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.”

