Ole Miss hiring former Patriots assistant coach Joe Judge, per report

Joe Judge spent a combined 10 seasons on New England’s staff.

Joe Judge will be returning to the SEC after more than a decade at the NFL level.

The longtime New England Patriots assistant has been hired by the University of Mississippi under Rebels head coach Lane Kiffin, as On3.com’s Zach Berry reported Wednesday.

Judge, 42, played collegiately at Mississippi State and served as a graduate assistant at his alma mater before moving on to Birmingham-Southern and later Alabama as a special teams assistant. He joined Bill Belichick’s Patriots staff in the same capacity in 2012.

Subsequent roles ranged from special teams coordinator to wide receivers coach before the two-time BCS national champion and three-time Super Bowl champion was named the head coach of the New York Giants in 2020.

Fired after posting 10-23 record in East Rutherford, Judge made his way back to Foxborough in 2022.

The second stint began as an offensive assistant and quarterbacks coach. And during last year’s 4-13 campaign, he held the title of assistant head coach following the brief return of Bill O’Brien as offensive coordinator and quarterback overseer.

New Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo’s staff has taken shape since then. In February, after appointing Alex Van Pelt as offensive coordinator, DeMarcus Covington as defensive coordinator and Jeremy Springer as special teams coordinator, the organization retained multiple assistants and announced 17 arrivals.