Bill Belichick was on to recruiting.
The former Patriots coach and new North Carolina football coach avoided commenting on his former team dismissing Jerod Mayo as its head coach after just one season Sunday.
“The Patriots’ situation, honestly, I don’t have too much of a comment on that,” Belichick said Monday on the “Pat McAfee Show” while in a car for a recruiting trip. “Robert Kraft, Jonathan Kraft, Robyn Glaser, they’re the decision makers there. …. Mayo was hand-picked by Robert, but in the end the decision-making is something they’d have to comment on.
“I really don’t know from the outside looking in. They haven’t called me and asked, so I don’t know.”
The Patriots chose Mayo as the successor to Belichick after 24 seasons guiding the franchise, which included six Super Bowl triumphs and nine Super Bowl appearances.
Mayo spent more than a decade playing for and working for Belichick in New England.
He played for New England from 2008-15 after being selected in the first round of the 2008 NFL Draft, winning a Super Bowl during the 2014 season.
Mayo joined Belichick’s staff as the inside linebackers coach in 2019 and held the title through the 2021 season before transitioning to linebackers coach for the next two seasons.
His one and only season patrolling the sideline Belichick used to navigate did not go well, with the Patriots tallying a 4-13 record and being blown out on numerous occassions.
Mayo also did not help himself with some questionable media gaffes.
Patriots owner Robert Kraft said firing Mayo “was one of the hardest decisions I have ever made.”
“Unfortunately, the trajectory of our team’s performances throughout the season did not ascend as I had hoped,” he said in a statement.
Former teammate Rob Gronkowski called the dismissal “unfair.”
“I was shocked by that,” Gronkowski said on the Fox studio show. “To happen that soon was a shocker to a lot of people. Especially here at the desk. We were all surprised by that. I think it was unfair to coach Jerod Mayo. I mean, he never had the chance to develop as a head coach. He was just a rookie himself in that department. If you judge a coach by their first year, that’s really not appropriate. Jimmy Johnson, you went 1-15 in your first year and you won a couple Super Bowls after that.”
As the Patriots search for their next coach, which could be another former player in Mike Vrabel, he’s gearing up for his first season coaching at the collegiate level.
