Mayo plans on self reflecting at the season’s conclusion.
The Year 1 to Year 2 is often regarded as the more important time in a young players career to make a jump. The same can be said for coaches.
As Jerod Mayo is in the middle of his first season as a head coach, he has not been prone to mistakes. But, the New England Patriots head coach is planning to take his own step forward after the year.
“Just like a player, you expect players — they make their biggest jump from year one to year two,” Mayo said Friday. “My expectation for me personally as a head coach is to make the biggest jump from year one to year two, and that’s through doing those deep dives when you actually have time to do them.”
Throughout the season, Mayo has made sure to write down the things that have went against him or his team. When the season concludes, he plans to go back to review his notes to learn from his mistakes.
“It’s a combination of things,” he shared. “Look, you can start with X’s and O’s. You can then go to situational football. You can also go to structure and culture. Do I think I’ve done things right? Absolutely. Are there ways to improve? 1,000 percent. Do I wish I would have done certain things differently? Yeah. But those are things that when you get a chance, you get time to reflect.
“I’m going to go somewhere where no one can find me, just by myself, no kids, no nothing and just reflect on the season. I think it’s important not only for football players, for anyone to take those times to reflect and see what you can do better.”
Last week against the Tennessee Titans, mistakes from Mayo may have resulted in his team falling short in overtime. Those included a questionable personnel decision along the offensive line to start the game and his offense botching another end of half situation.
At the end of regulation, Mayo then had the decision to potentially win the game by going for a two-point conversion. He opted for the extra point instead before falling in overtime, a decision that he admittedly second-guessed based on the outcome.
“It’s very interesting. You’re always going to have people on either side, and I understand it. If it works, you’re a genius. If it doesn’t work, then you leave yourself open to criticism. It’s part of it,” Mayo said. “But again, there are so many factors that go into it. Whether you’re talking about analytics – alright, but analytics doesn’t take into account other things. What’s the weather? How’s the game flow going? What are the matchups? There are so many different things.
“It’s easy to second-guess it, but it’s interesting. It is interesting.”