Chris Partridge on return to Michigan: ‘It’s been awesome … one of the best cultures in college football’

Chris Partridge, who cut his collegiate coaching teeth at Michigan under Jim Harbaugh, is back for a second stint with the Wolverines, and he’s already feeling right at home. He’s coaching linebackers, which he did at U-M before moving to safeties, and he’s hit the ground running during spring ball. 

That started Monday, Feb. 20. Partridge, though, was preparing before that while getting to know his guys and working on recruiting. 

It all felt familiar, he said … only this time, it has a championship vibe after consecutive Big Ten titles. 

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“It’s been awesome, really,” he said. “A lot of new faces, but a lot of the same faces. It’s been cool to reconnect with so many people, and everybody’s been awesome. It’s been good. 

“This thing seems to be humming. Guys have gotten it rolling since I’ve been gone. It’s just the culture … it’s just awesome. It’s got to be one of the best cultures in college football. The players — how willing, how hungry they are. It’s a really good place, and just walking in and feeling it, you can feel it as soon as you enter the building.”

His journey has been a quick ascent. A relentless recruiter, Partridge was also a quick learner in the coaching room, to the point he was a D.C. in only his 5^th season. He did some good things at Ole Miss, but admitted it was a bit different than what he was expecting. The head coach “kind of fell in love with this specific defense he had never heard of or never had really any previous knowledge of,” he noted, making it tough.

“I was with D.J. [Durkin] at the time, so we had to go study and learn a different defense,” Partridge said of working again with U-M’s former D.C. “Talk about being a student of the game. You’re talking about it being stressful, having to learn this 3-2-6 model and then having to go be able to call it … 

“You really want to be a student of the game there and study as much as possible and stuff. That was interesting. That was stressful, at times. But it also added to my experience about seeing different ways to do stuff. I was brought up mostly in a four down or multiple fronts, certain coverages, not having that extra safety back there. You change your angles, change your concepts.”

It didn’t work out at Ole Miss, but Partridge left Michigan on great terms and was welcomed back with open arms. He called the experience “invaluable,” noting coaching linebackers helped make him a better safeties coach and vice versa.

The more positions you see, the more you understand how different positions are meant to work together.

“You just see it different,” Partridge said. “You see from angles to block destruction technique to coverage technique. You’re really able to get in the guts of all that stuff. 

“It just enhances your ability to coach and guide the players to the right tools for the toolbox. Special teams coordination helped me with that, as well. Any time you get those experiences, I think it’s invaluable.”

As for coming back as a position coach under Jesse Minter, who had a great first year at Michigan and recently interviewed with the Philadelphia Eagles … it won’t be awkward at all, Partridge insisted. 

“I’m not an ego guy. I want to coach good football and make my players the best,” he said. “I’m excited for it … to get in a different system and learn. For me, it’s now moving from safeties for five years to moving to linebacker. I’m excited to get back where my roots really were. 

“But when you get in a great room with great guys, like we had last year at Ole Miss and everybody has input and everybody is for the best interest of the team, you don’t really consider yourself, ‘oh, I’m the play caller, I’m this.’ You’ve got a different role on gameday and maybe preparation towards the end of the week is a little different, but we’re all in it together.”

It’s been an interesting path, Partridge admitted, as it often is in his profession. Along the way, however, he’s learned every step of the way.

“Ultimately, at the end of the day, that experience I was able to pull from it made me a better coach,” he said. 

Which is to Michigan’s benefit once again.