Chris Partridge 'ecstatic' to be back on Michigan football staff: 'Culture ... is amazing'

When Chris Partridge left Michigan, it was a different place, still seeking a win over Ohio State and a spot among the nation's elite. He returned earlier this year after three seasons at Ole Miss and rejoined the staff while the program seeks to continue building off back-to-back wins over the Buckeyes and Big Ten championships in pursuit of a national championship.
In that three-year gap, Partridge was co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach at Ole Miss and last season was the primary play-caller. During that same time, Michigan went 2-4 during the COVID-shortened season before rebounding with the two conference titles, a 25-3 record and two national semifinal appearances.
Chris Partridge will coach the linebackers to begin his second tenure at Michigan.
Partridge arrived at Michigan in 2015 as director of player personnel and was elevated to the coaching staff as special-teams coordinator for four seasons (2016-19), while spending two seasons as safeties coach and two coaching linebackers. He parted ways with Ole Miss earlier this year and Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh brought Partridge back as an analyst then moved to linebackers coach after Michigan and then-linebackers coach George Helow parted.
“Sometimes you gotta leave a place to realize its beauty,” Partridge told The Detroit News recently at a Champions Circle golf event to raise money for Michigan’s NIL fund. “I’m ecstatic and my family is ecstatic to be back. I've always loved Jim (Harbaugh), and when he made the call and was wanting to bring me back, I was ecstatic.”
He has an interesting perspective on where Michigan was and where it is now. He previously worked on former defensive coordinator Don Brown’s staff and now works on a defense coordinated by Jesse Minter, who enters his second season at Michigan. Minter replaced Mike Macdonald, who in 2021 helped change the Wolverines’ defensive approach.
Partridge said it’s not only the defense that has changed since he’s been gone, but the overall environment.
“The culture of this team is amazing,” he said. “It’s selfless guys that love football, that love Michigan and love the school and just want to perform at the highest level. And that's one of the eye-opening things that I came back and I walked into.”
It wasn’t a complete shock to Partridge, who considers Jay Harbaugh, Michigan’s special-teams coordinator and safeties coach, among his closest friends. The two spoke frequently the last three years and Partridge was kept up to date on how things were evolving at Michigan.
“So I kind of knew that was happening,” Partridge said. “But it is really an amazing program right now, and I think the culture is second to none. I couldn't imagine any school out there having a better culture than us.”
What Partridge has seen since his re-hiring in February and going through spring practice is a group of players all willing to help each other even if they’re competing at the same position. That is how he defined the current program culture.
“I mean, just like not worrying about anything about me, but it's all about, 'What can I give back? What can I do to help?'” Partridge said. “The leadership, the fact that these guys never want to leave, they're always in the building, they're always pushing to learn more. They're making the coaches better, because the coaches have to make sure that they continue to push to get the kids the knowledge that they want.
“It's just it's all-encompassing. I think the other part of the culture is the off-the-field stuff. They're doing internships and all that, and then everyone comes back and says, ‘These are amazing young men.’ So it's on and off the field that it's evident.”
Minter didn’t know Partridge, but they immediately clicked.
“He understands this place, he understands what works here, he understands the culture here,” Minter said in April. “He’s got a tremendous, versatile background from positions and special teams and being a defensive coordinator. He’s an unbelievably high-value member of our staff coaching the linebackers, a position that requires a tremendous amount of detail, tremendous amount of attention.”
Partridge said it was easy to mesh with Minter because they share the same thought process and approach to defense. He appreciates Minter worked in the NFL with the Baltimore Ravens with Macdonald, who returned as the team’s defensive coordinator after one year at Michigan, and draws from that perspective.
It has been a enormous defensive shift since Brown was the coordinator, and Partridge said it has also been good for him since he is so like-minded with Minter.
“I felt more comfortable,” Partridge said of his transition to the Minter defense. “This is very different than Don's defense. This is very like what I like and enjoy doing, a four-down multiple defense, variety of different coverages and stuff. At Ole Miss we were more three-down, so I feel like not only am I coming back home to the linebackers, I'm coming back home to what I know, what I grew up in.”
Coaching linebackers is Partridge’s wheelhouse.
“That's my home,” he said of coaching the position. “That's what I am. I am a linebackers coach, even though I really loved coaching the safeties. Coaching the safeties made me a better linebacker coach, for sure, but I'm really happy to be back.”
He inherits a group that includes Michael Barrett, who Partridge recruited to the 2018 freshman class. This will be Barrett’s sixth season and this week laughed he’s the only defensive player who really remembers when Partridge was previously on staff.
“Whenever I see him and we talk about the older guys that were here, everybody’s like …” Barrett said, laughing as he mocked the players’ humorous reaction. “It helps me feel young sometimes, because he’s old.”
Partridge said he is enjoying coaching the talent in the linebacker room, led by Junior Colson, Barrett and sophomore Ernest Hausmann, a transfer from Nebraska.
“Junior is a prototype of what you want mentally, physically, everything. He's a total package with leadership in addition to everything else,” Partridge said. “You got Mike Barrett, who's been here, and I always mess with him, but shoot, to recruit a guy and coach him for a year or two years and then be able to come back and be his coach is awesome. It's really cool. And Ernest just slid right in. He's as professional the way he carries himself as it comes.
“The whole group is good. Jimmy Rolder, who played a little last year, Micah Pollard, who played special teams last year and is coming on, Jaydon Hood, who I think had a great spring and doing really good thing, and getting Christian Boivin back from his shoulder injury, he played special teams, so it’s a really strong group.”
Having Partridge back also means the return of a strong recruiter. He had distinguished himself in that aspect during his first stop at Michigan, but things have changed. Partridge said recruiting after a couple of seasons of success has made the pitch to high school players a little different.
“Success always helps, right? It always helps the recruiting,” he said. “We're just in a different world of recruiting right now with NIL and with all that, so it is very different. The championships and the winning helps, but Michigan is still Michigan. Michigan has great academics, so we look for a certain type of kid. But recruiting in general is always changing and it's different, but you got to adapt.”
Partridge returned to Michigan after three seasons at Ole Miss taking on a bigger role and more responsibility, particularly last season calling the defensive plays. He said he learned plenty and is a better coach now.
It is experience he wouldn’t trade, just as he won’t trade the opportunity of being back at Michigan.
“I won't let them down,” Partridge said. “It's exciting to be here. I'm just humbled to be here and ready to work and contribute as best as I can.”