New Patriots HC Jerod Mayo in introduction: I'm 'not trying' to be Bill Belichick

Jerod Mayo made history Wednesday, becoming the first Black head coach in Patriots history.

He'll hold an eternal place in New England's franchise timeline as the man tabbed to replace Bill Belichick. After eight seasons playing for Belichick and five years serving on Belichick's staff, he's intimately familiar with the culture and process in New England.

But he's still his own man. And he's not about to be a carbon copy of the legendary coach.

"Yeah, this organization has had a lot of success over the years, for a long time. And there have been many teams that, they have one good year and then they're out for three years," Mayo said during his introductory news conference Wednesday. "One thing I learned from Coach is, and from Thunder (Patriots owner Robert Kraft), is about just surrounding yourself with good people.

"Now as far as our staff and things like that, we're going to be good, we're going to be a lot better. Now Bill always says this: 'managing expectations.' For me, I'm not trying to be Bill, I'm not trying to be Bill. I think that Bill is his own man, if you can't tell by now I'm even a little bit different up here. But what I will say is, the more I think about the lessons that I've taken from Bill, hard work works, right? Hard work works. And that's what we're all about."

Plenty of work is ahead for the Patriots, who parted with Belichick after the franchise's worst season in 30 years. Mayo is stepping into gigantic shoes left behind by Belichick, who owned full control of football operations, maintaining final say on personnel decisions and overseeing every coaching element.

The coaching responsibilities naturally include filling out a staff, which became uniquely amorphous in recent years.

In 2022, Belichick