Mike Haywood arrested for domestic abuse.

I was driving home from unsuccessfully trying to go to "First Night" with my girlfriend last evening when she informed me that PITT's new head coach Mike Haywood had been arrested in Indiana for domestic abuse.

I laughed, of course, because the football team just can't seem to get anything right in its quest to climb back up that mountain to where it was nearly 30 seasons ago.

People will be critical of athletic director Steve Pederson for hiring a guy like this, but how could anyone have seen this coming?

I understand that a person's character is very important, especially for a job where one has to be a role model for young men, but I heard no such issues about his character before the incident.

The only thing I knew about the guy was that he took Miami of Ohio from the basement to the penthouse in the MAC conference.

I now know that he fathered a child to a woman out of wedlock and the incident that he was arrested for had to do with that, but just because someone has a child outside of marriage doesn't mean they're going to physically abuse the mother of their baby. So, even if Pederson knew about Haywood's child, that doesn't necessarily mean he wasn't qualified to be PITT's new head coach.

So, there is really no way to be critical of Pederson for the choice he made. However, that doesn't mean Haywood should be retained as head coach of the Panthers.

He almost certainly should be let go. There is no way a guy can lead a group of young men and have any kind of credibility after something like this.

I know all the facts aren't out and Haywood could fully be cleared of everything, but that doesn't mean there isn't irreversible damage done to the football program.

So if they do decide to cut ties with Haywood, who will they name as coach?

The bowl season isn't over yet, but it's probably too late to really get a viable candidate to come in and interview for the job.

Every time the PITT head coaching job is open, people always bring up Penn State defensive coordinator Tom Bradley as the most desired choice.

It's no real secret that Bradley's been the de facto head coach at PSU in recent years with Paterno's age preventing him from doing the job to its fullest capacity.

But it's also no real secret that the person that replaces JoePa when he finally decides to retire will almost certainly not be Bradley.

If that's the case, and if Bradley still wants to be a head coach, PITT should make an emergency phone call to him asap.

He's a great recruiter and very popular with the high school coaches in Western, Pa. I know Bradley would probably lure some potential PSU recruits to PITT.

However, if Bradley is as loyal to Paterno as he seems and is unwilling to make the move, where else can PITT turn in-order to save this situation from turning into a total train-wreck?

The answer is quite simple: Dave Wannstedt.

I know that sounds crazy, and I know I was all for his firing when it happened a month ago.

But there really aren't many other alternatives at this point.

There are many ideal scenarios for the PITT head coaching job, but right now, we have to deal in realities, and Wannstedt is probably the best choice to keep things stable.

Of course, there is the problem of most of Wannstedt's assistants being let go, but I'm sure he could convince at least some of them to come back.

I'm pretty sure Wannstedt would return as head coach if Pederson asked him to. Even though he said he was resigning during his final press conference, he didn't look like a man ready to go. He was forced out.

And I know the players would certainly rally around him if he were to come back.

You can say a lot of things about Wannstedt, but he'll never personally embarrass the program.

Haywood already has and he hasn't even coached his first game.