HOUSTON, Texas -- Say what you will about his past, but Mike Haywood doesn't see his return to college football as a shot at redemption.
Five years after being fired by the University of Pittsburgh following a highly publicized domestic violence arrest two weeks into his head coaching tenure, Haywood is back on the sideline in the same position at Texas Southern, where he was hired Dec. 3.
Haywood will be tasked with leading an FCS program seeking reclamation of its own after a five-season slide precipitated at least in part by significant NCAA sanctions, It's easy -- and perhaps obvious -- to draw parallels between the respective roads back to prominence for both the Tigers and their new coach, but Haywood insists his personal standing is as good as ever and believes the same will soon be true of his new team.
"There was a bump in the road in my life, and when you've only had one bump in the road in your life, I don't think it's about restoring reputation," Haywood told FOX Sports earlier this month of his first coaching job since the incident. "You can go around the city of Houston or go around the country, and people will give you the same opinion of me -- East Coast, West Coast, North or South. I just think it's a great opportunity for us to work well together to bring a winning team back to Texas Southern University."
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