell to Missouri 51-13. Miami was actually outscored this season and finished 103rd nationally in scoring at 20.5 points per game.

I'll have some more thoughts later in the day about this hire. I don't think it's one that Pitt fans are particularly excited about. Let me know what you think.