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November 16, 2018 - Image 11

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The Michigan Daily

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FootballSaturday, November 16, 2018
6B

Partridge feeling right at home
in fourth season with Michigan

Chris Partridge didn’t know
Jim Harbaugh when he was
hired.
Partridge
had
coached
college football before, at his
alma mater, Lafayette College,
and at The Citadel, but prior to
joining the Michigan football
team, he spent the five seasons
in
the
high-school
ranks,
coaching
Paramus
Catholic
High School in New Jersey.
The huge amount of success
Partridge had in those years
— he estimates they had 17
Division I athletes on the
roster his last season — was
enough to get him noticed. It
was also enough to give him
the feeling that it was time to
move on.
That’s
when
a
mutual
friend got Partridge in touch
with Wolverines coach Jim
Harbaugh.
“Tom
Gamble,
who
is
coincidentally
working
here now, was working for
(Harbaugh)
at
the
49ers,”
Partridge told The Daily on
Nov. 7. “… And then, so, Jim
got the job here, and Tom said,
‘Hey, I’m gonna call him and
see if he needs somebody, you
know, out of the high school
ranks.’
“… And then, just one day,
Jim just called me on the cell
phone.”
That was that. Partridge
flew out for an interview and
was hired as the director of
player personnel in recruiting.
The move made sense. It was
as meteoric a rise as Partridge
could have expected at that
time, and it put someone who
was familiar with the New
Jersey recruiting pipeline in a
primary recruiting position.
A season later, Partridge got
a promotion to the coaching
staff, becoming the linebackers
coach. At that same time,
Harbaugh’s
investment
in
Partridge
paid
off
on
the
recruiting trail.
The No. 1 player in the 2016
recruiting class, Rashan Gary,

committed to Michigan that
season. He had played high
school at Paramus Catholic.
“It played a role, I feel like,
in terms of being comfortable
and having a familiar face —
having somebody to talk to,”
Gary said of Partridge’s role in
his commitment.
“But I told Rashan, and I told
his mother, that, you know, I’m
at Michigan, but I’m not going
to try to guide you anywhere,”
Partridge added.
“You know, I’m gonna be
there as a support, because
I’ve known you prior. And
with Michigan, yeah, you come

up, you visit, you meet with
everybody else, and I’m just
gonna try to guide that decision
wherever
it
might be. So I
really never gave
them this hard
sell or anything
like that. I just
tried
to
give
them facts.”
In
part
because of Gary’s
commitment,
Partridge
was
named the 2016
Recruiter of the Year by Scout.
The next season, Partridge

won the same distinction from
247Sports.
It was no coincidence, then,
that
Partridge
helped
develop
a
strong
base
of players from
New Jersey.
VIPER Jabrill
Peppers
and
offensive tackle
Juwann Bushell-
Beatty
came
to
Michigan
the year before
Partridge’s
arrival, and though they didn’t
play for Partridge per say,

there are seven New Jerseyans
other than Gary and Bushell-
Beatty on the 2018 roster.
“He values family,” Gary
told The Daily. “I don’t look at
him as a coach. I look at him
as one of my family members.
And, you know, he values
family a lot. And when you’re
around family, it makes you
comfortable. So I feel like me
coming here with Juwann and
before when Jabrill was here,
it’s just a whole big family. We
still have a lot of guys from
Jersey, so that whole Jersey
group, we’re all together as

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Safeties and special teams coach Chris Partridge has become comfortable as his role has expanded on the coaching staff of the Michigan football team.

MIKE PERSAK
Managing Sports Editor

See PARTRIDGE, Page 7B

“I look at
him as one
of my family
members.”

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